I installed a pre-production model of our new Digital Preamp and a pair of our new M225 balanced mono amplifiers. These replaced an older Vision solid state preamp with a built in DAC and a very much older Fet Valve 400 power amp,
The sound is now spectacular with the huge, deep sound field of my reference system and outstanding resolution and range.
The speakers are an early production pair of Salk HT2-TL floor standing models. The speaker have kept up with the other improvements even better then I would have suspected.
There is another interesting reason why my AV sound is so good in addition to the upgraded audio components.
A key is my use of a Monoprice HDMI splitter in the system. This little box allows remote switching between four HDMI inputs, but its real secret is it also has a SPDIF coax digital output. I feed my coax input cable to the Comcast cable box as usual, but the HDMI output of the Comcast box goes first to the HDMI splitter and then on to a LG hi def TV HDMI input. The unadvertised feature of the little splitter box provides a pure digital audio output. The digital audio output from the Monoprice unit goes directly to a digital input at my Digital Preamp. This bypasses all the lower quality D to A converters both in the cable box and in the TV set itself. It provides an unprocessed digital signal before anything else can screw it up. This works with my Apple TV box too.
I also feed a digital out from my Blu Ray player to the digital preamp. I could connect the digital output from my VCR too if I could remember how to set its clock.
The Digital Preamp then feeds the pair of awesome M225 mono amps and the Salk speakers. Sonic bliss.
The Comcast music channels now come alive and so do the movies.
Got a big high end surround sound system? What you really need is five of our M225 amps. Instant world class sound.
Frank
