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Tarheel_
12-18-2003, 07:10 AM
o.k. all the DVD-A and SACD Bass Mgmnt thing is confusing. (reading on the Pioneer 563sa)

My HK 525 has BM for both formats, but the manual says the receiver will take the analog signal and convert to digital so the BM can be applied.

Now, will this degrade the performance? Seems like this conversion will defeat the benefits of the analog signal from the player, no?

Woochifer
12-18-2003, 01:12 PM
yup, that extra A/D D/A conversion would partly negate the purported reason for going with SACD or DVD-A in the first place. Because those formats do not allow for digital output, the player itself needs to do the bass management and any desired signal processing before it goes through the analog outputs.

The way to connect the SACD/DVD-A player to your receiver is through the six-channel input, and IMO that input should be an analog bypass. The problem is that a lot of receives use pure digital volume controls, and therefore must convert all incoming signals to digital at some point. This allows for the use of bass management, but it also defeats the whole reason for going with a high res digital audio format.

Those receivers that have analog bypass six-channel inputs, any DSP decoding, bass management, or digital controls are completely bypassed. Any preferred signal processing needs to be done externally. Only a few high end home theatre receivers include a parallel analog crossover to manage the bass for the six-channel analog input.

Tarheel_
12-18-2003, 01:20 PM
SO, if i do not use the receivers' BM, will it pass the analog through....or will it still convert to digital at some point to the speakers?
The Pioneer 563SA BM is confusing to say the least....

Woochifer
12-18-2003, 03:57 PM
SO, if i do not use the receivers' BM, will it pass the analog through....or will it still convert to digital at some point to the speakers?
The Pioneer 563SA BM is confusing to say the least....

Not sure, you might want to contact Harman about that. My guess would be that they convert all signals to digital.

I tried to get a straight answer from Yamaha about a similar issue. I know that their receivers' six-channel inputs are true analog bypasses (this is possible because their volume controls are a digital/analog hybrid), but they also told me that all of their other analog inputs are also analog bypasses when the DSP section is turned off. Yet, the bass management still works when the speakers are set to small. So, does this mean that the receiver is a true analog bypass only when the speakers are set to Large?

I read that the Pioneer 563 uses different crossover slopes for the DVD-A and SACD bass management functions, which just mucks things up even further.