PC upconverting to DTS. Which is better?

[hanzo]

I recently purchased a Razer Barracuda card (based similar to the Auzentech cards)
I wanted to ask;

If I'm outputting just stereo (two bookshelf speakers) from a receiver is there any point in upconverting to DTS or am I doing something that would be considered detrimental to sound quality? I've tested DTS versus 96khz PCM output with my flac files and in a few games and I have to say on surface value the DTS sounds superior to me because it's more "up front" sounding, louder etc (greater dynamic balance or something?) but at the same time it doesn't sound as spacial as just outputting 96khz PCM with some material. Actually after using DTS for a while switching to PCM almost sounds too spread out in some ways, voices are faint, music isn't as forward sounding etc.

I've prefered DTS in movies over DD for some time now so I was just wondering if upconverting to DTS with only a stereo output is something that would be considered bad in the audiophile world. My receiver detects 5.1 source when I select DTS so I think it might be taking a 2 point signal upconverting and spreading to 5.1 channels and my receiver is down converting it to 2 channels again.
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[hanzo]

double post

 

[EnzoPolotso]

The better one is whichever you think sounds betters, but I'll be honest, I've never heard of "upconverting to DTS" on the fly before.

 

[hanzo]

Check out the Auzentech DTS cards and the Razer Barracuda (It's a DTS upconverting card catered towards gamers)

Apparently Auzentech is making the next Creative card (creative have been quite poor for anything outside of gaming up until this point)

Honestly I think the sound seperation between DTS and PCM sounds way different. Which is why I asked about it in the first place. DTS sounds more upfront, voices are louder and clearer and the stereo separation is more blended. Basically it sounds more centered. PCM sounds much more separated. Doesn't sound as blended as the DTS and the range seems to be more subtle than the DTS. Voices are off in the distance and background sounds stick out a bit more since there seems to be so much more separation. I also experience shrill cold sound when I use 96khz PCM vs 48khz vs 44khz (41khz seems to sound the most natural) 44khz sounds better than 96khz and DTS seems to sound better to me than everything else but it changes the sound so much that I wonder if I'm doing something bad here.

 

[lcdguy]

i am unfamiliar with the barracuda card, but if it's anything like the x-meridian then when using dts there is a setting that allows you to determine how much sound goes to the fronts or center.

Also if your essentially only outputting the sound to stereo speakers you may want to try the highest setting (if your reciever can handle it) For my x-meridian thats 192khz but unfortunately my reciever maxes out at 96.

Also i find myself leaving it on DTS for the encoding, using the DTS DSP mode and setting it to Wide so it's balanced between my centre and fronts.

In regards to never hearing about encoding to DTS on the fly well.

Back in the days of the nvidia sound storm 2 it had a feature called DDL (Dolby Digital Live) it then dissappeared but resurface last year in the x-mystique. Basically these cards take ANY input sound regardless of the channels and rencodes it into either a Dolby Digital or DTS bitstream. This includes MP3's, Windows Sounds Etc. The only place where this falls down is getting the card to do a bypass for movies or other content that is already encoded in these formats. Dolbly can be done by using AC3 filter but for DTS the only way i have found to do this reliably is using nvidia pure video.

While these cards don't really support anything above EAX 2 i think it's really a moot point since i find DTS/DD is way better.

 

[hanzo]

lcdguy wouldn't DTS technically be higher quality than 192khz? My receiver only handles 96khz as well so I haven't been able to test. I do prefer DTS to 96khz though. 96khz seems a bit shrill to me.

 

[jcPanny]

Audio playback

Hanzo,
When you use 2 channel PCM output you are playing the source as origionally recorded. When you convert it to DTS you are effectively applying the DTS DSP algorithm to the source. It is similar to using the DSP modes on your receiver like Movie, Concernt Hall, Club, Action, etc.

You cant increase the quality of the source through the conversion to DTS regardless of whether your PC says it is doing 96kHz or higher playback.