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Hola,
I have a friend who's buying Pioneer Elite's new Kuro Pro 111FD. I know that she's going to want a BluRay player. She's not running multi-channel audio. She will be taking the HDMI output directly to the TV and taking the digital COAX audio output into her Stello DAC then off to her Manley Stingray, - two channel. She'll also be running HDMI from her computer.
So my question is, would there be a benefit to getting Pioneer's more expensive BluRay, or just go with a basic Sony BDP S350 or something of that ilk...
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or musings...
Cheers,
I was a punk before you were a punk
You don't believe me? Just step outside and see me
Follow Ups:
I'm currently reading reviews/specs and following various threads about numerous players available and the Panasonic BD-55 is the best featured, most universally praised player out there at the moment - definitely the only player I'd spend hard cash on if I couldn't afford the higher marque Denon and Marantz players.
Best Regards,
Chris redmond.
> > taking the digital COAX audio output into her Stello DAC then off to her Manley Stingray, - two channel. < <
So, let's talk about this. AFAIK, the Stello does not decode Dolby Digital or DTS, so you will need to set the player to downmix Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 to PCM. When you do this on a standard commercial DVD or Blu-ray, the output is limited to 16/48k PCM.
So, it's lossy DD or DTS, downmixed to mid-res PCM. It's basically about as craptacular as you can get. You're then feeding it via a digital interconnect into a DAC, which converts it to analog, then sends it via interconnects to the Stingray's preamp section. Nothing untoward about this other than it's several points for crappy audio to be made crappier. You also have the opportunity to introduce lip-sync delay because of all that stuff in the middle, and the Stello won't allow you to correct for it.
I suggest that it would be better to bypass the Stello DAC - it's not going to help the situation. Instead, let the player do the D/A conversion, and output 2ch analog from the player directly to the Stingray.
Let me get this straight. I'm using a Sony BluRay BDP 5000ES with a 2 channel system. I'm taking the coax out of the player and running it to an EMM Labs DAC2, then out to my preamp (Ayre KX-R). Would it really be better to have the Sony handle the DA conversion, and then run the analog output to my preamp?
Probably best to go Analog....
On my DirecTV box, - I'm getting a delay, - sounds like the audio is in a reverb tank. As I understand the audio output of the DirecTV box, - if one does not switch on Dolby Digital, - it does PCM.
I have my DirecTV Toslink hooked up to the input of my Monarchy Audio DIP/upsampler and the sound is much improved. But,... going into my main music rig is going to be better than the cheesey speakers on my Hitachi.
Thanks for your post Racer....
I was a punk before you were a punk
You don't believe me? Just step outside and see me
Sounds from your post that PQ is most important. I suggest checking out the Panny model 55. Was just reviewed in Home Theater Mag by Secrets of HT and HiFi's Chris Deering. I am not a videophile but he nailed it and this $300-350 player rocks as far as PQ goes. He doesn't think you can do better in regards to PQ. What is does for DVD is incredible.
"E pur si muove...And yet it moves"
Looks like the DMP BD35 would be a better match, - but it sounds like a great player...
or,... wait until spring when the Denon BluRay comes out and has SACD....
I was a punk before you were a punk
You don't believe me? Just step outside and see me
but after last night I am beginning to wonder. My Marantz DV9500 is a GREAT sounding universal transport. I guess that is where they put all the money. The Panny DMP BD55 kicks the crap out of the Marantz in the PQ dept on DVD's. It's just night and day difference. Makes me made thinking about watching DVD's over the past few years on the Marantz, putting up with a much grainier and blurrier picture. There is nothing wrong with my DV9500. The shop where I bought it used to feature it in their HT room feeding a Marantz projo and the picture looked the same for the most part. I had to show the shop owner a couple settings internal to the DV9500 to make his picture look better. Panny has got the techno edge with these 2 machines when it comes to PQ. Kris Deering called it in the HTM review. I just order a bunch of music/performance DVD's and BD's. I am totally blown away by the 55 and am systematically going thru my DVD music/performance collection watching every title again on the Panny 55. So far the only title that has looked the same or worse is Joni Mitchell's Shadows and Light. Garbage in/garbage out I guess. Love Joni and Pat and Jaco but the video on this disc just blows!
"E pur si muove...And yet it moves"
Is what my friend asked me whenever I told her about BluRay, and what we're doing with her computer based playback and DAC plus Pioneer Elite Pro plasma....
Gosh.....
She is really fond of my system, which we both enjoy; but doesn't really understand that this stuff isn't free....
Cheers,
I was a punk before you were a punk
You don't believe me? Just step outside and see me
until I read the review on the Panny and I am so glad I did not wait. Revisiting all my DVD's via the Panny is the most fun I have had in a while.
"E pur si muove...And yet it moves"
-------------Call it, friendo.
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