SACD Connection

Gerard Martin · 10-16-2003, 03:32 AM

I have heard in order to make the proper SACD connection 3 pair of RCA audio cables are required connected from the 5.1 output of the SACD player to the 5.1 input of the A/V receiver. My Sony NC555ES indicates two pair of RCA audio cables should be used along with two Monaural cables, one connected to the center channel the other to the woofer channel. My question, what is a monaural cable, is it necessary or can that third pair of RCA audio cables be safely used in there place?? As always TIA.

jeff peterson · 10-16-2003, 04:07 AM

A third pair would be fine. Since the fronts and rears have a left and right channel, they tell you to use a stereo pair of cables. The center and sub channels are single so they tell you to use a single cable. I think it's an attempt to avoid confusion...or they're in cahoots with the mono cable manufacturers

FeisalK · 10-16-2003, 12:52 PM

do these monaural cables have to be monodirectional as well, i wonder...

Phil Tomaskovic · 10-18-2003, 01:54 PM

Gerald, I just hooked up my 555es this week too. Got the 5.1 cables in yesterday too. Only have 3 SACDs. Dark Side of the Moon, Police Greatest Hits, and Heart live. I was surprised that "Da Doo Doo Doo" on the Police is completely different on the multi-channel track, it's not just mixed for surround.

Only the number of cables is crazy! I have a 5ES receiver, so I have digital COAX for dvd (Not sure if it's any better than the analog 5.1?), the 3 pairs for 5.1 multi-channel SACD playback, and an extra pair from the CD output to CD in so I can play CDs to my 3rd room output. The 5ES won't sent multichannel or digital inputs to the 3rd room speaker connections.

Now do I really need to do all the settings on the dvd player with regards to speaker setup (size, distance, volume, etc)? I know the dvd player settings won't affect what goes out over the digital output. But what about the multichannel output? Does only the player's settings apply? I know they don't apply to digital outputs. What about the similar speaker settings on the receiver? Do they apply to all inputs? How do you have the sacd player setting work well with the receiver settings?

Thanks

Gerard Martin · 10-18-2003, 03:14 PM

Phil
Welcome to the wonderful world of SACD and cables, cables, cables. one more new audio format and there won,t be enough holes left in a receiver to connect. What I did using a Denon 3803 is set the Sonys speaker settings to what I have set on my Denon, using the Sonys test tones found all setting balanced with the exception of the sub woofer which was way to high. As for analog and digital settings it seems like they should be two different things however I may very well be wrong.
What do you think of SACD so far, the demo disc that came with the changer didn,t really ring my bell.

**HTF Ads**

Phil Tomaskovic · 10-18-2003, 03:19 PM

What demo disc??? I don't think I got one. Was it in the box? Where did you buy from? I like the Police CD, the Heart seems poor maybe because it's live. I was thinking of getting the Dylan Blonde on Blonde which got rave reviews, although I'm not that big of a fan of his other than the big hits.

Steve_AS · 10-18-2003, 03:24 PM

Quote:

I have heard in order to make the proper SACD connection 3 pair of RCA audio cables are required connected from the 5.1 output of the SACD player to the 5.1 input of the A/V receiver. My Sony NC555ES indicates two pair of RCA audio cables should be used along with two Monaural cables, one connected to the center channel the other to the woofer channel. My question, what is a monaural cable, is it necessary or can that third pair of RCA audio cables be safely used in there place?? As always TIA.

When you buy a typical 'stereo' RCA cable -- the ones with red and white plugs at each end -- each of the two individual cables (red and white) is 'mono', one used for left channel, the other for right (doesn't matter which color you choose for which channel, so long as left out goes to left in and right out goes to right in) . That's all 'mono' means -- you could rip a 'stereo' cable in half down the middle and have your two 'mono' cables. Or just tear then apart enough at each end so that the plugs can reach their respective terminals (in this case, center and subwoofer, rather than left and right).

You can also of course buy 'mono' (one plug at each end) cables at Radio Shack, but again, if you have any 'stereo' cables (two plugs at each end) laying you can just use those.

Gerard Martin · 10-18-2003, 03:36 PM

I got the changer at Onecall the Bob Dyland disc was included along with the owners manual, and warranty. If you didn,t get it you didn,t miss much, sounds IMO like a multi-channel dog in pain.

Steve_AS · 10-18-2003, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Gerald, I just hooked up my 555es this week too. Got the 5.1 cables in yesterday too. Only have 3 SACDs. Dark Side of the Moon, Police Greatest Hits, and Heart live. I was surprised that "Da Doo Doo Doo" on the Police is completely different on the multi-channel track, it's not just mixed for surround.

Only the number of cables is crazy! I have a 5ES receiver, so I have digital COAX for dvd (Not sure if it's any better than the analog 5.1?), the 3 pairs for 5.1 multi-channel SACD playback, and an extra pair from the CD output to CD in so I can play CDs to my 3rd room output. The 5ES won't sent multichannel or digital inputs to the 3rd room speaker connections.

FOr your main listening room the digital out/in will handle all DVD (DOlby Digital, DTS) sound, and CD sound as well (and the CD layer of SACDs). For SACD (and DVD-A) you have to use the 6 analog output/input panel.

Quote:

Now do I really need to do all the settings on the dvd player with regards to speaker setup (size, distance, volume, etc)?

Genearlly you only need to do this for SACD (for which distance setting probably won't work anyway) and DVD-A (if your player can play them). For other sources, such as movies and CD, you should set these in the receiver, and let the receiver do all the digital decoding of the digital input.

The alterantive is to send EVERYTHING out the 5.1 jacks, and let the player do ALL decoding -- inc which case you'll be using the player's settings for everything. But again (generally speaking) receivers do a better and more flexible job of this stuff than players, so use the player setting only when you have to (i.e., for SACD and DVD-A).

Quote:

I know the dvd player settings won't affect what goes out over the digital output. But what about the multichannel output? Does only the player's settings apply?

Yes..the player's settings only apply to its analog outputs. Not to the digital.

Quote:

I know they don't apply to digital outputs. What about the similar speaker settings on the receiver? Do they apply to all inputs? How do you have the sacd player setting work well with the receiver settings?

Most receiver settings generally apply to all inputs EXCEPT the 5.1 channel analog inputs. However, some receivers DO allow limited adjustment to the 5.1 analog inputs -- my H-K allows individual speaker level adjustement of 5.1 channel analog input. But speaker size, distance, etc, for the 5.1 channel analog input, can only be set in my player. IN my case, the receiver speaker level setting for 5.1 analog are 'on top of' the speaker level setting in my player...so I set all the player speaker level settings to 'fixed' or to '0' boost/gain, so they're all equal coming into the receiver. (N.B. The subwoofer channel might need two layers of level adjustments, involving BOTH units, in some systems, to get them up to proper volume, for some sources).

The way to make it all play well together is to consider SACD and DVD-A as 'special cases' that need to be dealt with mainly by the player, while all other formats are dealt with by the receiver.

This situation is dynamic...many predict that within a few years the standard will be to the let the receiver do ALL the processing of ALL sources, including of digital SACD and DVD-A signals. Which would mean...only one wire between the player and receiver.