HD audio from Sony 550 or 350

[admin_exported]

I have an old Sony DAV S800 home cinema kit. I'm looking to purchase a new blu ray player to hook up to the S800. problem is that S800 does not have HDMI input. It has audio in inputs (L & R), and an optical input.

Will i get good qaulity HD audio from a Sony 350 via the optical cable, or will the anolougue outputs on the Sony 550 connected to L & R inputs on the S800 be better. I know the S550 has onboard HD decoding so am assuming this will be the better option for audio quality.

Or would I really be better waiting till I can afford new home cinema kit with HDMI input.

Any help will be appreciated

 

[Big Chris]

I'm afraid you won't get any HD sound from either of the proposed connections. Otical will only carry regular DD/DTS, and you need a full set of inputs (6 or 8) not just the stereo pair for analogue connections to the 550.

The choice is yours. You could happily run a Blu-Ray player with your current set-up (My parents are running a 350 via optical through the DAV-S550 I gave them when I bought my current kit, and regular DD/DTS sounds fine), then when funds allow you could get a new receiver that'll allow you to hear those all important HD soundtracks.

You can get an older A/V amp if you wanted, but you have to ensure it has a full set of multi-channel analogue inputs (Again this will be 6, or even better, 8 connections (if you're sticking with 5.1 speakers, 8 won't be required)). You will also have to buy the 550, as the 350 doesn't have multi-channel outputs.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help. That's really useful information.

Cheers

Ian