Sound quality of music DVD's

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WillyP

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Sound quality of music DVD's
« on: 11 Feb 2020, 09:41 am »
Hi all,

There are about 40 DVD’s with classical music in my collection. In my opinion, the sound quality is mediocre: I can hear distortion through all channels, especially with voices - a bit like you can hear when a cartridge stylus needs to be cleaned. Sometimes there is also a two-channel modus with the DVD and then the sound is fine.

I am not sure if it is a problem with the hardware (Oppo based blu ray player and Bryston SP3; HDMI connection between the two) or the software. When I am using a surround mode for two-channel music on a CD, like Dolby Prologic IIx Music there is no audible distortion at all.

Who has an idea of what is going on?

Kind regards,

WillyP

Mag

Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #1 on: 11 Feb 2020, 10:33 am »
I have many dvd's and IMO many are compressed some badly compressed, there are exceptions though of good dvd recordings. Usually though on dvd's there are more than one track like Dolby 5.1 or pcm, the one with the higher bit rate will sound better. Two examples off hand: Pink Floyd Pulse dvd there are two Dolby tracks, the one with the higher bit rate sounds better, but the cd version sounds much better than the dvd. Kitaro- An Enchanted Evening, same thing, dvd is compressed the cd sounds better.

My advice is to try an uncompressed blu ray recording usually the pcm track but not always.

Another thing is you may not have your settings in your Oppo or SP3 for optimal playback.

Another thing you can try with your SP3 is have an external dac feed the analog input. With my SP2 I have my Yamaha A1060 using the usb stick output going to BDA-1. BDA-1 to SP2 input, then I can use any of the digital codecs, the sound in my opinion is elevated to higher resolution, I am actually using two dacs, the BDA-1 and the SP2 dac.

WillyP

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Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #2 on: 18 Feb 2020, 01:48 pm »
Thanks for your answer. When I connected my Blu ray player to another DAC, the sound was fine. I could hear that it was a compressed Dolby 5.1 track, but the distortion I heard with the DAC of the SP3 was fully absent. So I am afraid there is something wrong with my SP3.

There is one thing I don't understand, though. On the DVD is also a 2-channel version of the music and this time the sound with the SP3 was clean. What is the reason that the SP3 plays a digital 2.0 track without problems and a digital 5.1 track with severe distortion? It is the same DAC after all. And what could be wrong with my SP3?

Kind regards,

WillyP

Mag

Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #3 on: 18 Feb 2020, 04:18 pm »
Thanks for your answer. When I connected my Blu ray player to another DAC, the sound was fine. I could hear that it was a compressed Dolby 5.1 track, but the distortion I heard with the DAC of the SP3 was fully absent. So I am afraid there is something wrong with my SP3.

There is one thing I don't understand, though. On the DVD is also a 2-channel version of the music and this time the sound with the SP3 was clean. What is the reason that the SP3 plays a digital 2.0 track without problems and a digital 5.1 track with severe distortion? It is the same DAC after all. And what could be wrong with my SP3?

Kind regards,

WillyP

IMO I think the problem is your Oppo conversion to multi-channel, the SP3 would have better components for converting 2.0 to multi-channel. You're mistaken that dvd is multi-channel 5.1. The only true multi-channel source that I'm aware of are sacd with multi-channel mix, possibly blu ray with 5.1, dunno for sure. With dvd a 5.1 is actually 2.1 then the Oppo will matrix the mix to 5.1.

With dvd transfers to dvd-r there is usually one track out of possibly 3 that has the largest info and sounds the best, the other 2 I would delete to save space and I would not play those tracks anyway.

The SP 2,3,4 are perhaps the best multi-channel processors on the market. I would fault other lesser components first.

So IMO don't worry about 5.1, pick the best sounding track. Send it to an external dac, then to SP3 to do the processing. Another tweak I do for enhancing playback is use a Yamaha MG-10 mixer inserted between SP2 an amp. Thsi gives me tone controls, gain control,line level and master volume, I record from mixer as well. :smoke:

gbaby

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Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #4 on: 18 Feb 2020, 10:49 pm »
Hi all,

There are about 40 DVD’s with classical music in my collection. In my opinion, the sound quality is mediocre: I can hear distortion through all channels, especially with voices - a bit like you can hear when a cartridge stylus needs to be cleaned. Sometimes there is also a two-channel modus with the DVD and then the sound is fine.

I am not sure if it is a problem with the hardware (Oppo based blu ray player and Bryston SP3; HDMI connection between the two) or the software. When I am using a surround mode for two-channel music on a CD, like Dolby Prologic IIx Music there is no audible distortion at all.

Who has an idea of what is going on?

