If I read one more post about “rear back” speakers… The rear speakers are surround back speakers when using 7.1 or more speakers. DSU is the appropriate acronym for the Dolby Surround upmixer though the Dolby logo followed by DSur is displayed on any AVP/AVR using it.
Denon/Marantz displays include the signal/decode + selected up mixer. Yamahas display signal/sound mode while Onkyo just the Dolby logo and DSur
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But, that’s off topic.
The original”Fat” PS3 60GB was a beast and supported SACD. I went through two of them as well as a few XBOX 360 units. PS3 supported HDMI 1.3 while XBOX 360 just HDMI 1.2. So, no lossless multichannel signals from XBOX.
Now, while PS3 supported input signals such as DTHD, DSD and DTS HD MA, it could not bitstream them. But, it could decode them and send the signal as LPCM over HDMI. The output settings needed to be set from bitstream to LPCM to avoid bitstreams of lossy Dolby and DTS 5.1 cores. Some hate player decoded signals and those with newer receivers at the time that could decode DSD wanted to see DSD displayed on their units as well as DTHD and DTS HD MA.
The audio output settings of the PS3 were not simple as they concerned games, movies and music disc playback. SACD requires layer output settings as well. MULTI needs to be selected for output of multichannel tracks of featured discs.
Before the PS3, I had a Denon Universal player with multichannel analog outputs connected to the multichannel analog inputs of a Denon receiver for SACD. I went on to an Oppo at one point and am now using a Sony UBP-X800M2 to play CD, DVD, DVD-AUDIO, Blu-ray/4KBlu-ray and SACD.
The X800M2 can bitstream DSD to my receiver that can in turn decode it. No, I cannot hear a difference in sound when I set the player to decode DSD like the PS3 and output 176/24 multichannel PCM to the receiver.
The PS3 can be connected via HDMI to any new AVP/AVR. If connected directly to a TV, the TV and receiver need to support eARC to handle the bandwidth of the uncompressed multichannel PCM signal of the PS3. A straight decode of the signal without any up mixing by an AVP/AVR will result in sound output to the appropriate speakers concerning the signal.
Oh, and for those playing around with an old PS3, it does not support Dolby MAT 2.0 and cannot retain Atmos metadata for transmission over LPCM. An uncompressed multichannel PCM 7.1 signal will be output for any Dolby Atmos track played through it. A connected AVP/AVR will not receive Atmos metadata or any Dolby indicators and simply recognize a multichannel PCM signal. One would need to apply an up mixer to the signal for output to virtual or actual height speakers.
Some may have speaker configurations of 5.1 that may be close to a quadraphonic configuration. Some with 7.1 and up not so much. Everything old is new again as quadraphonic systems used identical monopole speakers all the way around. Years later, bipole and dipole speakers would be used in surround sound systems. Systems incorporating height speakers for new object based formats use monopole speakers all the way around now as well. While not as easy to do as with a quadraphonic configuration, matching speakers all the way around would be the optimal configuration.
There is no AVP/AVR that I know of that steers DSD surround/rear signals of 5.1/4.0 tracks to surround back speakers in a 7.1 or more configured system. Though, newer Integra/Onkyo/Pioneer receivers do it for Dolby 5.1 signals in 7.1 or more configurations as does IMAX DTS processing of IMAX Enhanced DTS 5.1 signals in various AVRs.
