sp1.7 upgrade

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DJ OTTOmatik

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 7
sp1.7 upgrade
« on: 7 Apr 2019, 05:05 pm »
Hey all looking for advice.  currently i use a Bryston sp1.7 with a bda1 connected to usb for pc audio using j river.  Im thinking of upgrading to the sp3.  sonically will the sp3 be any better then what i am doing now.  will 2 channel audio over hdmi or usb be better thne the sp1.7/bda1 combo.  can i expect sonic improvements for movies over hdmi, is dts hd master or tru hd audio that much better then dts, and DD.  it will cost me about 3 g's after is sell the 1.7 and the bda1 to do the upgrade.

thanks
shawn

ragg987

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 74
Re: sp1.7 upgrade
« Reply #1 on: 12 Apr 2019, 11:25 pm »
I came from a sp1.7 to a sp3, but have no experience with the bda1. My observations:
  • sp3 is much better sounding than sp1.7
  • sp3 can support HD audio formats - in theory better and also up to 7.1 channels, but will depend on the rest of your system
  • for critical stereo music, I used to have a PC over HDMI to sp3 but heard big improvement with a sotm renderer over USB
  • original sp3 had a usb limited to 2 channels 48kHz, there is an upgrade that supports multi-channel and higher rates
  • if intending to use video pass-through over hdmi, original sp3 could not support 4k video, there is an upgrade

Grit

  • Full Member
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  • - Garrett
Re: sp1.7 upgrade
« Reply #2 on: 13 Apr 2019, 09:20 pm »
Hey all looking for advice.  currently i use a Bryston sp1.7 with a bda1 connected to usb for pc audio using j river.  Im thinking of upgrading to the sp3.  sonically will the sp3 be any better then what i am doing now.  will 2 channel audio over hdmi or usb be better thne the sp1.7/bda1 combo.  can i expect sonic improvements for movies over hdmi, is dts hd master or tru hd audio that much better then dts, and DD.  it will cost me about 3 g's after is sell the 1.7 and the bda1 to do the upgrade.

thanks
shawn

DD and DTS are both lossy formats.  DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD are lossless formats.
As I understood it, the DAC quality in the SP3 was on par with the BDA-1. So, all of your digital sources should sound comparable to a BDA-1. But the SP3 should be a nice step up from the analog section of the SP1.7. So, you get a multi-channel version of the BDA-1 as well as an improved pre-amp, PLUS lossless decoding for movies (that support the format).

- Garrett

If you enjoy movies and especially the audio, I'd argue its a no-brainer.

DJ OTTOmatik

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 7
Re: sp1.7 upgrade
« Reply #3 on: 20 May 2019, 09:19 pm »
Thanks for the replys, sorry i didnt get bact sooner ive been away.  so im getting closer to pulling the trigger on the sp3.  one question though, does anyone know if the sp3 will decode a dts hd ma file playing from a pc in mkv format.  i rip all my b rays to pc then play thru j river.  i have successfully done this on a newer rotel that was loaned to me but would like to know if the sp3 will do this as well.