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Who makes a pre/pro with SACD Input?

I have a Sony DVP-NS999ES DVD SACD player that I recently tried to hook up to my just purchased used Parasound P/DD 1550 and P/SP-1500 preamp/processor with Parasound FM tunner.After being told by the seller that I would need to purchase a $150.00 adapter cable and would then be able to use the SACD portion of the Sony unit I found out differently.When hooked up I had no volume control.Useless for practical puposes.I realize this is my fault! Incidently the Parasound units are now for sale for someone that wants to have a system without SACD.
My questions are these:
1)Why is it necessary to have a seperate processor when the Sony DVD SACD has decent quality DAC'S allready?
2)Would it not be better to have a preamp that just controled volume and seletable source switching for audio and audio/video components?
3)Is the reason for a additinal processor for Dolby decoding for a VCR,satelite receiver or HDTV audio signal?
4)If so,are there units that allow you to use the processor for just these functions?
My system consist of a Sony 36" HDTV ready monitor,the Sony DVP-NS999ES,a Nakamichi PA-1 high current 100 watt per channel 5 channel amp,RBH Sound 1266SE's full range towers for LR main ,a RBH 661SE center(goes down to 35Htz),RBH 61SE's for LR and RR(goes down to 45Htz) and a RBH 350 watt 1010SEP sub,a JVC Svideo VCR,a RCA HDTV receiver.
A pre/processor with 5.1 capability that is very clean and non-coloring is what I think I am looking for? Additional sound field processing is not necessary.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thank You in advance,
Steve
455gearhead
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
SACD puts out an analog only signal. The Sony units (I have a modified NS500V), have output jacks (6) to send the signal to your processor/preamp. SACD does not operate in the digital domain per se. There are some processors that offer a 6 channel analog input to route the signal to all 5 channels of your amp and the LFE signal to a powered sub. The Sunfire Theater Grand pre/pros do that. The Sunfire Theater Grand II does this via a DB25 connector that you can assign to whatever source you wish on the processor. I think the TGIII does as well.
mrlabguy
44 posts
 
I use a B&K Reference 30 Processor with my Sony SACD player. You will need 5.1 imputs for any form of SACD or DVD-A to work.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Most pre/pro's have a better decoder than the one that sometimes comes in the dvd player. To use these you must use the digital output on the player. If you want to use the DD/DTS decoder that the player contains, then you must use the analog 5.1 outs on the player. The pre part of pre/pro does offer inputs for decoding other sources as you stated.DD/DTS are for movies except in the case of DTS music, these can be output from the player in analog or digital depending on which decoders are the better. None of this has much to do with SACD or DVD-Audio, these newer formats are only output in analog and are not the same decoders used for DD and DTS, they are in the player, for multichannel sacd or dvd-audio you must have 5.1 input on your receiver or pre/pro, all settings except main volume control are also in the player. This came about due to copy protection worry buy the software makers and will be slow to change. I my system, I use digital out for all movies and 5.1 analog out for multichannel music, on top of all this mess of wires I use the two channel analog out on the player for two channel sacd/redbook, more wires.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
My Rotel 1066 has inputs for multichannel analog signal sources...SACD, DVD-A, and anything else they may dream up. When the MULTI input is selected all circuitry of the PRE/PRO except the volume control is bypassed. And there doesn't seem to be much gain, because the volume control is usually just about maxed out. It's almost like having the SACD connected directly to the power amp, which is probably a good thing.
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