Dolby Digital

[Koing]

is the shit! Well compared to Dolbe Prologic IIx it is! My rears sounded so weak and lacklustre, no real sound stage and just crap. I tested them as the fronts and they sounded good to me.

Finally got this cable I needed as my Sky HD satellite box doesn't output 5.1 via the HDMI cable (wtf?!) and I needed an optical. Makes watching HD movies A LOT better now. Now to calibrate, get stands and move the couch further forwards

I think I got Dark Knight and Hellboy II at home, so now to test out Dolbe Digital TrueHD . You can test that in 5.1 as oppose to 7.1 right as I only have a 5.1 setup.

Koing

 

[olds]

Welcome to 1992...
:laugh:

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Welcome to 1992...
:laugh:

I was 9 back then!



This is my first real tv and sound setup.

TH50PZ81
B&W 685 fronts on Atacama 6 stands
B&W HTM62 center
Eltax floor standing as rears : dads hand me down ,
B&W ASW610 sub
Onkyo 606

Bought in the space of 10 days and the bank account barely in the positive!

Koing

 

[olds]

Nice set up and it is a noticable difference. :thumbsup:

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Nice set up and it is a noticable difference. :thumbsup:

It makes movie watching A LOT more fun and general tv viewing. I find that the tv speakers now are incredibly p!ss poor compared to my 685's but thats too be expected now. I thought the tv speakers were pretty good before.

I'll try it out tonight for a bit now to search through and find a bit thats really good for the sound.

Koing

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Yeah, a quality surround can really make the experience complete.
My eyeopening experience was with videogames that made good use of the rear channels but the net result is the same.
An empty wallet from constant upgrades

 

[destrekor]

nice setup. DD5.1 will indeed sound amazing with that setup.

Enjoy that for awhile, then move into Blu-ray and prepare to be wowed all over as master-quality tracks even blow vanilla DD at times.

And yeah, all BD tracks will play in 5.1, no need to have 6.1 or 7.1 setups although they can be nice... but yep, far from necessary.
And nice display

But sounds like you are saying you have BD, but what do you have for it?

 

[thomsbrain]

Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
Yeah, a quality surround can really make the experience complete.
My eyeopening experience was with videogames that made good use of the rear channels but the net result is the same.
An empty wallet from constant upgrades

Nah man. I'm not keen on upgrading too often (lack of £££ )

Originally posted by: destrekor
nice setup. DD5.1 will indeed sound amazing with that setup.

Enjoy that for awhile, then move into Blu-ray and prepare to be wowed all over as master-quality tracks even blow vanilla DD at times.

And yeah, all BD tracks will play in 5.1, no need to have 6.1 or 7.1 setups although they can be nice... but yep, far from necessary.
And nice display

But sounds like you are saying you have BD, but what do you have for it?

It sounds nice man. I'm just happy to have my own setup and to experience real sound for once. Dolby Prologic IIx is pretty crapy...

Yeah I haev a PS3 mate. I saw Hellboy II yesterday, sounded amazing. The intro Blu Ray thing is very clear and the sound from the speakers is very precise. I have Dark Knight that I'll watch over the weekend with the gf. I have a ilovefilm.co.uk monthly rental. Buying BR would be pricey and I just like to watch. I have a SKY HD package so I get movies in HD. I have MI3 recorded and Saving Private Ryan that I have coincidently never seen. I'll smash that out sometime this week.

Hellboy II in, DTS MA sounded sweet! Better then Dolby Digital, but it may have been the audio mixing and not the format that made it better?

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

Interesting. Dolbe Digital is a big step up from Dolby Prologic IIx and I still have to get some blocks to raise the rear speakers and calibrate the speakers.

Koing

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

because it was louder? geez nothing worse than swallowing DTS's bullshit whole.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Koing
is the shit! Well compared to Dolbe Prologic IIx it is! My rears sounded so weak and lacklustre, no real sound stage and just crap. I tested them as the fronts and they sounded good to me.

