If the quality of your 2-channel audio/music listening means alot to you, I'd suggest finding a great 2-channel pre-amp that has a home-theater bypass capability and using the pre-amp together with a good processor. I've done this in the past and it elevated the main L/R channels performance in home theater and my 2-channel listening for pure audio pursuits to an even higher level than a great processor with balanced bypass capability (Classe SSP-600). This advice holds I believe regardless of the formats you are decoding with your processor...
Need Processor Input
Okay, I need some input. I have a Theta Casablanca I with standard dacs that has served me well. I run a Naim CDX CD player through the analog direct so reason the standard dacs have been good enough on movies for me. Unfortunately when I purchased my CBI, I didn't get the DTS board. Now with Blu-ray having so many titles with DTS, I'm wondering what to do. I could buy a used processor that does both dolby digital and DTS in lossy and save a lot of money and still have a good preamp for my CD player or buy an Integra for $2k which probably would force me to run a separate preamp proably for another $2k or slightly less if used.
I'm not wanting to get in a debate over lossless vs lossy but I read an article off the internet where a group of reviewers went to Dolby Digital Labs and DTS to hear sections of movies both in lossless and lossy in a controlled environment with expensive gear. Most could NOT hear any difference while a couple did but said it was very slight with lossless being a touch better. The improvement was described as being slightly fuller sound with slightly more surround information.
With this, I'm wondering if I should really get the Integra 9.9 that could do all the lossless but also have to buy a preamp or just buy a used processor for a fraction of the cost and still be pretty darn happy. I can tell with my CBI that the sound of blu-rays sound better than the same standard dvd copy but that could be due to a different sound mix. I just watched the Blu-ray movie of Nightmare Before Christmas in plain DD 5.1 and couldn't believe the improved surround sound and clarity of the songs in the movie. It sounded so good that I really wondered how much lossless or better dacs could really improve the overall sound. This was the big reason in the beginning for not spending so much on Theta's expensive upper end dacs and deciding the standard dacs would be pretty darn good for movies. As for movies and music, a couple of the biggest factors is the source recording and the listening environment besides the rest being the equipment.
Any thoughts from those that have gone from an older processor to something newer???
I'm not wanting to get in a debate over lossless vs lossy but I read an article off the internet where a group of reviewers went to Dolby Digital Labs and DTS to hear sections of movies both in lossless and lossy in a controlled environment with expensive gear. Most could NOT hear any difference while a couple did but said it was very slight with lossless being a touch better. The improvement was described as being slightly fuller sound with slightly more surround information.
With this, I'm wondering if I should really get the Integra 9.9 that could do all the lossless but also have to buy a preamp or just buy a used processor for a fraction of the cost and still be pretty darn happy. I can tell with my CBI that the sound of blu-rays sound better than the same standard dvd copy but that could be due to a different sound mix. I just watched the Blu-ray movie of Nightmare Before Christmas in plain DD 5.1 and couldn't believe the improved surround sound and clarity of the songs in the movie. It sounded so good that I really wondered how much lossless or better dacs could really improve the overall sound. This was the big reason in the beginning for not spending so much on Theta's expensive upper end dacs and deciding the standard dacs would be pretty darn good for movies. As for movies and music, a couple of the biggest factors is the source recording and the listening environment besides the rest being the equipment.
Any thoughts from those that have gone from an older processor to something newer???
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- 9 posts total
- 9 posts total