2. home-theater
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To Dolby True HD or not to Dolby True HD

I've been into two channel audio for 25 years now and have just recently thought about getting into a separate home theater system for the rest of the family. It seems like you can pick up some pretty capable receivers from the likes of Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer Elite for one to two grand that include all the latest surround formats as well as 7.1 to 9.2 capabilities. Seems pretty impressive.

My question is are you better off getting what I would consider midfi receivers with all the latest processing, or getting older separates that cost bank in their day but going for pretty cheep now and simply use a blu ray player that can output the latest formats in analog to the analog inputs of the higher end separates. Or am I being too harsh referring to the new breed of receivers as midfi? Are Dolby True HD and DTS HD worth it over Dolby Digital and DTS?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
arch2
4 responses Add your response
singleendedsingle
664 posts
 
I want to share this review regarding different sound formats, http://www.audioholics.com/education/surround-sound/dolby-digital-vs-dts-a-guide-to-the-strengths-of-the-formats
bryoncunningham
890 posts
 
...are you better off getting what I would consider midfi receivers with all the latest processing, or getting older separates that cost bank in their day but going for pretty cheep now and simply use a blu ray player that can output the latest formats in analog to the analog inputs of the higher end separates?

I would vote for option 2, i.e., older separates with a blu ray player that decodes the latest codecs. My reasoning: Much of the software you are likely to watch will not contain the new codecs, so you will be listening to DD and DTS much of the time. On those older formats, there is a big difference in sound quality between midfi receivers and hifi separates, IME.

In addition, you will still be able to enjoy the increased format resolution of the software that contains the new codecs, provided you buy a blu ray player that decodes them. Arguably, going with older hifi separates will allow you to enjoy the increased resolution of the new codecs even more than going with a midfi receiver, simply because the hifi separates with have inherently higher analog resolution with which to reveal the increased format resolution.
theo's avatar
theo
2,684 posts
 
Big difference!
srwooten's avatar
srwooten
694 posts
 
"Are Dolby True HD and DTS HD worth it over Dolby Digital and DTS?"
Absolutely. Think going from MP3 quality to Hi-Rez, because that is EXACTLY what you'll be doing.
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