Finally got this cable I needed as my Sky HD satellite box doesn't output 5.1 via the HDMI cable (wtf?!) and I needed an optical. Makes watching HD movies A LOT better now. Now to calibrate, get stands and move the couch further forwards

I think I got Dark Knight and Hellboy II at home, so now to test out Dolbe Digital TrueHD . You can test that in 5.1 as oppose to 7.1 right as I only have a 5.1 setup.

Koing

spend some time and play with the placement of all your speakers. It will make the most difference for no cash.

7.1 in a home setup is hard to pull off.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: sdifox
7.1 in a home setup is hard to pull off.

I would say it's actually easy to pull off, but only if you're _not_ retrofitting a room for it. If you're trying to shove speakers into a room already furnished, even 5.1 can be tricky to do right.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Koing
is the shit! Well compared to Dolbe Prologic IIx it is! My rears sounded so weak and lacklustre, no real sound stage and just crap. I tested them as the fronts and they sounded good to me.

Finally got this cable I needed as my Sky HD satellite box doesn't output 5.1 via the HDMI cable (wtf?!) and I needed an optical. Makes watching HD movies A LOT better now. Now to calibrate, get stands and move the couch further forwards

I think I got Dark Knight and Hellboy II at home, so now to test out Dolbe Digital TrueHD . You can test that in 5.1 as oppose to 7.1 right as I only have a 5.1 setup.

Koing

spend some time and play with the placement of all your speakers. It will make the most difference for no cash.

7.1 in a home setup is hard to pull off.

Yup, definately will mate, just got to find time in between getting the other rooms ready in the house...

Koing

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: sdifox
7.1 in a home setup is hard to pull off.

I would say it's actually easy to pull off, but only if you're _not_ retrofitting a room for it. If you're trying to shove speakers into a room already furnished, even 5.1 can be tricky to do right.

Most people fit speakers to rooms and not the other way around so going 7.1 is harder than 5.1 and with little gain.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

Oh come on. His leap from where he was to where he is now is WAY bigger than DD->DTS. Yeah, you notice some extra detail, but it isn't night and day.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

because it was louder? geez nothing worse than swallowing DTS's bullshit whole.

Remember the old saying: "No highs, no lows, must be Bose"?
I think these days its "No highs, no lows, must be Dolby Digital 5.1."

I don't have a problem turning up my receiver a few extra db to compensate for the difference in loudness, I have a problem with poor dialog intelligibility, weak-ass explosions, zero atmosphere reproduction, and flattened dynamic response.

In terms of clarity and detail, you are better off with the PCM 2.0 track through Pro Logic than you are with a regular DD 5.1 track. The DD track will have better soundstage and channel separation for obvious reasons, and I'd probably choose it for those reasons, but there is no doubt that clarity suffers greatly.

The DTS tracks suffer far less from those issues. I can hardly tell the difference between regular DTS and either of the lossless codecs or uncompressed PCM 5.1.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

because it was louder? geez nothing worse than swallowing DTS's bullshit whole.

Remember the old saying: "No highs, no lows, must be Bose"?
I think these days its "No highs, no lows, must be Dolby Digital 5.1."

I don't have a problem turning up my receiver a few extra db to compensate for the difference in loudness, I have a problem with poor dialog intelligibility, weak-ass explosions, zero atmosphere reproduction, and flattened dynamic response.

In terms of clarity and detail, you are better off with the PCM 2.0 track through Pro Logic than you are with a regular DD 5.1 track. The DD track will have better soundstage and channel separation for obvious reasons, and I'd probably choose it for those reasons, but there is no doubt that clarity suffers greatly.

The DTS tracks suffer far less from those issues. I can hardly tell the difference between regular DTS and either of the lossless codecs or uncompressed PCM 5.1.

Something is really borked in your system if the same dialogue in DD and DTS sound different. DTS is the one that overemphasize bass. This has been measured, I think they have quietly removed this "feature" in the newer incarnations of their encoder.

DTS is as lossy as DD. I wish I can find the spectrum analysis comparisons someone has done to prove this to you.

