I was of the view that the quality of digital bitstream audio output(dts or pcm stereo) need not be really influenced by the make and price of the dvd player. This is because of my belief that the dvdp just reads the digital information from the dvd and transfer it to the AV receiver. However one salesperson told me that the quality of digital output from a dvd player depends on the make and the price we pay for it.
Does anyone have explanation on why this should be? Does the quality of electronics which reads the bits from the dvd matter for a quality digital output. Does the make and price really make any difference as for digital audio output is concerned?
BTW, I have a cheap Sansui dvdp used with Denon AVR 1802 and Kef Q5 speakers. The sound quality is not as impressive as I auditioned in the music shop. Sansui dvdp is a suspect point here. I would appreciate your comments.
You've come to another point of discussion where the answer to your question amounts to; "what do you believe?" There are innumerable persons who prefer to think of digital as perfect transmission since there are only 1's and 0's to look at and move from this circuit to that circuit. There are others who prefer to think of the complexity of obtaining those 1's and 0's from the storage medium and then translating that into usable information that can be sent from one circuit to the next. As with so many areas of belief today, there seems to be little middle ground for people to occupy.
If you fall into the first group of believers, there is nothing more that needs to be said. You are convinced that digital is perfect and can make no errors.
If you would like to understand the complexities of digital playback, there are several good sources to look at. Any decent book store will have the information you need and most reviews of high end digital players will give you some insight into the areas designers feel are the weak points in digital playback.
Read error correction; buffering; jitter; master clock errors; aliasing; digital, analog, brickwall filtering or no filtering; up conversion and down conversion; upsampling and oversampling are just a few of the issues raised by the designers who feel the digital format is still an area that requires more experimentation before "perfect" can even be considered. None of these issues address anything other than the digital transmission of 1's and 0's.
Of course, the ultimate answer lies in the issue of what do you listen for in your system. As everyone has different tastes there is the possiblility you can listen to a better system and still not hear what is considered an improvement by another person. That doesn't necessarily prove or disprove the superiority or equality of either machine. It merely means you don't hear what the other person prefers to listen for. So the easiest way to answer your question for yourself is to not believe anything you are told by anyone until you hear it for yourself. If the shop is convinced you can better your system by purchasing a better transport device, they should also be willing to let you hear the difference on your own equipment. Ask the shop what type of audition procedures they allow and then listen for yourself. Even if you don't hear an improvement, you will have learned something about audio.
Thanks a lot for your explanation. I think hearing is believing. I will go for it.
Jude
Anonymous
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Jude, the beauty of digital transmission is that you have the luxury of upto 50% loss of signal between the transmitter (dvdp) and the receiver and still get perfect sound. This is because the Digital to Analog converter built into the receiver only has to decipher whether the bit received is a 0 or 1. Hence even cheap dvd players should be just as good as high end players when it comes to digital audio quality.
I agree that high end dvd players may have other features built in such as higher sampling rates, progressive scan and the video quality analog output will definitely vary from cheap to expensive.
But don't be fooled into buying a high end player if you are happy with the audio quality. The same goes for the interconnects. Good cables are only required for the analogue outputs.
I've got an electrical and computer systems degree and have been in electronics for over 6 years.
I am afraid I have to disagree on that. It is not only about what is recieved, but also about when. The DVD disc is not spinning at 100% constant speed, so the 0's and 1's are read with sporadic tiny delays or advances. This is called jitter and can actually reach audible level, percieved as distortion. A good unit has a jitter correction mechanism, f.e. well designed read buffer and internal clock.
Another issue to take into consideration is that reading a disc is not just detecting 0's and 1's. Audio is embedded in MPEG2 files which have to be decoded, and taking into account that there are always some imperfections in disc surface. I do not doubt laser quality and chip power can make a difference here.
I won't - can't - get technical here, but I will just say that personally I heard major differences between an el-cheapo JVC and a good-quality Yamaha DVD/CD player - connected to the same receiver. I'm convinced - personally - that the quality of the DVD player DOES make a difference. And the better the rest of your equipment the more you will notice those differences.
IMHO - buy the best DVD/CD player you can afford. Unless, of course, you connect it to much lesser receiver and speakers!
Here's what I'm running: Yamaha S5770 (same as S1500, only silver, not black) NAD 763 receiver, B&W 705 mains, a 10" Mordaunt-Short sub. And yes, some el-cheapo surround speakers, which I only use for movies, not music.
I won't - can't - get technical here, but I will just say that personally I heard major differences between an el-cheapo JVC and a good-quality Yamaha DVD/CD player - connected to the same receiver. I'm convinced - personally - that the quality of the DVD player DOES make a difference. And the better the rest of your equipment the more you will notice those differences.
IMHO - buy the best DVD/CD player you can afford. Unless, of course, you connect it to much lesser receiver and speakers!
Here's what I'm running: Yamaha S5770 (same as S1500, only silver, not black) NAD 763 receiver, B&W 705 mains, a 10" Mordaunt-Short sub. And yes, some el-cheapo surround speakers, which I only use for movies, not music.
Jude,don't beleive the sansui dvd player.Itz the worst dvd player i have seen.(Since i'm from chennai workin in hi-fi shop).Worst DVD players have Jitter errors and bad error correction algrothims.Hi-End DVD player really have good sound quality both in analog and digitat outs.I would like to know what digital out's coaxial or optical u have used.
Well, I am getting different views here. I also tend to think that the AVR could be a bad element besides the DVDP (80W RMS is less than 60% of Q5's power rating that is 140W RMS).
BTW, Nagarj, I am using a Monster digital interconnect between the DVDP and the AVR. I do not remember the model number.
Thanks for the responses. I am getting contradicting views. I also tend to think that the AVR could be a bad element besides the DVDP (80W RMS of the AVR is less than 60% of the speaker's power rating of 140W RMS).
BTW, Nataraj, I am using a Monster digital interconnect between the DVDP and the AVR. I do not remember the model number.