HD Audio via HDMI or analogue

[admin_exported]

Morning everyone

Now that the HD format war appears to be over, I am considering dipping my toe into Blu-Ray.

I currently have a Primare SPA21 receiver, which I bought because SQ is far more important than features.

My understanding of HD decoding is that it can either be carried out by the disc player and then an analogue signal can be sent to any amplifier with 6 analogue inputs, or the signal can be carried by HDMI v1.3a and then the receiver is used to decode the signal. The claimed advantages of the latter is that the audio signal is held in the digital domain for longer and therefore provides better SQ.

I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether I should be considering changing my Primare which I'm reluctant to do, or just buy as good a Blu-Ray player as I can afford and use 6 good quality interconnects to send an analogue signal to the Primare.

Since the reciever will surely be only amplifying the signal rather than processing it, why does it detract so much from the SQ?

I hope that someone can help me understand this better so that I can make a decision.

Best wishes

Steve

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="vetinry"]Since the reciever will surely be only amplifying the signal rather than processing it, why does it detract so much from the SQ?[/quote]

It doesn't - it's more a matter of the quality of the decoding and conversion in the player versus that in the receiver or processor. In your situation I'd stick with what you have and go down the multichannel analogue route - you'll have to spend a lot to find an AV receiver able to match the performance of the Primare, especially in stereo.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the reply.

Just in response to your point about needing to spend a lot on an AV receiver to match the quality of the Primare. Is there actually a high end receiver available which decodes HD audio yet?

Why do receivers generally have better decoders than players? Since Blu-Ray is still in its relative infancy, am I better holding off for another few months until some of the big boys (Denon etc) start bringing some players out?

One more quick question - does it matter if not all of the interconnects are the same, providing I match speaker pairs?

Cheers

Steve

 

[Andrew Everard]

Well, there's a £10K Denon procesor/power amp combo! But nothing from the more specialist audio companies yet, apart from the Audiolab processor with which our review crew was less than enamoured.

Not sure why receivers have better decoders than players - more space for power supplies and better analogue output sections maybe? Yes, I would hold fire if I were you, but bear in mind Denon's first product will be a transport, not a full player, and will thus have to be used with an offboard decoder in a receiver or whatever.

And yes, you'll be fine with a mix of interconnects - I'd try to keep the cables for the front three the same, and if possible use cables from the same company, but the quality of the cabling for the rear speakers is slightly less important than that for the front channels, IME.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

I have a PS3 which the Wife got me for crimbo which is a nice toe dip into Blu-Ray but Personally I am waiting untill all stand alone players are Profile 2.0 and at a more reasonible price point before investing into a real quailty player from say Denon etc.

So Andrew, when the PS3 does eventually get this firmware upgrade to output HD Audio via the HDMI should I upgrade my Yamaha RXV2500 or get a seperate BD player with 5.1 Outputs? I know everyone keeps going on about the Onkyo amps but I have listened to a couple of them and thought there didn't do a very good job with music and Boy are they ugly!

 

[Anonymous]

Primare will be releasing the SPA22 sometime this summer. It should support HDMI and upscaling but I do not know or if it can handle HD audio.

Maybe you should see and wait what this new Primare will bring for you.

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]So Andrew, when the PS3 does eventually get this firmware upgrade to output HD Audio via the HDMI should I upgrade my Yamaha RXV2500 or get a seperate BD player with 5.1 Outputs? [/quote]

No idea, until we hear how good the PS3 sounds passing HD Audio via HDMI.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies

Doubt I'll be able to afford a new Primare for a while - spent way too much on the SPA 21 and love its musicality, although am tempted by going down the split processor / amp combinations.

How would something like the Audiolab 8000av / amp combo or something similar from Arcam compare with my one box lovely?

Just reading through some other posts, there are a couple of comments about HD audio being possible through legacy digital links (optical / coaxial)? I thought that neither of these had sufficient bandwidth to allow HD audio but wondered if anyone can confirm this for sure?

Cheers

Steve