Only thing I could find was an analysis of the LFE track.
http://www.highfidelityreview.com/tech/germerica.asp

 

[Oyeve]

Congrats on your system! My first DD experience was on a DD encoded Laser Disc. The movie was Bladerunner - Criterion edition. And I was blown away, then I started noticing how badly encoded DD was on Laser Disc. Too loud, then too soft, then too loud. DD on DVD improved somewhat, but still had the same issues. DTS sounds overall better but nowhere near as going from 2.1 to DD 5.1, I am in the middle of building my HTPC, scored a nice PC BR drive and am anxious to hear the new HD sound treatments.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Dolby Digital sounds like you have cotton balls stuck in your ears compared to DTS or either of the new HD codecs. You'll enjoy those even more!

Get a DTS-equipped concert DVD of one of your favorite bands. That was one of the first big ear-openers for me.

because it was louder? geez nothing worse than swallowing DTS's bullshit whole.

Remember the old saying: "No highs, no lows, must be Bose"?
I think these days its "No highs, no lows, must be Dolby Digital 5.1."

I don't have a problem turning up my receiver a few extra db to compensate for the difference in loudness, I have a problem with poor dialog intelligibility, weak-ass explosions, zero atmosphere reproduction, and flattened dynamic response.

In terms of clarity and detail, you are better off with the PCM 2.0 track through Pro Logic than you are with a regular DD 5.1 track. The DD track will have better soundstage and channel separation for obvious reasons, and I'd probably choose it for those reasons, but there is no doubt that clarity suffers greatly.

The DTS tracks suffer far less from those issues. I can hardly tell the difference between regular DTS and either of the lossless codecs or uncompressed PCM 5.1.

Something is really borked in your system if the same dialogue in DD and DTS sound different. DTS is the one that overemphasize bass. This has been measured, I think they have quietly removed this "feature" in the newer incarnations of their encoder.

DTS is as lossy as DD. I wish I can find the spectrum analysis comparisons someone has done to prove this to you.

Only thing I could find was an analysis of the LFE track.
http://www.highfidelityreview.com/tech/germerica.asp

DD sounds clear to me on my setup. Dialogue is sharp and good. Rears sound good. The DTS-MA soundtrack of HellBoyII was sweet, but it would have been good to see what the DD version sounded like incomparison though. I have a satellite HD feed and their movies are in DD.

I have recorded MI:3 and I am likely to get that from ilovefilm sometime so I can do a direct coparison of DD to Dolby TrueHD/ DTS-MA

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Congrats on your system! My first DD experience was on a DD encoded Laser Disc. The movie was Bladerunner - Criterion edition. And I was blown away, then I started noticing how badly encoded DD was on Laser Disc. Too loud, then too soft, then too loud. DD on DVD improved somewhat, but still had the same issues. DTS sounds overall better but nowhere near as going from 2.1 to DD 5.1, I am in the middle of building my HTPC, scored a nice PC BR drive and am anxious to hear the new HD sound treatments.

Sweet mate. I remember when my dad picked up a 2nd hand Laser Disc playre and those discs! ABout 8-10mm thick and the size of an LP! I should go dig up one and have it around my lounge somewhere

I went from tv speakers that I thought were good until I hooked up a stereo speaker setup to a 2.1, 5.1 setup with Prologic IIx (source) to DD source and DTS-MA. I wanted to test what I was getting out of the system as I bought it in a few days.

Koing

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Koing


I went from tv speakers that I thought were good until I hooked up a stereo speaker setup to a 2.1, 5.1 setup with Prologic IIx (source) to DD source and DTS-MA. I wanted to test what I was getting out of the system as I bought it in a few days.

Koing

True test is music CD Vocals mixed with a heavy beat. If both come across nicely, you got a winning system.

Try Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father album.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Koing


I went from tv speakers that I thought were good until I hooked up a stereo speaker setup to a 2.1, 5.1 setup with Prologic IIx (source) to DD source and DTS-MA. I wanted to test what I was getting out of the system as I bought it in a few days.

Koing

True test is music CD Vocals mixed with a heavy beat. If both come across nicely, you got a winning system.

Try Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father album.

