[OkRon]

I currently have the following:

Norh 9.0 LCR speakers
Norh 4.0 rears
Norh MB100 amps (1st gen)
Yamaha V2095 receiver (older flagship) as a prepro
Oppo 980H DVD player
PS3 for Blu-ray

I will soon be moving our gear to a dedicated media room and adding a new 1080p projector ....I want to continue down the separates road and have been considering an update of a preamp (Candela) and or better amps (any of the Odyssey line) and wondered what my priority should be.  I'm probably 60/40 movies/2ch ratio so if it's the amps I'm also wondering how important it will be to have three of the same amps up front or can I get away with two new/used Monos for Left/Right and keep my MB100s for the rest.  Farther down the road I know I need to consider a new CD player or a DAC as a better source for 2 channel.

Appreciate your input
Ron

[KCI-JohnP]

Ron,

If I was in your shoes I'd upgrade the pre, you'll notice a significant difference if you choose carefully. You should also consider room treatment,
that would be another nice addition.

John

[TomS]

A lot of people use a quality 2ch or 3ch for the LCR, then just use the receiver's extra channels for the rears/surrounds unless you're multi-channel audio.  Since this is the Odyssey Circle, a Stratos HT3 would fill the bill or if you can, 3 Mono's would be great.  If space is an issue, Khartago's would work just as well for mostly HT use without all the pretty metal work.  Klaus can talk you through all the options if you give him a call

[OkRon]

Ron,

If I was in your shoes I'd upgrade the pre, you'll notice a significant difference if you choose carefully. You should also consider room treatment,
that would be another nice addition.

John

Room treatments are already in the budget for the new room....new equipment may or may not fit in when it's all said and done.

[byteme]

I have a pair of mono extremes to power L&R and a 5 channel Sherwood Newcastle for the center, sides and deck speakers.  My rears are powered by the receiver.  Sure, it would be great to have 3 mono extremes and 3 stereo extremes to cover all my bases but I've never been in a spot where the sherwood has let me down.

I agree w/ doing the preamp first and then I'd do mono's for L&R.  That will really pick up the quality of the 2 channel and at the same time improve HT as well.

[bpape]

If you want to balance it out, you could do the Candella and 2-3 standard mono's for now and use what you have.  Then, when budget allows, you can upgrade the L and R monos to Extremes.

Bryan

[OkRon]

If you want to balance it out, you could do the Candella and 2-3 standard mono's for now and use what you have.  Then, when budget allows, you can upgrade the L and R monos to Extremes.

Bryan

Careful Bryan....you may be spending some of GIKs money there   

[bpape]

LOL    

Yeah, well I guess that's the long time audiophile coming out in me.  It's all good as long as you get good performance for your dollar all along the way.

Bryan

[OkRon]

OK I bit the first bullet and puchased the Candela before the price increase.  I haven't seen any pics of the back of the pre so I'm a little confused on how I will set things up with the HT bypass.  Please tell me if I have this right and fill in the blanks:

Source => Receiver => Candella => Amps => Speakers

Questions:
*What connections will I use from the Receiver to the Candella, I'm assuming ICs but will I use all 5 pre-outs (for 5.1 sound) from the receiver to the Candella and then again from Candella to individual amps?

*Can I run both a digital out from the DVD to the (A)Receiver for movies and (B)analog outs for CDs to the Candella?

*I'm assuming in HT mode the sound will be controlled by the Receiver?

*How does everyone break in equipment (in this case the Candella)...just leave a CD on continuous play?   
    **Could I unplug the speaker connections and everything else on all night with the same effect?

Thanks for the help....looking forward to officially joining the ranks aa
Ron

[BobC]

OK I bit the first bullet and puchased the Candela before the price increase.  I haven't seen any pics of the back of the pre so I'm a little confused on how I will set things up with the HT bypass.  Please tell me if I have this right and fill in the blanks:

Source => Receiver => Candella => Amps => Speakers

Questions:
*What connections will I use from the Receiver to the Candella, I'm assuming ICs but will I use all 5 pre-outs (for 5.1 sound) from the receiver to the Candella and then again from Candella to individual amps?

