What's new

Do high end DVD players improve movie sounds? (1 Viewer)

Phil_DC

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
178
So my only question is: Do high end DVD players improve the sound in movie soundtracks, or is this just "wishful hearing" on my part?
I would say yes,
For one higher-end DVD players tend to have better circuitry that can deliver cleaner power to the unit and cleaner power equals better sound.
 

Cliff Olson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
167
Hey Bill. Thought the name sounded familiar, so I checked my past emails :) Glad you purchased the 999ES. I too noted better sound, and like you, I was greeted with skepticism from others upon mentioning this.

I expeceted to hear a slight improvement in sound, but I was *pleasantly* surprised to hear a very nice improvement. I couldn't tell how much improvement was the player, and how much was a new Kimber D-60 digital coax (highly recommend trying this cable with your new player!). I bought them both around the same time. IMHO, it's simply not realistic to believe that ALL players (CD or DVD), send the SAME, *uncolored* signal to the preamp via the digital out. I've done far too much listening/comparing to believe that. Enjoy the new addition, and I too would highly recommend listening to SACDs through it!

Cliff

PS - MAN, you got a sweet deal on yours! If you have any other questions on operation, just drop me an email!
 

Cliff Olson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
167
Note that a digital cable does not carry the signal in digital form (e.g. 1s on 0s). The signal is transmitted in analog and subject to any of the problems that would be for any other analog cable.
Say what?? I'd be curious to know where you read/heard this. Thanks.

Cliff
 

Bill Mullin

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 15, 1999
Messages
164
a new Kimber D-60 digital coax
I don't know why there should be a difference between an optical and a coax cable, but enough people are recommending coax that I'll give one a try. Actually I would have before, but the Panasonic did not have coaxial output.

- Bill
 

Phil A

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2000
Messages
3,249
Location
Central FL
Real Name
Phil
There have been many discussions is the cable/tweak area on how a digital cable carries the signals.
 

Don Munsil

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 27, 2000
Messages
102
For what it's worth, I'll take the position that for Dolby Digital and DTS, there is nothing that the transport or cable could do to affect the sound.

Bit errors are highly unlikely because the SPDIF connection is more than adequate for the job, and when they occur they're really noticeable because there is a CRC on every packet, and the decoder will mute when it detects even a single bit error.

Jitter is quite simply not a factor because it's a compressed, packetized, buffered format. The clock for the DAC is not derived from the incoming signal the way it is for PCM.

On the flip side, there are psychological studies that demonstrate pretty conclusively that people will often express a preference for one audio source over another even when the two sources are identical, as long as they *think* they are different. Expectation effects can be extremely strong, and I say this as one who has been fooled by them more than once, even when I knew they existed. It's very easy to convince yourself that your new device sounds lots better than the old one, and as long as you know which device is which, that perception of difference will persist, and even grow stronger over time.

Am I saying that every audio source sounds the same? No. I'm only saying that when dealing with Dolby Digital and DTS, as long as you get the bits to the decoder intact, the transport doesn't matter at all, and if you are hearing a signal with no dropouts, the bits are arriving intact.

Don
 

Peter Loan

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 13, 1998
Messages
355
I have heard differences in DVD 5.1 audio. In my experience, the cost of the player doesn't make a difference but for some strange reason, My JVC XV-SA600 sounds better than the other players that I've tried...and there are quite a few of them. Now the JVC isn't exactly high end. It's rather confounding as to why I'm hearing what I'm hearing because I'm definitely not "trying" to hear these differences. The Denon 1600 I had in my system for a short time got returned mainly because of the difference in sound quality.
 

Chris Tsutsui

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 1, 2002
Messages
1,865
I am very interested in seeing the results of a blind test comparing 2 transports. (One high end and one low end)

If what some people are saying is correct, then a true blind test would result in a 10/10 score for being able to pick which one is the high end player in a direct A/B comparison.

I think this test alone will benefit many people who are deciding to buy a player as a transport with "audio" as a priority. So if anyone out will take an hour of time to do this they would be doing some nice community service. :)

I think I would just use two identical CDs playing at the same time in both players. Then switching between the two playing sources back and forth might work.
 

Phil A

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2000
Messages
3,249
Location
Central FL
Real Name
Phil
Chris - I've done the test many times with many people. I have a DAC I've used makes it very easy to switch between 2 transports and play CDs. I've even had someone else put the cables in so I did not know what was input 1 or 2. Some things make good transports. Others work better as a package with their built in internal DACs. I also have friends who work at a high end shop and done many swaps on different things as well as had customers come in to the store and claim there could be no differences between certain things whether it be cables, transports, etc. Most (probably 2 out of 3) end up admitting they hear differences. The rest claim not to hear them. So my advice is do the test for yourself. Take your player into a store and do the comparison. A few tests by someone else whatever the results will not tell you what you can hear. There is little sense to consider upgrading if you can't hear the difference. Some things may have minimal differences and it may not be worth the cost to most.
 

Craig_Kg

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 25, 2002
Messages
768
For CD playback, the transport is much more critical than for most (all?) movies which use DD, dts or MPEG soundtracks. The decoding requirements of these compressed formats insulates them from jitter in the incoming data stream. This thread is about movies, right?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,810
Messages
5,123,580
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
1
Top