SP-2 Upgrade Options and Availability?

Levi · « **Reply #20 on:** 24 Oct 2005, 03:58 am »

Quote from: MattH

Levi does your display not turn itself off then on the SP1.7 ?

One thing I did notice when I got my processor last weel was that the lcd display was blck with yellow text (unlike the standard lcd display I have seen in other pictures) and the the display turns itself off after a few seconds of remote inactivity..

Cheers

Matt

Hi Matt,

It is true, my display does not turn itself off.

Per James, I have the older SP1.7

nicolasb · « **Reply #21 on:** 24 Oct 2005, 09:26 am »

Quote from: James Tanner

We will not be reclocking. We only do that with the DAC in the BP26 and the Integrateds.

Is this because it's not technically feasible, or because you don't think there would be a tangible benefit to doing it? This post on the Bryston website (authored by one James Tanner

) sounds extremely enthusiastic about the improvement to the BP25DA's sound quality that resulted from asynchronous upsampling (and the consequent jitter removal) - is there a reason why you wouldn't get the same benefit from the SP1.7?

Have you decided yet if you're going to implement Dolby Headphone? According to this bit of documentation Dolby Headphone is part of the standard code library for the Aureus chip so (on the face of it) it wouldn't seem as hard to add support for that as would be the case for some other features. Obviously adding a hardware headphone stage to the processor would be a huge change, but I'm thinking in terms of routing a Dolby Headphone downmix to (say) the surround back outputs, which then drive an external headphone amp.

James Tanner · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 Oct 2005, 12:29 pm »

Quote from: Adz523

James -

1. Are these still the slated menu of enhancements? Any adds or deletes to this list?

2. Have you or any other beta testers noticed an enhancement in sonic quality from the more powerful chip, for example in surround performace?

New Features

·RS-232 Software Updates

·DSP Firmware Updates via SPDIF

·New TI Aureus Audio DSP Chip

·7 x greater Processing Power

·DTS 96/24 5.1 Surround Decoding

·Dolby 96/24 Two-Channel Surround PLIIX Decoding

·Four Independent Hi-Pass ...

Hi Thomas,

Some other features have been added like 4 options on the THX mode. I will try and post a list soon.

james

Jason Nugent · « **Reply #23 on:** 24 Oct 2005, 01:11 pm »

James,

Seeing as I have an order in for a SP1.7 at the moment, would it be worth my while to talk to my retailer and get them to get a SP2 instead?

thanks,
Jason

James Tanner · « **Reply #24 on:** 24 Oct 2005, 02:26 pm »

Adz523 · « **Reply #25 on:** 25 Oct 2005, 12:06 am »

James

Thanks for updating the list of enhancements. What abuot my second question reproduced below?

2. Have you or any other beta testers noticed an enhancement in sonic quality from the more powerful chip, for example in surround performace?

James Tanner · « **Reply #26 on:** 25 Oct 2005, 12:27 pm »

Hi Adz,

I would say no to the chip making a difference in sound quality.
It is more a matter of more features requiring higher processing power being available.

james

Levi · « **Reply #27 on:** 25 Oct 2005, 01:32 pm »

Hi James,

Does the new display allows us to see the volume setting when you are 9ft away? The reason for this is because I cannot see the volume knob marker in the dark. Will you make the volume knob more visible in the dark?

Thank you.
Levi

James Tanner · « **Reply #28 on:** 25 Oct 2005, 05:34 pm »

Hi Levi,

Yes the new display is much sharper (not bigger) and can be seen from further away.

james

Adz523 · « **Reply #29 on:** 29 Oct 2005, 01:24 am »

Quote from: James Tanner

Hi Adz,

I would say no to the chip making a difference in sound quality.
It is more a matter of more features requiring higher processing power being available.

james

I don't get that. Does that mean that different DSP chips (whether its Cirrus Logic or Sharc or TI or whatever) have no impact on surround sound performance or overall sonic quality?

number6.mi · « **Reply #30 on:** 29 Oct 2005, 08:18 am »

Quote from: James Tanner

Hi,

We will continue to use the current Crystal 192/24 DAC's we use now. We have looked at many DAC's and these still sound the best. We will not be reclocking. We only do that with the DAC in the BP26 and the Integrateds. The analog output is not changing.

No plans on auto-calibration at this point.

The thing you have to understand about the Digital and Analog volume is that we do not use the DAC's to raise and lower volume in the analog mode. All others I have looked at do. We feel than analog s ...

Thanks James,

Why was it decided not to reclock? Meridian, Anthem, and other competitors all highlight that their products reclock to reduce jitter and Bryston has chosen to re-clock in some of its other products.

I appreciate Bryston probably has the best bypass and if you have say a good source CD player you could argue that this makes reclocking less needed, but most people are still going to have other digital sources that theoretically would benefit and the one issue I have even with a good CD player is if I have something I specifically want to hear using my subwoofer which is hooked up directly to the SP1.7, to the best of my knowledge I can't use bypass.

