Audio Quality of DVD "Video Player" ?

[Khorn]

I'm getting a new RP TV and, along with it a new DVD player the Toshiba SD 4800. The primary purpose of this player is DVD movie viewing. The audio will be fed to my preamp so I can use my main speakers for movies. For the rest of the TV sound I will use the speakers built into the TV.
The thing that I am curious about is the DVD-A capability of this type of machine. I know it can play DVD-A but I wonder just how good the sound will be. I'll use less expensive interconnects, I have a pair of Cardas Twinlinks that will suffice.
Anyone have experience with the audio quality of this type of machine? At least I'll be able to play DVD-A stuff that isn't available on SACD through it.

[krabapple]

Originally posted by Khorn
I'm getting a new RP TV and, along with it a new DVD player the Toshiba SD 4800. The primary purpose of this player is DVD movie viewing. The audio will be fed to my preamp so I can use my main speakers for movies. For the rest of the TV sound I will use the speakers built into the TV.
The thing that I am curious about is the DVD-A capability of this type of machine. I know it can play DVD-A but I wonder just how good the sound will be. I'll use less expensive interconnects, I have a pair of Cardas Twinlinks that will suffice.
Anyone have experience with the audio quality of this type of machine? At least I'll be able to play DVD-A stuff that isn't available on SACD through it.

I have the SD5800; sounds fine to me in DVD-A or CD modes. Of course it mostly depends on the mastering of the software.

Next step up will be to buy something that does DVD-A , CD, and SACD (and HDCD if I can get it). Then I'll be covered.

[RetroSmith]

Hey Khorn....

Does the Toshiba have Progressive Scan Output?

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally posted by mikey5967
Hey Khorn....

Does the Toshiba have Progressive Scan Output?
I'm not Khorn, but yes it does. Specs are available at:

http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/dvd/current/SD4800.html

I was considering this player, but went with a Sony SACD combo unit since it did not look like the Tosh had bass management, and my HT uses satellite & sub speakers. If you are primarily a 2-channel or full range speaker multi-channel guy or gal, then this would not make a bit of difference. You can also get a separate external bass management unit such as the Outlaw ICBM, but I was space constrained and it would have cost nearly as much as my player.

Regards,

[krabapple]

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden

I'm not Khorn, but yes it does. Specs are available at:

http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/dvd/current/SD4800.html

I was considering this player, but went with a Sony SACD combo unit since it did not look like the Tosh had bass management, and my HT uses satellite & sub speakers. If you are primarily a 2-channel or full range speaker multi-channel guy or gal, then this would not make a bit of difference. You can also get a separate external bass management unit such as the Outlaw ICBM, but I was space constrained and it would have cost nearly as much as my player.

Regards,

which Sony combo unit has bass management?

The Toshibas have it, but only for Dolby Digital analog surround output (i.e., output of DD 5.1 via the 6 RCA jacks, rather than via the digital out). My understanding is that very few units have proper bass management or time delay of SACD DSD or DVD-A PCM sources.

(However, a receiver may be able to do bass management of the *2-channel* DVD-A output..mine can).

[Ken_McAlinden]

Bass management for the analog outputs is what I was talking about. Since I am not aware of any outboard DSD decoders (does not mean they do not exist - just that I'm not aware :)), this is the only way to output multichannel DSD. My integrated amp does bass management for DD & DTS. Similarly, I don't think that there are any outboard decoders that do MLP DVD-Audio decoding, let alone players that could output it digitally, so you would need it for the DVD-Audio player's analog outputs as well.

For the high resolution formats, you are basically stuck using your player's DACs and the 6 analog outs. If the Toshiba has multichannel bass management, this is a good thing that they should list more prominently in their specs. I purchased a Sony DVP-NC650V DVD-Player w/SACD. See the "dipping toes..." thread for more on it.

It's kind of a bummer that I cannot make any tonal adjustments to 5.1 SACD audio with my amp, but at least I can adjust bass management and balance speaker output levels via the player. I tend to favor 2-channel anyway with surround more of an interesting novelty. :)

Regards,

[dwmann]

From what I understand, NONE of the players currently available (DVD-A or SACD) has bass management that REALLY works properly, and probably won't until at least the next generation of players. Sony built a $900 ES series multi-channel pre-amp to address this issue. So far as I know it is the only available component that provides true bass control AND individually adjustable volume control for each speaker.

[Ken_McAlinden]

Well, at least nominally, the DVD-SACD combo that I have lets me set up for small and large speakers with a 120Hz non-adjustable cut-off frequency for re-routing the bass. I can also adjust front, center, and rear levels as well as balance between the fronts and the rears, which effectively gives me control of all levels. It seems most multi-channel SACD players will do this.

I'm sure the Meridian ICBM unit does a better job, but for the money, I'm happy.

I have a Polk satellite and sub system with the fronts wired through the sub which does its own bass management. I then set my fronts to "large", my center and rears to "small", and my subwoofer to "none". This routes the <120Hz stuff to the fronts. I'm not aware of any DVD-Audio players with this feature built in yet, but I'm sure the coming generation of players will all have it.

Regards,

[Khorn]

All I can say to most of the responses above is: "WHEW!!" is I glad I is a two channel kinda' guy" :winkgrin:

[Dave]

Agreed Khorn. That muti stuff is even more complex than working on tube amps.:agree:

[krabapple]

Originally posted by Ken_McAlinden
Bass management for the analog outputs is what I was talking about. Since I am not aware of any outboard DSD decoders (does not mean they do not exist - just that I'm not aware :)), this is the only way to output multichannel DSD. My integrated amp does bass management for DD & DTS. Similarly, I don't think that there are any outboard decoders that do MLP DVD-Audio decoding, let alone players that could output it digitally, so you would need it for the DVD-Audio player's analog outputs as well.

The Outlaw Audio outboard device does multichannel bass management of DSD and DVD-A, but it works with the analog output, AFAIK, not the direct digital stream of either format.

For the high resolution formats, you are basically stuck using your player's DACs and the 6 analog outs. If the Toshiba has multichannel bass management, this is a good thing that they should list more prominently in their specs.

But again, it is disabled for DVD-A (hi-rez) signals. DVD-A signals are output as full-range analog to all channels in either 6 channel or 2 channel modes. AFAICT, the player's bass managment is *only* there for those consumers who want to use the player as a DD 5.1 decoder, outputting 'managed' DD 5.1 via its 6channel analog jacks to a HT receiver's 6-channel analog passthrough inputs.

The only reason I can get bass management of the *2 channel* DVD-A analog output is because my receiver does subwoofer routing for analog as well as digital stereo input signals. This is not uncommon in speakers with a 'subwoofer out' jack.

I purchased a Sony DVP-NC650V DVD-Player w/SACD. See the "dipping toes..." thread for more on it.

It's kind of a bummer that I cannot make any tonal adjustments to 5.1 SACD audio with my amp, but at least I can adjust bass management and balance speaker output levels via the player. I tend to favor 2-channel anyway with surround more of an interesting novelty. :)

Regards,

I see from reviews such as yours that the DVP-NC650V does indeed boast bass management for SACD output -- cool! SACD and DVD-A player mfrs need to get on the ball with this.