Non-Audiophile DVD-Audio review (1 Viewer)

[Greg Br]

Well thought I would share my thoughts as someone who is probably in the mass market target consumer of this media. Here is the equiptment that I was playing with,

Yamaha RXV-1000, JVC 70BK DVD Audio Player, JBL Floor standing speakers, JBL S-center, JBL N26 surrounds, dual 20-39cs subs powered by a samson amp.

My first impressions of dvd-a was holy shit is that sound clear. The JVC demo disk is a great set of tracks. The first track is by BNL and is made for dvd-a. Sound was crisp and filled the room, 5.1 mix was killer. It seemed like the louder I played it the better. Another great track was EPL's Lucky Man, in fact this is the best track on the disk. The clarity of the instruments, the mixing, it was perfect. Corrs had a killer song as well. I must say that I did not think someone with as poor as eqiptment as I have that this would sound this much better. For clarity alone this is worth the $225 the player cost me.

My second impression, are my subs broken? The lack of bass was expected as everyone had talked about it, but it is really lacking compered to DVD-V and 2 channel stereo. I played Blue Man Group'S TV Story, in both DVD-A and DVD-V DTS, and there were two huge diferences, first the clarity was so much better on the DVD-A, the second was I measured 117 spl's with the DTS track from my subs, I measured 104 db's from the dvd-a, that folks is a HUGE difference. The question I have is the .1 LFE track the same on both and the 13db's coming from redirected bass or is it different recordings of the .1 treck. The second song I compared was Foreigners Feels Like the First Time, on 2 channel stereo cd this song when cranked had the SVS hitting with DVD Audio there was hardly anything. Do I have something setup wrong or do others experience this?

All in all for $225 the clarity is worth the upgrade. Mixes in 5.1 sound awsome to me and I think this media has a broad based appeal, should the bass issue get worked out. You only need to listen to 30 seconds of song to hear the difference, even if you do not have a 10k system for playback.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Greg,

It sounds like you're not getting bass redirection on DVD-A. Make sure that the mains are set to "small" on your DVD-A player speaker setup menu. If that doesn't help the problem then the only solution is adding an Outlaw ICBM for $250 + the cost of cables. I've read that Panasonic DVD-A players can't do bass management and PPCM unpacking at the same time. Not sure it's true.

 

[Greg Br]

I guess the biggest thing that seems weird to me is that there is som much redirection of bass to boost it as much as 13db's on BMG. Also the two channel bass on Foreignor was huge when compared to DVD-A. I am going to the HIFI store, they have the new 47a hooked up to a Klipsch RF-7's and some dipole surrounds, that should give me a comparison.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Greg I think all[correct me if I'm wrong] dvd-a players on the market lacks bass managment for the DVD-A part,they might feature it for the DVD-V section[DD,DTS],but it won't work for DVD-A.

Your best bet is Outlaw's ICBM for the time being.

The Pioneer 47-A don't have bass managment either.

 

[Greg Br]

Yea but a comparison should offer some idea of how much is the speakers I have and how much is the player.

The ICBM is a early June purchase.

Another question, if I play the disk in hi res 2 channel with my towers, I assume there will be no .1 playback, will my subs still receive any information?

 

[KeithH]

Greg, I assume your DVD-Audio player, like most others, lacks bass management. If so, then you will only get output from the subwoofer if the DVD-Audio track has a discrete LFE track. A lot of DVD-Audio discs lack LFE tracks.

 

[Greg Br]

Keith or all,

I want to thank you for your time on questions you probably have seen many times.

Just got back from the store with Hotel California, absolutely sounds fantastic on the 192khz sample. My Samson amp for the subs barely flickered though, essentially the only bass was on the Hotel California track. I guess my question is, do most of you find this the same thing, I guess I am paranoid I have amp/receiver/player issues.

I am going to get the ICBM, just want to make sure that is the problem for sure.

Greg

 

[Gordon Ripley]

Denon's DVM-4800 has bass control for DVD-A, as per their specs "DVD-Audio with World's First Bass Management system to derive Sub-channel from DVD-Audio discs"
Gord

 

[KeithH]

Greg, no problem. I have spent most of my time listening to the stereo track on the Hotel California DVD-Audio disc, but I don't recall the subwoofer doing much on the surround-sound track. I don't think there is anything wrong with your system.
By the way, I agree with you. The 24/192 track on Hotel California is fantastic.

 

[Greg Br]

Keith,

Is the sub doing anything on the stereo track, may be a dumb question but when I threw in my regular cd of HC the bass was hitting good, but had zippo on the hi res stereo.

Another title I played was silverlines Beehtovin Romantic Classics disk, but my player did not recognoze it as dvd a, and through the pathetic menu I could not find anyway to access the dvd-a, anyone familar with silverline or this didk

Greg

 

[KeithH]

Greg, I play stereo DVD-Audio tracks through my main stereo system, and I don't use a subwoofer there. So I can't help you regarding Hotel California. Also, I don't have the Silverline disc in question.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Denon's DVM-4800 has bass control for DVD-A, as per their specs "DVD-Audio with World's First Bass Management system to derive Sub-channel from DVD-Audio discs"

Well,not exactly,the 4800 only sums up the bass from the other channels,but not performing any highpass filtering from them,it's better then nothing however.
Look for the upcoming Denon 3800 DVD player with full bm feature with adjustable delay,now that deserves !

 

[Sean Oneil]

It's probably a bass managment issue... I have the same problem with my player -it will re-route the bass frequency under 80Hz in all channels to the sub in DD or DTS, but not with DVD Audio, which is just passed through to my preamp/poweramp.