2.0 or 5.1 for audiophile audio?

[lsiberian]

I'll chime in with that I think most cd's sound best in 2 channel with either direct or pure direct modes engaged...5.1 just sounds, well, weird on a lot of them. I'd stick with how the original source material was recorded for the most part, the dsp algorithms are getting better and better, but don't sound "right" yet IMO.

That depends on your speakers largely and your preference. Some DSPs are very nice.

 

[josko]

Now, is DVD-audio just, well, audio on a DVD (PCM 2.0 or DTS 5.1) or is it a different protocol altogether? Similarly, what does SACD do for audio coding?

 

[josko]

Never mind the above post - got the answer off Wikipedia. I was also surprised by how few DVD-audio and SACD titles are available at Amazon.

On another topic, I hooked up a Blu-Ray player to my 2.0 stereo, and it really seems it wants a video screen to adjust its' settings, (such as picking the audio format). One can certainly see why the manufacturer expected it to be used with a video screen, but are there models which don't make this assumption and are intended for audio-only systems? Or do I need to attach a small monitor to it just for use in navigating menus?

 

[jostenmeat]

Never mind the above post - got the answer off Wikipedia. I was also surprised by how few DVD-audio and SACD titles are available at Amazon.

On another topic, I hooked up a Blu-Ray player to my 2.0 stereo, and it really seems it wants a video screen to adjust its' settings, (such as picking the audio format). One can certainly see why the manufacturer expected it to be used with a video screen, but are there models which don't make this assumption and are intended for audio-only systems? Or do I need to attach a small monitor to it just for use in navigating menus?

Good question. From what I have seen, all classical BDs are in PCM, and I think* they're always defaulted as 2.0 PCM (have to actually select the 5.1 PCM track). I'm not even sure you need to select anything at all.

However, I do encourage you to hook it up to video screen for the moment, just to see what settings there are. Again, I don't the think settings will matter at all for classical BDs.

 

[Matt34]

Never mind the above post - got the answer off Wikipedia. I was also surprised by how few DVD-audio and SACD titles are available at Amazon.

Besides Amazon, this place probably has the biggest SACD inventory.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/sacd.cfm

 

[Djizasse]

I was recently introduced to 5.1 audio and I really love it.
I got these two and I truly recommend them:

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons / Concertos for Double Orchestra - Acoustic Reality Experience [HD DVD]
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Resurrection [HD DVD]

 

[josko]

Well, if it was anything other than HD-DVD, I'd be game to try it. Sometimes i think there's just too many formats out there.

 

[fast1]

well different formats cater to different markets... in the end its about profits