New Pioneer 578A SACD/DVD-A with older pre 5.1 reciever.

[Scooter B]

Well I picked up my first SACD/DVD-A player and have a few questions.

I have an older Sony reciever with Dolby Pro Logic Surround sound that was made before DVD's and 5.1! This is the original technology that encoded the surround and center channel information in the two channel stereo signal.

Also in my system are a pair of Paradigm Titans for my mains and a Yamaha powered sub with a built in adjustable crossover.

Unfortunately when these recievers first started coming out they did not think you needed much power for the center and surround speakers. My mains run like 60 or 75 watts but the center and surrounds only run like 10 or 20 watts. Since the surrounds are much closer to the listen position if I crank them to 10 they are perceptable for effects in movies and add a little ambiance to music but the center channel speaker was useless and really could not be heard. The center and surround speakers were the el-cheapo free with the reciever types also.

My main interest is in increased audio quality more than home theater.

Question 1(A). So what is the best case scenario musically for me for at this point?

I set the players audio to just the two channel analogue outputs and set the recievers Pro Logic mode to a "phantom" setting that uses the main R and L for the center channel information and feeds the decoded surround info to the appropriate speakers. For HT I have the undecoded stereo signal going to the TV's built in speakers as a psuedo center channel for the dialogue and keep the mains fairly low to where they jump out during loud audio effects and musical accents.

I could run a seperate out to the sub from the 578A but would lose the sub function for any non CD or DVD audio source (again my reciever has no sub out option).

Question 1(B). Would running the sub out offer any musical quality advantage?

Question 2. Are 5.1 surround sound mixes worth anything to me with out a true 5.1 reciever and processing? I am still happy to just have a better quality stereo source with 24 bit conversion and 196 khz sampling but is something specifically recorded and mixed for 5.1 going to sound screwy or dissapointing in only stereo or pre 5.1 Pro Logic processing.

Question 3. What is the best resource for buying SACD and DVD-A releases?
The selection locally is pitiful. I picked up Miles Davis Kind of Blue which is an excellent CD musically but I don't know if they really went back to the original tapes and used the best processing or just ran a regular CD through some processing and re-recorded it in SACD. I also picked up a Kind of Funky Kind of Jazz sampler DVD-A that is newer material and I ordered Pink Floyds DSOTM online because no one had it locally.

I would like to find a couple of really nice quality audiophile classical SACD's or DVD-A's but I don't know wich ones are really worth buying in the new format.

Question 4. What is HDCD? I originaly thought this was the classification of both of the new formats that are 24 bit 100 plus kHz recordings but afterlooking everywhere for the HDCD of Brian Wilson's Smile (that I read a review of) in either SACD or DVD-A and not finding one mention of it anywhere I went back to the original thread on a recording website to find out that HDCD is something that originally came out in the late 80's or early 90's and was like 20 bit but it never took off and then Microsoft bought the rights to it. So is the new Smile CD a hybrid CD with standard and HDCD on one disc and how is the HDCD decoded...by software on a PC or what?

Lots of questions I know but any enlightenment would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Scooter B]

Anyone?

If you only know part of one question or just have a link to a good site I would appreciate.

 

[Polkfan]

I'd suggest scanning this forum for answers to just about all of your questions.

 

[Scooter B]

I'd suggest scanning this forum for answers to just about all of your questions.

I did some fairly extensive searches here but I was not using the right terms. Maybe I should have posted in the newbie or beginers section.

Eventually I did find a kink to an article o another site that the "original" Surround Sound is now referred to as either just "Dolby Surround Sound" or "AC-3".

All newer Dolby Prologic modes are by design backwards compatible to the level of your decoder. So anything from 5.1 to 100.1 should play back on my sytem at the AC-3 Dolby Suround Sound mode from the two signal stereo signal.

What I have not been able to find out directly and I suppose I just need to experiment is the three options of incorporating my sub.

1. Run full stereo signal to sub from receiver (current set up) using the subs built in crossover to the mains. Crossover frequency in theory is set to 60-70 hz but my daughter likes to play with the knobs

2. Run the sub out LFE signal from the Pioneer only to the sub. This would result in one speaker pathway for the Pioneer CD, DVD, SACD using the sub but nothign else would have access to the sub.

3. My sub has a secondary right and left input RCA stereo input to where I could run option 1 and 2 at the same time but I don't know if this would be good or very bad for my gear.

Any advatages or problems with trying both sub inputs?


Thanks

 

[DSMCasey]

If your main interest is HT sound, as you stated, then you need to get a new reciever, that would be a HUGE jump in sound quality over an old-school "pro logic" reciever. Most of the bargain basement ~$100 recievers even have DTS capability and 100w/channel. To answer a couple of your questions:
1. I dont think having something encoded in 5.1 surround would matter to you at this point considering that you don't have 5.1 capability.

2. SACD and DVD-A titles can be ordered from the following sites:
http://store.acousticsounds.com/
http://www.dvdempire.com/
http://www.amusicdirect.com/

3. Answers to most of your questions about HD-DVD:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7105&highlight=SACD

-Casey