Kind regards,

WillyP

It can't be the SP3. I have hundreds of music DVDs; most in 5.1 and some in 2.0. I have never heard distortion from the SP3 using either codec. I play all my 2 channel sources in DPLIIx music. 

WillyP

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Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #5 on: 21 Feb 2020, 07:35 pm »
Thanks, guys, for the replies. I am afraid that I don't fully understand the remarks of Mag about the 2.1 soundtrack of a DVD. Anyway, when I changed the HDMI output of my Blu ray player from LPCM to Bitstream the sound was noticeably better; not completely free from distortion, but it was listenable.

I know that the SP3 has a good reputation but so has my Blu ray player: it is a Primare BD32. The transport is from Oppo, all the electronics are developed by Primare.

This afternoon I visited my dealer, to check the DVD and the sound was quite clean, no distortion. The Blu ray player had two options for HDMI out: Auto and PCM. I have tried them both but I couldn't hear a difference between the two.

Back home I checked another DVD of mine. The sound quality was decidedly better, no distortion at all. So my Primare / Bryston combo is capable of good results. Afterwards, I found out that the second DVD had a DTS soundtrack, but I am not sure if that matters.

So it is still a mystery to me what the problem is, but there is something wrong in the audio chain. Only what?

Kind regards,

WillyP

Mag

Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #6 on: 21 Feb 2020, 08:13 pm »
Another thing you can try when listening to 5.1/2.1 tracks since you are using HDMI is 6 channel bypass if you have the Bryston Surround remote.

You see I don't know what settings you are using on your Oppo. With my Yamaha I have multi-channel dts and Dolby down mixed to 2 channel pcm. I suspect what you are doing is having the Oppo process 5.1/2.1 tracks and sending the signal to SP3 processor which then processes the mixed matrix again. I suspect this is what is causing the distortion, but I could be wrong.

Also HDMI is not the best connection to use as jitter is more inherent in the cable. However if you are listening to sacd then you need the HDMI connection. :smoke:

Freo-1

Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #7 on: 21 Feb 2020, 08:32 pm »
The sound quality from DVD music videos should be quite good.  In fact, the Berlin Philharmonic 25 years box set of 25 DVD's has some of the best sound quality I've come across. 


I'm using a Sony UBP X-1100ES as the source.  There is a function that doubles the 2 channel frequency out for 44.1 and 48 KHz to 88.2 and 96 KHz.  SACD/PCM also is doubled to 176.4 KHz.   I've compared the sound with and without the double frequency function, and in all cases, the doubled frequency just sounds better.  I  always select the two channel output from the DVD/Blu-Ray.


The HMDI out goes to a Kanex Pro de-embedder, where the audio is sent to the DAC (Oppo Sonica to headphones OR Devialet D-Premier) via coax.  This setup sounds excellent. 


Not sure what's going on with your setup.  I had a surround setup for awhile, but went back to 2 Channel, as with better equipment, is actually is more enjoyable (to me) then surround.  For 2 channel music, maybe a Kanex Pro might help?

rollo

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Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #8 on: 21 Feb 2020, 08:51 pm »
  I have several 2ch DVD Audio Discs from Chesky and to my ears are one of the best sounding formats around. I use an old Sony DVD player for them with an outboard DAC. I believe there may be an operation/setting issue for you.


charles

WillyP

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Re: Sound quality of music DVD's
« Reply #9 on: 25 Feb 2020, 01:30 pm »
Another thing you can try when listening to 5.1/2.1 tracks since you are using HDMI is 6 channel bypass if you have the Bryston Surround remote.

You see I don't know what settings you are using on your Oppo. With my Yamaha I have multi-channel dts and Dolby down mixed to 2 channel pcm. I suspect what you are doing is having the Oppo process 5.1/2.1 tracks and sending the signal to SP3 processor which then processes the mixed matrix again. I suspect this is what is causing the distortion, but I could be wrong.

Also HDMI is not the best connection to use as jitter is more inherent in the cable. However if you are listening to sacd then you need the HDMI connection. :smoke:

It is an option to use the analogue 5.1 connection between the Primare and the Bryston, but this method has two disadvantages for me:

In the setup of the Primare it is not possible to use different distances for the Surround left and right loudspeakers. It assumes those distances are the same which is not true in my living room.

I have only done a short test, but if memory serves me well, the DAC in the Bryston is better than the DAC in the Primare.

I’ll give some more details about the current situation. The Blu ray player is connected to the Bryston with a high-speed HDMI cable. HDMI output from the Blu ray player was LPCM, but I have changed it to Bitstream. Sending an LPCM signal over HDMI can cause jitter, but this is not the case when a Bitstream signal is sent.

All audio decoding is done now in the Bryston, just like the D/A conversion. The Blu ray player has no role in this process.

HTH

WillyP