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Considering going back to Stereo for movies

kristoffer

kristoffer

Danish Hi Fi NERD
HEver since we moved I havn't had a chance to set up my old SS receiver with doesn't have HDMI so only optical and coxial which means no Lossless SS.

Now I have HDMI through the tv to analog 2.0 out to my amp and my god does it sound good! Now that I am hearing lossless. Even though it is only 2.0 it sounds such much better than before. Especially voices are MUCH clearer than before where they could sound a little muffled at times. The bass is also much more tight.

I didn't think the difference would be this huge. Now I am considering just staying with 2.0 and not get a new receiver to drive my back channels.
Have anyone experienced the same as me? Maybe lossless is so good I don't need the the back channels...
 
Yep, went through a "cheapy" receiver and decided that IMO I prefered to have a simplified two channel higher quality system.

However, that was a few years ago, and since then I've re-introduced full surround, but that's only because I've ended up with a Meridian AV processor, which not only does AV, but also makes a fine DAC and pre-amp for stereo music.

My opinion now is to only add AV when you have the dosh to do it well, as otherwise you're better off using just two channels.
 
The centre channel on movies does wonders for speech and a nice subwoofer for when mount doom goes bang oh and some rears for aircraft and cars zooming about. It's called a 5.1 system.

My system is 2 channel plus the other bits. Cyrus.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
went through a "cheapy" receiver and decided that I preferred to have a simplified two channel higher quality system.
Click to expand...

I agree. We still have a cheap surround system in the TV room but watching on the projector in the other room, with better quality plain vanilla stereo is miles better. I wouldn't bother with surround again. Simpler is better.
 
Mr Pig said:
I agree. We still have a cheap surround system in the TV room but watching on the projector in the other room, with better quality plain vanilla stereo is miles better. I wouldn't bother with surround again. Simpler is better.
Click to expand...

I went done the multichannel road because I found that speech on DVDs was unclear on stereo. We watched Tropic Thunder in stereo a few weeks ago and a lot of the dialogue was unintelligible. I've heard that the sound mixing on a lot of films is incompetent these days. Miami Vice was the same, great explosions but wtf were they saying?
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Yep, went through a "cheapy" receiver and decided that IMO I prefered to have a simplified two channel higher quality system.

However, that was a few years ago, and since then I've re-introduced full surround, but that's only because I've ended up with a Meridian AV processor, which not only does AV, but also makes a fine DAC and pre-amp for stereo music.

My opinion now is to only add AV when you have the dosh to do it well, as otherwise you're better off using just two channels.
Click to expand...

568.MM?
 
TheDecameron said:
I went done the multichannel road because I found that speech on DVDs was unclear on stereo.
Click to expand...

That's pretty annoying, I've had that in cinemas as well as on DVDs.

But I don't think the surround system helps that much, it's the way the film had been made. Sure, you can turn up the centre speaker but I tried that. It helps a little but it doesn't sort it. Over all it's not a deal breaker, not for me anyway.

And that's what you get for watching junk like Tropic Thunder anyway! ;0)
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Yep, 568.2mm, now with a HD621.
Click to expand...

Hi Mr Sukebe, does that mean you have a 568.2 and pictures/hdmi stream dealing with the sound? I might be forced to go meridian if I can't find a cheaper processor should my cyrus fail.
Cheers,
Mike
 
i'm ok on speech but partner can't hear as clearly so i cut the bass a bit.
This is on good stereo.
It definitely helped to move back a bit further than an equilateral position but i've got large three ways which wouldn't be right for nearfield anyway.

Had a load of kids round a while ago and they said how fantastic the surround system was!
i guess they'd never even heard decent stereo before.

I'd have to be pretty thoroughly convinced to even consider three more channels and my mains do half an octave lower than my old sub anyway.
Some films have great sound and some will never be good whatever you run them through.
 
mudlark said:
Hi Mr Sukebe, does that mean you have a 568.2 and pictures/hdmi stream dealing with the sound? I might be forced to go meridian if I can't find a cheaper processor should my cyrus fail.
Cheers,
Mike
Click to expand...

The 568.2mm is a legacy processor, so supports DD, DTS, Pro-logic and a variety of those including THX. I feed it SPDIF from my SBT and also used to connect my PS3 via optical SPDIF for movies. The street price for these is around £800 now, which ain't bad for a processor that was over £3k when new.
The HD621 adds the capability of taking in LPCM from BluRay, then outputting that via a proprietory Meridian connection called MHR. Meridian created it to support DVA-A from their DVD player to the processor. The bad news is that they're quite rare s/h and cost £1500 new. The good news is that they don't just allow the input of full format BD audio files, it also has some very clever anti-jitter and "apodizing" technology.

The result is a combo that costs just over £2k, but which will probably outperform anything close to it's price point.
 
Mr S, thanks for the response. My AV8 does part of that,but I could do with a slightly more flexible system.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Yep, went through a "cheapy" receiver and decided that IMO I prefered to have a simplified two channel higher quality system.

However, that was a few years ago, and since then I've re-introduced full surround, but that's only because I've ended up with a Meridian AV processor, which not only does AV, but also makes a fine DAC and pre-amp for stereo music.

My opinion now is to only add AV when you have the dosh to do it well, as otherwise you're better off using just two channels.
Click to expand...

+1

Nic P
 
My Myryad MXD4000 does a similar job to the Meridian being discussed, i`m extremely impressed with mine. Can be had for £500 at the mo if you look around. Has a 7.1 analogue bypass for DTS-MA output (converted to analogue by my oppo). It has HDMI but for video only. Cracking DAC in it too.
 
TheDecameron said:
I went done the multichannel road because I found that speech on DVDs was unclear on stereo. We watched Tropic Thunder in stereo a few weeks ago and a lot of the dialogue was unintelligible. I've heard that the sound mixing on a lot of films is incompetent these days. Miami Vice was the same, great explosions but wtf were they saying?
Click to expand...

But in lossless the dialog is very clean and easy to follow compared to lossey 5.1.
 
I wired the current house up for surround but when we re-decorated I ripped it out as it was wasted due to the Mrs not liking loud volumes. We use the subtitles on many DVD'S now as the dialogue is now often unintelligible at the volumes that the Mrs is prepared to tolerate. I was going to convert a spare room to a cinema but it would be a waste of time and effort due to the Mrs. Its a good job we only watch one film per week otherwise there might have been serious ructions.
 
mudlark said:
Mr S, thanks for the response. My AV8 does part of that,but I could do with a slightly more flexible system.
Click to expand...

With an av8, I would have thought that a good bd player via 5.1 analogue inputs would be fine, e.g. Denon bd3800 or oppo93. My guess is that the meridian combo would have better outright sound quality. However it's not a cheap solution and IMO is a poor choice if you have vinyl as it digitises it's analogue inputs.
 
stomly said:
My Myryad MXD4000 does a similar job to the Meridian being discussed, i`m extremely impressed with mine. Can be had for £500 at the mo if you look around. Has a 7.1 analogue bypass for DTS-MA output (converted to analogue by my oppo). It has HDMI but for video only. Cracking DAC in it too.
Click to expand...

The MXD4000 is a pre-amp - right?
So what power amp do you use for surround sound? Or do you use active speakers?
 
I made a similar 'downgrade' a few months back. I haven't looked back. Good quality stereo is much more fun than so so multichannel.
 
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