Well, I finally properly hooked up my system so I can listen to music in 6.1 channels. WOW!! I have the Toshiba SD9200 DVD Audio Player and an Onkyo 797 THX receiver. Previously, all audio info passed through a Toslink, so I never had the benefit of DVD-A. I just got an Outlaw ICBM-1 (bass management unit) and a dozen of their good looking pearly cables.
Speakers: M60 like Michaura front L/R, M22 like Michaura side surrounds, Mission 77ds bipole back surrounds, Klipsch LF10 sub and Velodyne CHT100 sub, Merak MC6H center channel speaker.
After a brain deadening session of hooking up cables, I fired the system up, put in Willie Nelson's "Night and Day," DVD Audio disc, and WOW!! I have never heard anything like this before. Sounded like Willie and his friends were jamming in my place. I then tried the DVD A of Eric Clapton's "Reptile." Holy smokes!!! DVD Audio really makes a difference and brings out the stunning capabilities of Axiom speakers.
Try it. You'll like it.
Is it improved fidelity or the extra channels that you are really noticing?
Fidelity, force, and the amount of musical information. When I say the difference in sound quality is staggering, I'm understating the matter.
Where are you guys finding good DVD-A disks? Everywhere local I look carries nothing but John Tesh. I want to try out my new Denon DVD-3800, but not THAT bad.
Try Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/574074/102-1299180-6662543
http://www.dvd-audioworld.com/shopframe.htm
http://www.dvdaudiopreview.com/titles/clapton/
http://www.surroundedby.com/home.html
etc.
G'luck!
How complicated is the setup on the Outlaw ICBM-1 and are you happy with it's performance?
I don't have a player capable of DVD-Audio or SACD. Trying to be patient and buy one that does both well and has base management.
I agree! I prefer 2-channel stereo and find that it is MUCH better on DVD-A and SACD. Here's a good place to order from:
Acoustic Sounds
David
David or anyone,
This is the first time I've heard about different types of CDs, can you tell me their differences and if I can play them on my ordinary cd player(not the dvd player)? (Gold CD, HDCD, XRCD XRCD2, DTS) I have a sony mini compo, that comes with a fiber optics out for CD player, I hooked that up to my onkyo 797 receiver, if I buy the DTS CD, will I be able to play it to that cd player and will have a DTS-ES output? The other format, will i be able to play them on this player as well and will hear the difference if any? Thanks...
No. Some DTS audio disks play in regular DVD players but none of the new DVD based audio formats will play in a regular CD player. I assume the same is true of SACD and the like.
even it says CD dts and not DVD DTS?
In order to play a DTS CD, you would need a CD player with a digital output, so that the raw stream is sent to your receiver, which would then do the DTS decoding. If you try to use analog outputs from your CD player, you'll probably get screeching noise.
SACD's are often released in a hybrid format, with one layer containing the SACD audio and another layer containg regular CD-audio that can be played back on any CD player.
DVD-Audio discs usually have a DVD-Video portion on the disc containing either a Dolby Digital or DTS format for the recording that can be played back on any DVD player. This is not the same as the higher-resolution DVD-A data on the disc, which requires a DVD-A player to use.
Thanks for the DTS CD info jkohn, being that said about DTS cd, then that means I can use my cd player as it has a digital out which I use to connect it to my receiver.... how about the other type of CD i mentioned such as XRCD, XRCD2, HDCD, Gold CD....any idea???
I think many of the DVD Audio discs do require a DVD Audio player although some discs also have a low resolution track embedded as well so you can play them with a regular CD player. I think the standard CD has up to 650 MB of music data, while the DVD Audio discs have a bunch of GBs.
HDCD is backwards compatible, so those discs can be played on any CD player (although you need HDCD decoding in either your CD player or receiver to take full advantage of the increase resolution). I don't knokw anything about those other formats, sorry.
High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD),
HDCD-encoded CD’s are encoded with 20 bits of information, as compared with 16 bits for all other CDs. HDCD overcomes the limitation of the 16-bit CD format by using a sophisticated system to encode the additional 4 bits onto the CD while remaining compatible with existing CD format.
XRCD and XRCD2 are the same. Extended Resolution Compact Disc (XRCD) is from JVC. This is also done within the current CD standard, so no special cd player or decoding box is needed to hear the benefit of the xrcd. It is essentially the same as HDCD using 20 bits instead of the normal 16 found on standard CD’s.