True HD question

I have a Sony DD and DTS receiver that I use with my upconvert DVD player and HDMI cable. My player uses the orange coax cable for the multichannel surround. When I make the swith to HD (hopefully sooner than later) will that same audio system be compatible with the True HD sound found on a lot of the HD discs. I should probably note that the system is an HTIB and is about 4 years old. It does have both fiber optic and digital coax outs........

It's my firm belief that even with the newest receivers and their 1.3 standard TrueHD decoders, the six-channel analogue inputs on most receivers do the best job receiving and transmitting a TrueHD signal. This is assuming your HD-DVD player has six-channel analogue outputs (the Toshiba A1, XA1, or XA2) and your receiver has six-channel analogue inputs.

Otherwise, yes, if your player has the latest firmware upgrades, you can use the digital outputs or the HDMI.

John

I thought if you use the coax/optical the audio would be severely downgraded and you would not be getting "True HD"

That is correct. If you use the Analogue Out from the HD-DVD [remember, the A2 does not have this option] player to the Analogue In on your receiver [you will need 5 rca wires for this], then the processor on the HD DVD player will do the decoding rather then the receiver and you will get as close to True HD as is possible. If you use a coax/optical connection the Receiver will process it to whatever it is capable of outputing. Generally the analogue option has a cleaner sound field, at least in my opinion. Before I bought my A1, I had an older higher ended Toshiba DVD player which did have analogue outputs, but I was not using them [I was using an optical cable] because I did not know about the option. With that setup, I was always bothered by a "booming" hard to adjust type of sound. When I bought the A1, the salesman at Tweeter explained the analogue option to me and I have have watched all my movies using that connection since then. I am much more satisified with the sound on both my SDs and HD DVds using the analogue option.

From what I have read and from what I have heard (with my own ears and people discussing) the HDMI option for TrueHD is as good as or better with a good receiver/processor.

When I got my D2 I stopped using the Analogue and it sounds great. Part of that could be the AV processor upgrade. If I have time I should try reconnecting the analogues and try to do some comparisons. Would be tough to tell the difference I am sure.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard,

Good point. The fact is, audio reproduction (encoding, decoding, and transference) has almost outstripped the human ear's capacity (or most loudspeakers' ability) to hear differences. Unless you've got super audiophile speakers, I doubt that most folks would hear any improvements either way.

Here's a low-grade example: I listened to (reviewed) a live CD recording of Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic playing Haydn symphonies over the weekend. On my big living-room stereo speakers (VMPS RM40s), it sounded veiled and dull. On my home-theater speakers (bookshelf Boston Acoustics), it sounded OK. And on my little computer speakers (AR 570s), it sounded quite good.

I think we're splitting hairs trying to decide what is the best connection or the best decoding or what have you for almost all mid-fi home theater systems. Let the audiophile fringe debate that subject. :)

John

[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Jul 31, 2007]