OPPO 980HD and DVD-Audio

[wanjeyin]

Hi all,

I took the plunge, albeit, wayyyyyy late in the game and bought my first high resolution audio disc; Diana Krall - Love Scenes DVD-Audio!!!

The tracks in the DVD-Audio disc are presented in the following formats:
96 Khz/24 Bit PCM Stereo
48 Khz/24 Bit Dolby Digital 5.1

I've been listining to this disc with the following hardware:
OPPO 980HD,
Harman Kardon AVR240, and
Axiom Audio M22.

I've been listening to the disc primarilly in stereo. That said, first of all let me say that my jaw utterly dropped to the ground when I realized how rich and bold her voice, the guitars and bass came through in the 96/24 stereo compared to the regular 44.1/16 CD that I also own. If I may add, the soundstage in 96/24 was HUGE!!! My speakers seemed to disappear from the room. The detail and soundstage really made me think that I was listening to her live in a quaint smokey late-hour New York jazz bistro on a rainy day. I can't say enough about the high-res audio experience. If this is what high-res is all about, I can say that I'm hooked.

I have Some things that I need you to help me sort out. Currently, I have the 980HD transmitting the audio to my receiver throught both Direct 6.1 analogue, and COAX/Optical. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am confident that when my receiver is set to direct 6.1 analogue input, I am listening to the disc in 96/24. My questions are as follows:

1) I noticed that when the direct 6.1 analogue is selected in my receiver, and when listening to the disc in stereo, I am not getting any sound through my subwoofer. This is normal, right?

2) When I select the optical input on my receiver, oddly enough, I am getting sound through both fronts and subwoofer. Through optical, am I hearing 96khz/24-bit, or some other dumbed-down format that the OPPO sends through the optical because of bandwidth issues? What is the OPPO sending down the optical path? Should I be using COAX instead?

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks all!

AJW

 

[MDS]

1) I noticed that when the direct 6.1 analogue is selected in my receiver, and when listening to the disc in stereo, I am not getting any sound through my subwoofer. This is normal, right?

Most receivers do not do bass management on the multi-channel analog inputs so that is probably normal.

2) When I select the optical input on my receiver, oddly enough, I am getting sound through both fronts and subwoofer. Through optical, am I hearing 96khz/24-bit, or some other dumbed-down format that the OPPO sends through the optical because of bandwidth issues? What is the OPPO sending down the optical path? Should I be using COAX instead?

24/96 PCM cannot be passed over either coax or optical digital audio connections as both use s/pdif and the bandwidth requirements of 24/96 exceed the capabilities of s/pdif.

The Oppo may be downsampling on the fly. If your receiver has a display function that shows the format of the incoming signal, you could use that to see the sampling frequency. I doubt it would show the bit depth (at least mine doesn't). I'd bet it will show 48 kHz PCM.

 

[wanjeyin]

Thanks for the informative post.

The Oppo may be downsampling on the fly. If your receiver has a display function that shows the format of the incoming signal, you could use that to see the sampling frequency. I doubt it would show the bit depth (at least mine doesn't). I'd bet it will show 48 kHz PCM.

This could indeed be the case. Can any OPPO users verify this?

 

[wanjeyin]

Another observation and question about high-res audio in the system I have:

I noticed that a lot of people here describe the M22Tis as "detailed", "unforgiving to bad recordings", and some may even call them "bright". That said, when listening to conventional 44/16 CDs I usually have to turn down the treble a few notches on most of them. However, when I popped in the Diana Krall "Love Scenes" and listened to the stereo track at 96/24, I found that I did not have to do any adjustments to the receiver for the tracks to sound their best (ie. neutral bass and treble).

This made me think, how much of the quality of sound you end up hearing is from the recording (ie. DVD-Audio high res), and how much is from the speaker and/or system you have?

Any thoughts?

AJW

 

[tcm5]

Oppo/ DVD-A

A DVD-A disc will play on a standard DVD player over an optical/coax output, but it will not be a high rez signal. It will play as a Dolby Digital recording. The Oppo 980 should support Bass management my 981 does. Set your speakers to small on the oppo and low frequencies below 80 Hz should be routed to the sub. I haven't tried this because I have an external Bass Managemaent system (outlaw Audio) I believe it works for DVD-A but not for SACD.

 

[fmw]

Another observation and question about high-res audio in the system I have:

I noticed that a lot of people here describe the M22Tis as "detailed", "unforgiving to bad recordings", and some may even call them "bright". That said, when listening to conventional 44/16 CDs I usually have to turn down the treble a few notches on most of them. However, when I popped in the Diana Krall "Love Scenes" and listened to the stereo track at 96/24, I found that I did not have to do any adjustments to the receiver for the tracks to sound their best (ie. neutral bass and treble).

This made me think, how much of the quality of sound you end up hearing is from the recording (ie. DVD-Audio high res), and how much is from the speaker and/or system you have?

Any thoughts?

AJW

I always find it interesting that audiophiles want treble extension flat to 20khz but then want to EQ down the highs when they are delivered. Everything in the high end audio world is aimed at reducing high frequency content. It is a curious phenomenon to me. At any rate, I'll use the same terminology. The Diana Krall recording is dark. I have it. It is a nice recording but way, way, way too bass heavy as all the rest of her recordings are. Her albums are nicely recorded and poorly mixed in my opinion. Obviously the same engineer on all of them or, perhaps, too much input from the performer in the mixing.