A few years back when our Sony Blu-Ray player was driving us crazy because it was so slow to load I “upgraded” to the latest and greatest Samsung BD-D6700 3D-Blu-Ray player. Movies look and sound fantastic on it and since we have been so busy I never got a chance to listen to music through it. My reference Technics DVD-A10 was down for the count as well…
This past Sunday night I got the urge to listen to some music on our Home Theater system. The system consists of a high end components capable of sonic bliss and at reference levels sounds and feels like you’re at the concert but like any system the weakest link can make it all sound like crap. For instance, music off of iTunes's, even at the highest bit rate, Pandora at it’s highest rate, pretty much sounds as one would expect on a system like this although at times a song will surprise you. Nora Jones does very well from iTunes and Pandora.
So I figured I’d try out my DVD-A, SACD and DTS disks that haven’t been touched in 4 or 5 years and see how they do. I put in the Eagles “Hotel California” Hell Freezes Over (DTS version), went to sit down and listen and it starts and immediately sounds flat… seriously flat. If you have ever heard this disk when they hit the drum track it hits with authority, it sounded so dull. I changed it over to multi-channel music which helped a lot but still not impressed.
I tried Queen and a bunch of others… then went and got my Technics DVD-A player and tried it with that and wow, what a difference, when it would work anywho. Nuts..I realize if you’re going to listen to audiophile quality recordings you better bring a-game equipment or you’ll be gravely disappointed. I can’t use the Technics DVD-A for everything unfortunately as it has problems with the mechanism, otherwise I’d just leave it plugged in and be happy with it.
(Technics DVD-A10 picture from Google, I can’t find my picture)
So that leaves me not listening to music for a while on this system, this way anyway. Buying a player that can play music as good as the Technics DVD-A10 is too expensive to repair and way out of my league to replace these days.. bummer… you’d think these new high quality Blu-Ray players would deliver the goods for music as well and some of them do, but I can’t afford them either.
You know what Ronda would say… “sounds fine to me! shut up and enjoy it!” alas my ears are too picky, can’t help it… anybody have a Marantz SA-8005, SA-11S3 or TT15S1 laying around?
17 comments:
Digital to RCA/Analog Converters of quality, do you know of any off hand? I've found a few, but they all seem to suffer from the same problem, leave them on all the time and they overheat and die.
We finally upgraded the TV in our trailer to Dawn's LG 32" LED set, but it only has a fiber optic digital audio out, not very helpful when trying to connect it to my Technics 5.0 Dolby receiver, which only has RCA inputs.
I don't know of a real good quality one. I'll do some research, you can find receivers on eBay for pretty cheap that have Optical inputs, that may be the easiest way unfortunately.
I'll keep looking Matt.
This is one of the ones I'm looking at, but like most of them, people are commenting about overheating problems.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F4ORUDM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=GRMS9PNUSTZM&coliid=I3T6CM9GLUV401
Matt - and they mention a slight delay as well. Have you thought about using the headphone jack for audio out?
Already tried it, audio is not being dolby formatted and comes out weird through the surround system, plus the output levels are extremely low.
Sorry, correction, it does something odd to the audio, and the Pro Logic in the stereo can't figure out what to do with it so it ends up all in the surround channel.
Hmmmm the only option it seems is that converter or a different receiver.
I was going to recommend a Technics SA-AX7, I used to have one but it requires the surround module for the optical input, ugh..
I'm still looking...
Matt - I have a Sony surround sound receiver at my storage shed at the campground. I can find out if I can get a key to get into the campground to get it, you can have it for the cost of shipping. I believe it has optical inputs.
What size is the unit, wattage wise, I'm driving eight speakers off my Technics SA-EX510, with a high number of analog devices, including a turntable (I listen to alot of vinyl :p).
I'm likely going to try the decoder/converter first since I have amazon prime, but if it doesn't work, I'll ship it back and we can try he receiver swap if all else fails :).
Matt - I bought it for my father in law 11 years ago and he never used it but now that I recall he smoked around it for 10 years so it likely still smells. :(
I doubt it's stout enough for 8 speakers...
Well, drat, here's to hoping on the Decoder unit. According to LG, their TV uses PCM or Dolby Digital (AC-3) for its 5.1, so it should work properly with the OREI unit, will be ordering friday after the paycheck shows up :).
Matt - Good luck!!
Got the unit yesterday, and other than needing to remove the little clear rubber tip from one end of the TOSlink cable so it would plug into the optical port on the back of the TV, it hooked up and worked without issue, though I haven't checked to see if its still working after being powered for over 24 hours.
I can't determine a sync issue with the sound, other than once, I lost sound when channel flipping, but I'm not certain if that was the TV signal or not, but it came back after a quick channel flip, and has no issues with any of the HDMI devices that are connected to the TV set.
Once I lay my hands on a short indoor extension cord, I'll run it down from the receiver and hook the turntable and the converter up to it's switched power so that the converter is offline when the receiver isn't powered on.
Sorry, that should read, can't detect a sync issue with the sound, not can't determine. Everyone's lips appear to be syncing just fine with the sound coming out of the stereo.
Matt - Hey that's great news! :)
On another note, you don't happen to have an older model sling box that you don't need anymore, do you? :p.
Matt - I actually did, but it died... got tossed away a few months ago when I couldn't find parts. It was the first gen HD model..
Post a Comment