Hello Everyone,

Recently I use a 2.0 home theatre setup due to space limitations. My
Toshiba SD9000 has been set to output PCM, which is conditioned by a
Meridian 518 (de-jittering, adding pre-emphasis, noise-shaping and
digital gain when necessary) feeding an Audio Alchemy DDE v1.1. Though
the surround channels are missing I enjoy an exceptional clarity in
the two channels I have, far better than I ever heard through a
middle-class HT receiver.

I am just through with viewing 'Prince of Egypt'. I adjusted digital
gain +4 (the straight 2-channel PCM mix-down does not use the 16 bit
output as efficiently as it could be), with noise-shaping type C and
pre-emphasis the result is simply overwhelmingly realistic front (but
of course without any rear information). I could imagine that feeding
a receiver with AC-3 mix could result less defined front.

My question is: can I expect better D/A performance from a higher-end
HT receiver's (let's say Rotel, NAD, Denon, H-K) more modern, 24/192
internal DACs than the DDE's oldish 18/48 resolution Crystal 4303
chips with passive output stage (which is again quite staggeringly
good even now)?
Although I enjoy surround movies, my prefences go to classical music.
So how good are these receivers, when feeding them with simple PCM
16/44 music, and using their front DACs without any processing (I mean
artificial ambiences)
if I can do this at all?


Thanks in advance.

Gyula

"Gyula Hunyor" wrote in message
om...
Hello Everyone,

[snip]

My question is: can I expect better D/A performance from a higher-end
HT receiver's (let's say Rotel, NAD, Denon, H-K) more modern, 24/192
internal DACs than the DDE's oldish 18/48 resolution Crystal 4303
chips with passive output stage (which is again quite staggeringly
good even now)?
Although I enjoy surround movies, my prefences go to classical music.
So how good are these receivers, when feeding them with simple PCM
16/44 music, and using their front DACs without any processing (I mean
artificial ambiences)
if I can do this at all?

They sure sound different.
I still prefer the 18 bit ladder DAC in my Sony TA-E1000ESD to the 24/48
decoders in my Yamaha DSP-A1
On the other hand, the Perpetual Tech P3A, which is actually made by the
reconstituted principals of AA, seems better than either.