On the level balance between digital and audio, I appreciate there's no way to make it the same at every volume level, but I think there needs to be a feature to either boost the digital input level or the speaker level adjustments need to allow for a wider range or higher level than what 10 represents in the range now. I have a CD player that actually allows varying the the analogue output level and I've had to reduce it below 0.75 mv with the speaker levels at 10 to get a balance I'm happy with while most cd players output about 2.0 mv and can't be varied.

An excellent feature to include would be HDCD decoding. My sense is the cost for this wouldn't be much and I simply don't understand why more companies don't include it in their process/preamps (Rotel is about the only one I've seen that does). I remember seeing Tag McLaren offer it as a firmware update via SPDIF (notwithstanding they subsequently went out of business).

Best regards

nicolasb · « **Reply #31 on:** 29 Oct 2005, 10:01 am »

Quote

I appreciate Bryston probably has the best bypass and if you have say a good source CD player you could argue that this makes reclocking less needed, but most people are still going to have other digital sources that theoretically would benefit and the one issue I have even with a good CD player is if I have something I specifically want to hear using my subwoofer which is hooked up directly to the SP1.7, to the best of my knowledge I can't use bypass.

Reclocking is beneficial with DD or DTS film soundtracks as well - and you'd definitely want the processor to handle that.

James Tanner · « **Reply #32 on:** 29 Oct 2005, 12:44 pm »

Quote from: Adz523

Quote from: James Tanner
Hi Adz,

I would say no to the chip making a difference in sound quality.
It is more a matter of more features requiring higher processing power being available.

james

I don't get that. Does that mean that different DSP chips (whether its Cirrus Logic or Sharc or TI or whatever) have no impact on surround sound performance or overall sonic quality?

Hi Adz,

I guess I did not express it to well - what I meant was that our research has shown that the difference between a Cirrus Logic and a Sharc or TI is a minor issue when compared to the other design considerations in a product.

The thing that sets the SP1.7 and the now SP2 apart is the way the analog signals and digital signals are handled. Discrete Class A analog circuits, separate power supplies for digital and analog stages, independent ground plans for digital and analog circuits go much further in providing better performance than a specific DSP.

james

James Tanner · « **Reply #33 on:** 31 Oct 2005, 06:22 pm »

Quote from: number6.mi

Thanks James,

Why was it decided not to reclock? Meridian, Anthem, and other competitors all highlight that their products reclock to reduce jitter and Bryston has chosen to re-clock in some of its other products.

I appreciate Bryston probably has the best bypass and if you have say a good source CD player you could argue that this makes reclocking less needed, but most people are still going to have other digital sources that theoretically would benefit and the one issue I have even with a good CD ...

Hi Number 6

With re-clocking in the SP1.7 there is a DSP horsepower issue. We simply cannot implement a reclocking or upsampling algorithm in the current DSP. We don't have a reclocking hardware circuit, because of cost/complexity issues, and they tend to interfere with the decoding of DTS, Dolby Digital etc...

On the SP2, however, we have the capability to implement upsampling which we may do in the future. Make sure you understand the difference between upsampling and reclocking. The Anthem unit that you mention, for example, performs upsampling - NOT reclocking. Upsampling is a relatively easy algorithm to implement if you have the MIPS and helps with aliasing distortion, but does very little to improve jitter (due to the synchronous nature of the operation).

--shane

number6.mi · « **Reply #34 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 12:00 am »

Quote from: James Tanner

Hi Number 6

With re-clocking in the SP1.7 there is a DSP horsepower issue. We simply cannot implement a reclocking or upsampling algorithm in the current DSP. We don't have a reclocking hardware circuit, because of cost/complexity issues, and they tend to interfere with the decoding of DTS, Dolby Digital etc...

On the SP2, however, we have the capability to implement upsampling which we may do in the future. Make sure you understand the difference between upsampling and reclocking. The Anthem uni ...

Appreciate the explanation. Am I correct in understanding that if I have my 1.7 upgraded, upsampling could be implemented in the same was as for sp2?

Best regards

James Tanner · « **Reply #35 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 12:05 am »

Yes - but we have not implimented it yet in the software and it may be a while before we do.

james

_andy_ · « **Reply #36 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 04:15 am »

Hi, what sort of pricepoint are we looking at for an SP-2?....say a 9B + 20-25% ?
Rgds,
Andy.

James Tanner · « **Reply #37 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 12:32 pm »

Hi Andy,

The SP2 will be the same price as the SP1.7.

james

brystonbrad · « **Reply #38 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 07:19 pm »

Quote from: James Tanner

Hi Andy,

The SP2 will be the same price as the SP1.7.

james

that doesn't sound too good for us current sp1.7 owners, talk about knocking the value down of the sp1.7........
.........unless this means because the sp2 is the same price as the sp1.7, that us sp1.7 owners get a free upgrade to the sp2?????????????

seriously though, how much will it be for current sp1.7 owners to upgrade to the new sp2?

James Tanner · « **Reply #39 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 07:29 pm »

Hi,

The upgrade price is not set yet but about $1400 US - the faceplate will remain the same - the Digital circuit board and the a new micro-processor board gets installed.

james