Music sounds razer sharp and the bass is tight and loud as I want. But my hearing probably isn't the best. More then enough for me and no complaints :thumsbup;

I'll play some dance music with vocals loud tonight if my neighbours aren't in

Koing

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Koing


I went from tv speakers that I thought were good until I hooked up a stereo speaker setup to a 2.1, 5.1 setup with Prologic IIx (source) to DD source and DTS-MA. I wanted to test what I was getting out of the system as I bought it in a few days.

Koing

True test is music CD Vocals mixed with a heavy beat. If both come across nicely, you got a winning system.

Try Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father album.

Music sounds razer sharp and the bass is tight and loud as I want. But my hearing probably isn't the best. More then enough for me and no complaints :thumsbup;

I'll play some dance music with vocals loud tonight if my neighbours aren't in

Koing

and if you want to push your system, try organ music

I am not responsible for destroyed electronics though

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Koing


I went from tv speakers that I thought were good until I hooked up a stereo speaker setup to a 2.1, 5.1 setup with Prologic IIx (source) to DD source and DTS-MA. I wanted to test what I was getting out of the system as I bought it in a few days.

Koing

True test is music CD Vocals mixed with a heavy beat. If both come across nicely, you got a winning system.

Try Luther Vandross - Dance with my Father album.

Music sounds razer sharp and the bass is tight and loud as I want. But my hearing probably isn't the best. More then enough for me and no complaints :thumsbup;

I'll play some dance music with vocals loud tonight if my neighbours aren't in

Koing

and if you want to push your system, try organ music

I am not responsible for destroyed electronics though

Organ music?! Dude I'm not the sort of person to worry about stuff that my system can't do that I wouldn't do , but saying that I do have 2 sweet SureFire torches that are pretty over the top for assured quality and design

What sort of system do you roll with? I was thinking the B&W 683's for fronts and rears and the HTM61 center but my rooms only 4.5x4.5m and it would have been well over the top and cost nearly double my current system. Coupled with my room layout not being optimal it would have been wasted...

Koing

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Koing

Organ music?! Dude I'm not the sort of person to worry about stuff that my system can't do that I wouldn't do , but saying that I do have 2 sweet SureFire torches that are pretty over the top for assured quality and design

What sort of system do you roll with? I was thinking the B&W 683's for fronts and rears and the HTM61 center but my rooms only 4.5x4.5m and it would have been well over the top and cost nearly double my current system. Coupled with my room layout not being optimal it would have been wasted...

Koing

Audio
Pre/Pro: Marantz AV-9000
Amp: Outlaw 750 (165x5 @8Ohm)
Mains: Definitive Technology BP-2000TL
Centre: Definitive Technology CLR2000
Rear: Definitive Technology BP-10B
Subs: Built into BP-2000TL (2 of them), 15 inch driven by a dedicated 500 watt plate amp.

Video
Mitsubishi HC4900 1080p LCD PJ
100" matte screen

Source
Dual Core Opteron 165 running at 2.5GHz HTPC with 6TB of High Def movies
Panasonic RP-82s DVD player. Also serves as DVD-Audio Player
Pioneer DV-505 (paid 700 bux back in 98)
Technic 60+1 CD Player
JVC MD Recorder/ CD Changer
Scientific American Digital Cable box
Toshiba HD-D3 HD-DVD Player

Consoles
Dreamcast
X-Box
Wii

Content
1200 DVDs
40 HD-DVDs
70 DVD-As
400 CDs (not all in pictures)

room is about 300 sq ft

I can play Telarc 1812 DVDA at reference level. I have to cover my ears though and the digital cannon makes my chest hurt.

and no, the Telarc 1812 is not a good performance.

 

[cheesehead]

If I might make a suggestion - stick to 5.1. You'd likely get a bigger upgrade from moving to better front-channel speakers (B&W stuff is good, but their low-end products are comparatively overpriced) than an extra two speakers. I hear that the new CM line is good, the 700 line is better, and the 800 line is pretty hard to beat regardless of budget.

Alternately....ever considered DIY? For the used value of that sub, you could build a Rythmik Audio 15" servo-subwoofer that will outperform it by a wide margin. (All the electronics are done for you - just build the box and plug it in!)