AC-3 v Coax/optical

[Thompsonuxb]

Can I get your views on these two?

In your experience which gives the best results for surround sound.

My set up is modest, a 10year old rx and the KEF1001.5 sub/sat.

Currently have the player running via coax to the reciever, now every day I tell myself to swap this over to the 6ch input, but never find the energy to get up and do it, I know...I know, question is am I missing out is AC-3 better than digital coax for 5.1 sound. If anyone as compared the 2 I'd appreciate an opinion.

 

[The_Lhc]

AC-3 and Dolby Digital are the same thing, so it'll depend on what's doing the decoding when you use the analogue inputs.

But of course the correct answer is, use whatever sounds the best to you, nobody else can tell you that.

 

[Anonymous]

This converter allows you to connect the digital DTS, AC3 or Dolby Digital 5.1 / 2.0 output from a DVD Player, Blu-ray player, HDPVR, PC audio card or any other source device with a optical toslink or coaxial RCA output to an amplifier with analogue inputs. The built-in audio decoder will decode incoming Toslink or digital coaxial RCA stream to 6 x RCA outputs that featues Front Left/Right, Centre, Subwoofer and Rear (Surround) Left/Right analogue audio outputs.
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[Thompsonuxb]

not looking to to spend more on this set up, but thanks for the suggestion.

I thought the two methods had their differences, the AC-3 was anolog (PCM) while via the coax everything had to be DAC'd , just wounder which would be the preference of the enthusiast. I will get round to setting up the AC-3 was just hoping for some insight.

 

[The_Lhc]

not looking to to spend more on this set up, but thanks for the suggestion.

It's spam, ignore him.

I thought the two methods had their differences, the AC-3 was anolog (PCM) while via the coax everything had to be DAC'd , just wounder which would be the preference of the enthusiast. I will get round to setting up the AC-3 was just hoping for some insight.

Well, again, it depends where you're getting the AC-3 from (what's your amp and what are you feeding it with the get the AC-3?).

The point is there is no "preference", depending on the quality of the equipment either way could produce the best results (ie if you're feeding a £200 AV amp with a £1000 Blu-ray player it's probably going to sound better if you let the BDP do the decoding and feed the AV amp with analogue inputs, although a £200 AV amp probably wouldn't have the required analogue inputs in the first place).