Bass Management -- Receiver vs DVD (1 Viewer)

[Joseph*K]

True newbie question here: If a receiver has bass management capabilities, is there any benefit to having a DVD player that also has bass management capabilities?

Why do DVD players have bass management? Don't most A/V receivers these days have bass management?

Thanks.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Hi Joseph.

It's usually better to let the receiver handle all of this.

Most DVD players do not have bass management except perhaps for units with built-in DD decoders. Any you only need one of these if you have an older "DD Ready" receiver.

There is a lot of recent press about "Bass Management" for the new audio formats (SACD). Is this what you are talking about?

 

[Joseph*K]

Bob,

Thanks for the quick response. My question came from a couple of different reviews I've read, that were (in my mind) general to the DVD player, and not specific to the new audio formats -- I could go back and review again...

One review was about the Denon 1600. It mentioned that the 1600 has bass management, but people were saying it was not that good.

And then other reviews were talking about other DVD players that did not have bass management, and that's why the Denon would be a better choice.

Although not in my possession yet, I will be purchasing a Denon 3802 receiver (with bass management I believe) to go with a new DVD player. I do not have a strong interest in the new audio formats, but that could just be because I don't know a lot about those, either.

To rephrase my question into two pieces after reading your response:
1) Is bass management only required in a DVD player for the new audio formats?
2) Repeat from above --> If the receiver has bass management, what benefit does a DVD bass management ability provide?

Thanks again!

 

[Bob McElfresh]

If the receiver has bass management, what benefit does a DVD bass management ability provide?

None.

Bass management can mean one, two or all of the following:

- telling the electronics that you have LARGE or SMALL speakers
- telling the electronics that you have a external subwoofer
- telling the electronics what to do with low-frequency that should have gone to a small speaker.
- telling the electronics what crossover you would like to use to send some signals to your sub and the rest to your speakers
- using the receiver to adjust the volume going to the external sub.

So your DVD Bass Management may only be adjusting the volume to the external sub. Your receiver will likely do this, and most of the other things I list.

Does this help?

 

[Joseph*K]

Bob,

Thanks again! This does help. I appreciate your thorough response. I actually understand!

- Joe

 

[Ted Lee]

one thing to consider about bass-mgmt if you go the hi-res (sacd/dvd-a) format:

it appears that a popular thing companies are now doing is utilizing some sort of proprietary linkage-cable to connect same brand receiver and hi-res player. (i think denon has one called "dlink").

by doing this, they're able to send the digital information from the player to the receiver - which handles the bass-mgmt in the digital domain.

so now you get the benefit of hi-res audio with full bass-mgmt. of course, you have to buy the same brand.

ted