Best AV processors for under $10K

Dbphd wrote:
As I understand it, DSD does not convey information for bass management; you need to convert to LPCM if you want bass management.

No format conveys information about bass management. Some have an LFE channel but that's not bass management.

03-09-13: Dbphd
Kal, what is bass management? Are you saying the sub is only activated by LFE? What's the role of crossover? I thought when you set a crossover frequency in the Oppo menu, frequencies below the crossover would be sent to the SW output with LPCM conversion but not if the signal is maintained as DSD. With digital output, presumably setting a crossover in the processor menu sends frequencies below the crossover to the sub output of the processor.

You are confusing the issue. If you set up bass management in the Oppo, you have added it to the PCM signals and the processor cannot distinguish what is LFE and what is rerouted bass.

I've seen few 2.1 or 5.1 SACDs with an explicit LF channel. So please inform us. What is bass management?

The .1 in 5.1/2.1/etc. is LFE. It has nothing to do with bass management. LFE is a distinct channel. Bass management is a process which you describe above and is independent of LFE (although both come out of the subwoofer). Both 5.0 and 5.1 recordings can be bass managed although only the latter has an LFE channel.

03-09-13: Dbphd
As I understand it, DSD does not convey information for bass management; you need to convert to LPCM if you want bass management.

It comes down to semantics. It is incorrect to say that DSD does not convey information for bass management since that implies that there are codes in it to guide the application of bass management. That is not true. All that is contained in it is the music information as apportioned by the producer. By the same token, neither do PCM sources convey information for bass management.

Bass management is applied by the user and, in the current state of the art, consumer products are limited to applying bass management to PCM signals (although it is possible to do this in DSD). If you apply bass management to PCM (or to PCM converted from DSD), you are re-allocating the signals to each channel differently than they were and you might say these arrangements are bass-managed but there is still no information for bass management.