Oppo BDP 83SE- RESULTS ARE IN

Bacardi,

As I understand your post it seems you've confounded replacing equipment with switching from HDMI to analog, and concluded HDMI is inferior to analog. Could it be that a new Oppo BDP 83SE is an improvement over an early PS3 and an Onkyo SC-885 processor? It wasn't clear to me that you compared the Oppo HDMI with the Oppo analog. Another possible explanation is that removing the Onkyo from the audio chain improved the sound. It's often not easy to attribute a causal link.

db

Dbphd, ok. I am still running HDMI from Oppo to Onkyo for video. I have switched between the HDMI with the Onkyo processing 5.1 and the analogue 5.1 through the Oppo processing and found the Oppo better. More distinctive and isolated channel separation, more profound and 3 dimensional bass.

The analogue in the Oppo for stereo is pretty obvious compared to the Onkyo HDMI or analogue.

The Oppo also supports bitstream for lossless audio which my PS3 only had linear PCM.

One other clear distinction is I pulled out my old Monster series 1 400's from 15 years ago. I bought them from a fella who sold me his Audiocontrol equilyzer and 8 RCA's. So I am using them for the analogue. The rest of my system uses Synergistic Research Tesla cords, interconnects and speaker wire.

So, in regards to my Onkyo being old or my ps3, my conclusions are now based on the facts above. Everyone knows the Onkyo HQV Reon processors excell in home theater processing and are below average for 2 channel. The Oppo SE is known for there analogue and Anchor Bay Processing.

All this said, I think the PS3 is the obvious weak link, that is why it is out. For what I paid for the Onkyo & Oppo and the league of performance achieved, it was well worth the $$$.

Regards Bacardi

Bacardi,

As I understand your reply, there is no unambiguous comparison of HDMI v analog, and any such comparison seems difficult to make in your setup. Thus concluding that HDMI is inferior to analog in the general case is not possible.

db

Ouch Dbphd, double negative in your sentence, that was painful to read!

Isn't the case not really using HDMI vs analog, but using the Oppo's DAC converter vs the Onkyo or PS3?

i.e. using Analog outputs sounds better with the Oppo because the Oppo SE's higher quality DAC's are being utilized, while if HDMI was used for audio, the lower quality DAC in the Onkyo would be used.

"Isn't the case not really using HDMI vs analog, but using the Oppo's DAC converter vs the Onkyo or PS3?...
...i.e. using Analog outputs sounds better with the Oppo because the Oppo SE's higher quality DAC's are being utilized, while if HDMI was used for audio, the lower quality DAC in the Onkyo would be used."
Longhornguy

Oh if it where only that simple! The believe the reality is is that there's more variables to the equation than simply a matter of DAC quality. And if what is being inferred here - that you can simply chose a high end DVD player, and not need an outboard AV processor - where the case, I garantee all the pro's would be using this route to process their movies! After all, the most direct path of lesser components should be a more pure fidelity potential, correct? But I believe, when you're dealing with analog out from a player source, you're dealing with not only DAC quality, but all that's entailed in the preamplification stage, analog output, buffering, impeadance, etc.
I'm not so sure it will work as well this way, bypassing outboard processing for digital dolby and dts, personally. And if it were, we'd all surely be going direct from something like a moded OPPO, analog out, straight to our amplifiers! Sounds reasonable enough, right?
My own experiences over the years has been that processing the dolby and DTS material from DVD sources have always sounded (not to mention the ability of bass mgment, DSP,etc)rather flat and 2 dimmensional, compared to processing in an outboard dedicated av pre or receiver via a digital connection. And, while I've had excellent- even better - results often processing PCM 2 channel sources via the analog outs on DVD players, I've never found one case -at least before the newer HD codecs were introduced- where going straight from any level of DVD player, analog out, direct to an amp, sounded better for digital movie sound! And I've used some ultra high end 2 channel gear and multi-channel setups in my own projects. And believe me, if I could have gotten away with processors, I woulda. But it never worked. That's my experience anyway.
This all, however, should be easy enough to break down. All that's needed is a few questions posted on this to the pro av reviewers out there from various publishings, discussing this very topic. See what they have to input, and make some more assessments on the subject.
I bet you get a different set of conclusions, answers and prospectives from the perspectives being concluded here though.