Imaging problem, or lack thereof...any ideas

After a few reading of your post, it seems the problems stem from the play station gizmo... perhaps using the digital links the play station is outputting multi ch info into a 2 ch signal path.

Can the video game thingy be configured to down mix to 2 ch only, regardless the outputs beinng used? If I read this rightly, it may ccme down to having to use the HDMI out to the 805, and analog out to the int... and setting the PS3 to multi or 2ch, when needed.

I'm thinking you're right, but I don't understand why it would be happening. Yeah, you can choose the format of the audio you have going out digitally from the PS3. And it works fine in HDMI, but sounds like a single channel in either optical (which I choose 2ch @ 44.1 khz) or analog (which is obviously 2ch).

Yeah, there's just no way I could live with going through the 805's preamp section when I have such better sound quality going through the A5 integrated. I have to figure something out, even it means getting a new player.

Problem is, I don't know if it's the player or the A5 mixing the 2ch into 1ch. I've been thinking about it all day and I think I know what I'm going to try when I get home. I'm going to take the optical and analog out of the PS3 and run that to the 805 and see if I have the same problem. If I do have the same problem, I know that it's the player sending out 2 identical channels. If I don't have the same problem, well I'll be really confused then. I'll have to bust out an old player from the garage and try that one.

Any other suggestions to try?

Other than re-checking the configs & connections, only this... go to Best Buy and get a new one... see if it does the same thing or not, then take it back.... or as you said, you might get another one to replace it, just keep the new one.

That ought to settle it then and there as to who's the real culprit. The PS3 OR the DAC.

having other similar items on hand for situations like this is a great thing for finding out what's up with the devices in one's rig..

Good Luck

I'm not sure what I have to say has any relevance, but I run a coax signal from my cd player into first a Genesis Digital Time Lens, then to my Musical Fidelity A3/24 dac, then to a Sonic Euphoria PLC. I run a separate two-channel system with my multi-channel system. Two channel amp and afore-mentioned PLC, with pre-pro and multi-channel amps for surround. Sonic Euphoria has HT bypass as well for integration. Time Lens, dac, uni-player, and two-channel amp highly modded by the way.

Point being, my digtal front end never disappoints. I am of the opinion that coax is a better option than Toslink for transferring digital signals. This is just my opinion, I don't claim to be an expert, but my digital is very satisfying.

I don't know if this is in any way helpful, but there was a time when things didn't sound so good, but this has optimized both stereo and multi-channel for me. FWIW

Regards, Dan

Jim, I checked all the connections, and everything is set up correctly.

Dan, I'm not saying the sound isn't good. I mean, the sound is excellent. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the speakers (Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Sig System towers) It's only the lack of image that I get due to the identical sound being put out on both channels simultaneously. Now I will ask: since you're using the same DAC, do you have a good separation of channels, definite image, and soundstage? ie. bass guitar left stage, singer center stage, keyboard right stage, etc. etc.? Because from my testing it seems that the DAC is mixing 2ch input into a single channel and outputting on both left and right.

So I think I got this figured out after some testing and swaptronics. I think my musicaly isn't separating the 2ch's. I tried running my optical connection, in 2ch format, from the Playstation 3 to the 805. I got perfect separation of channels. I also hooked up my xbox 360 using optical 2ch format to the 805 and also got good separation of the channels. Using both the PS3 and xbox 360 2ch optical out to go through the musical fidelity DAC, I lost any separation of channels and only have an identical signal on both channels. So unless for some reason the A5 integrated pre stage mixes the left and right inputs on all but the HT bypass input--then it has to be the DAC that is mixing the 2ch signal into a mono signal and sending it out on both left and right channels.