DD DTS THX..............

A lot of people love to dump on the old Lexicon DC-1. Admittedly, for 2 channel decoding of CD's its not audiophile quality(I wouldn't use it for 2 channel music either), but for motion picture sound it has some tremendous features. Movies are mostly dialog and the DC-1's Dialog Enchance feature in Dolby Digital Logic 7, tv matrix, and DTS logic 7 really does work! You can with this feature boost dialog in the center channel up to 6db. Dialog intelligibility is the #1 parameter that makes film soundtrack engineers try to get right. The DC-1 has usuable tilt and tone controls in the digital domain as well as a loudness control and a auto-compression(for late night viewing)that really works. I find music DVD's as well as motion pictures more than satisfying. It is more than transparent enough for DVD-video sound. If its the motion picture experience you are after, the Lexicon delivers. Lexicon does surround decoding as well as anybody in the industry. Also, should mention that obviously, not all Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks are created equal. Some Dolby Digital soundtracks, such as "The Lord of the Rings" are really good. Other soundtracks suck. As for DTS, I really like it, but in a blind test I'm not so certain I could tell the difference. Both companies claim that their process is transparent to the user. For what you can get an old DC-1 with DTS these days on Audiogon(around $500 for v2), it is an absolute killer bargain.

Madhf, I heard the old Angstrom had a rather high "noise floor level"! Do you own this piece?(was like $1k new) My old Acurus ACt 3 had a tad bit higher nose floor than the better pre/pro's out there. And as good sonically as that piece was, it's backgroud noise level was barely adequate, although otherwise that piece sounded as good as I'd ever need for movies! I heard the Angstrom was worse! What's your honest take on that point???
Anyway, I think it's a bit unfair to say DTS dewarfs DD sonically. These are often pretty close overall for most peoples applications I find. Yes, there are times when DTS is clearly better on a particular transfer. Yet, I wouldn't state it as being the only way to watch movies, and that DD is junk comparatively! I think that's a bit too biased and drastic. There are a ton of sonically excellent (considering) DD mixes, that sound superb, and do the job nicely for even the most discerning systems!
And, as for THX, that is really a "post processing" proceedure! It's not a software encoding format or whatever. This is something that is processed into a source "after the fact", and is intended to be an enhancement to either Stereo pro logic, DD, DTS or whatever! We're talking about apples and oranges here.
So,you can chose to either use it or not on any pre/pro you buy that offers it...a non issue here really.
I think If the price was cheep enough on a processor that sounded really good overall for DD, I wouldn't sweat the DTS that much! I find I moslty listen to DD, which is much much more widely common anyway. My system sounds so good anyway, and my picture so good, I don't really sweat the differnce. Again, yes, I find DTS better often, but not so much more that I just NEEED TO HAVE IT! Good DD sufices just fine for me for movies. But, you judge.
Still, all that non-sense aside, I would pick up an old used Acurus ACt 3 w/Bass mgmt upgrade for $500-600 used before ever picking up a decidedly "soncially inferior" lex DC1!....And you can take that to the bank! The Act 3 is sonially a very very good clean dynamic detailed pre/pro for DD/DTS/PCM! Good luck

I agree with Sdcampball. In almost every case DTS blows DD away. But in my humble opinion, the Angstrom blows any of the past or current processers away when it comes to DTS and DD, even my Lexicon 12B! There's one for sale on audiogon now for $500. GRAB IT.

Mike

Ok, I'm one of those deaf guys that hang here. I can hear NO difference between the 2.--- It is possible that thru a Meridian---YES, we've all heard of that lossless packing thing--- is why,for me. (no dif) Pretty much any hardware piece without DTS; doesn't have 24/192 dacs either.--and perhaps not even 24/96 for ALL channels. Don't mean it's bad / just not the latest stuff. BTW; all software with a choice means the full dts bit rate is compressed more than full DTS bit rate.---You know, ---- carring both takes bandwidth.

What Sean said... I'd add that whenever I rent a DVD with both DD and DTS, I always listen to the DTS soundtrack. It has substantially better dynamics and realism, which you can determine for yourself if you switch back and forth between the two formats.

Many newer movies are recording using DTS from what i've seen. Can't remember the specifics but i know that DTS uses less compression allowing greater dynamic range. Sonically, it is superior to either THX or AC-3 aka "Dolby Digital". I won't say that DTS offers the same improvement over DD that DD did over THX, but it is there and noticeable if you want it. This is besides the fact that decoding a soundtrack using the same format that it was encoded in will allow you to experience the performance as the director's and sound engineers intended. Sean
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