*Can I run both a digital out from the DVD to the (A)Receiver for movies and (B)analog outs for CDs to the Candella?

*I'm assuming in HT mode the sound will be controlled by the Receiver?

*How does everyone break in equipment (in this case the Candella)...just leave a CD on continuous play?   
    **Could I unplug the speaker connections and everything else on all night with the same effect?

Thanks for the help....looking forward to officially joining the ranks aa
Ron

There is a set of RCA's on the back labeled for HT.  You're correct....run your DVD digital out to the receiver and then send your front 2ch pre-outs to the Candela.  When the Candela is set the HT the Receiver controls the volume.  I also use my DVD player (Arcam DVD78) as a CDP so I also connect the analog outs from my DVD / CDP directly to the Candela inputs labeled CD.

A couple of quirks to be aware of....
1.  The HT bypass works even if the Candela is off.  This is nice because you don't even need to turn it on and I guess it would save tube life.  It's kinda wierd because it essentially "wastes" on of the inputs.  No biggie...I don't have that many sources.
2.  I found my Candela only works if the Receiver (or Rotel RSP1066 pre-pro in my case) is turned all the way off.  Note, not just "sleeping" but powered all the way off.  AlexG tells me this happens with some brands (like Rotel) but not others.  No good explanation on why this happens, but if my Rotel is left powered on, I get no sound from any of the Candela inputs other than HT.   This is kind of a pain in the butt because I need to get off of the couch to physically push the power button vs just using the remote.

Hope this helps.
Bob

[OkRon]

Thanks Bob....if I want to run in 2 channel with a sub what do I need to do?

[BobC]

I do that.  Have Klaus add an extra set of outs and run those to the sub.  If you have a sub with crossover and level control you can just dial it in to match the rolloff of your mains.  Not perfect, but it works just fine for me.

[AlexG]

OK I bit the first bullet and purchased the Candela before the price increase.

OkRon,
 
Good decision in purchasing the Candela...you will be very happy. Welcome to the circles 

A couple of quirks to be aware of....
1.  The HT bypass works even if the Candela is off.  This is nice because you don't even need to turn it on and I guess it would save tube life.  It's kinda wierd because it essentially "wastes" on of the inputs.  No biggie...I don't have that many sources.
2.  I found my Candela only works if the Receiver (or Rotel RSP1066 pre-pro in my case) is turned all the way off.  Note, not just "sleeping" but powered all the way off.  AlexG tells me this happens with some brands (like Rotel) but not others.  No good explanation on why this happens, but if my Rotel is left powered on, I get no sound from any of the Candela inputs other than HT.   This is kind of a pain in the butt because I need to get off of the couch to physically push the power button vs just using the remote.

Some clarification... the original HT circuit in the Candela was designed (initial customer feedback) to be a passive bypass allowing the unit to pass the signal with the power-off. This created some side inconvenience with a couple pre-processors when the unit was on.

This is not an issue with current production units. A small circuit change was made and the circuit was converted to a fully active HT bypass that of course requires the unit to be on to function.

For those not in need for an HT bypass, the Candela can always be ordered without HT and gain one extra buffered active  input.

Thanks,

Alex

[BobC]

Ah, good to know!     Perhaps a future retrofit.

[OkRon]

Looks like I'll have the Candela after Easter....any tips on break-in?

Thanks
Ron

[BobC]

I was told to allow about 40 hours for the Candela to break in, but in my opinion, it sounded pretty darn good right out of the box.

[jn316]

Some clarification... the original HT circuit in the Candela was designed (initial customer feedback) to be a passive bypass allowing the unit to pass the signal with the power-off. This created some side inconvenience with a couple pre-processors when the unit was on.

This is not an issue with current production units. A small circuit change was made and the circuit was converted to a fully active HT bypass that of course requires the unit to be on to function.

For those not in need for an HT bypass, the Candela can always be ordered without HT and gain one extra buffered active  input.

Thanks,

Alex

Alex,

How long ago did this small circuit change for HT bypass go into units? I might be buying a used Candela, so I want to be sure that this change is installed.

Thanks,
Gary