[lcrim]

My former neighbor had a Meridian setup which included powered bookshelf speakers and a central module with CD player and preamp then what I thought were pushing the limit on length IC's to the speakers/amps.  They sounded great but the idea of powered speakers and putting all that vibration so close to the electronics seemed like asking for trouble.  I didn't realize that Meridian had developed into such a high end digital company.  The list prices on their  800 line made me look twice, wow.  I would have to take out a second mortgage to afford that but you only go around once!
I have been trying to scrape together enough for a bedroom system w/ a SET integrated and hi-efficiency speakers, because I want to hear for myself what the fuss is all about.  Werticus, if you think that the Sony digital receivers are underpowered, how about 2 or 3 watts per channel?

[Ears]

When I said digital out, I was reffering to a universal digital out for sa-cd so the mases don't have to use 5 ic's.

The only player that I am aware of having what might end up being a universal digital out is the Sony xa9000es which will probably work whith upcoming dacs for instance and not just there 4.5k reciever.

I don't believe a universal digital out for either format has been agreed on yet has it?

[John Kotches]

Ears,

The Denon DV-5900, and the Pioneer players use Firewire, which is an accepted transport for both DVD-A and SA-CD.

The same as the Sony FWIW.

The question is, do all these interoperate?  The answer?  I don't know just yet.  

I might well be able to test this after CES, depending on when some review samples ship my way.

Regards,

[lcrim]

Ears:
Sony is pushing "Ilink" which appears to be firewire and Denon has "Denon Link" in addition to firewire but as you point out, will one piece work with another from a different manufacturer? As long as you stay within one product family you should be allright but there should be some standards to allow interoperability.  
Perhaps as the technology trickles down into the affordable product lines this will be resolved.

[Ears]

Ears,

The Denon DV-5900, and the Pioneer players use Firewire, which is an accepted transport for both DVD-A and SA-CD.

The same as the Sony FWIW.

The question is, do all these interoperate?  The answer?  I don't know just yet.  

I might well be able to test this after CES, depending on when some review samples ship my way.

Regards,

I guess I never paid much attention to the 5900's digital out when I  tried one out for two weeks and kept hearing about how it would not work whith other brands for one reason or another on the avs forum.
Sadly, this is probably the case whith all current digital ic options for hi rez including the xa 9000 es.

Any guess or info as to fire wire being implemented on up coming aftermarket sa-cd dacs that don't cost an arm and a leg like the Meitner?

[John Kotches]

Ears,

The Sony, Pioneer and Denon are all running i.link, which is really ieee1394 with A+M (Audio and Music) extensions.

On paper, they should all interoperate.  In the real world, I can't say... yet.  

I have a firewire enabled setup coming, and will likely be able to borrow a 3rd party player with firewire to test some interoperation.  Don't confuse this with a full interoperability test, I'm not equipped to do that

Cheers,

[WerTicus]

then all you need is 800$ for digital cable

yeah i cant imagine 3 watts for set... just seems ... like useless


obviously you cant run a woofer off that!  i like my music to have kick... and i use currently 250w rms.. and i play it to just below clipping levels all day....

...im not in the same room as the stereo when im working though ( i work from home on the pc doing 3d architectural visualisation)  otherwise i would be deaf  but its nice that i could be deaf if i wanted to be

though i too would be interested in a high efficiency set speaker type setup for playing the porno music in the background (girlfriend likes that kind of thing)

[Rob Babcock]

I just saw at BB that Beck's superb album Sea Change is out on DVD-A.  As I already have it on SACD, I'm anxious to buy the DVD-A and compare the two (the lines were over 100' long!   I'm obviously gonna have to go early in the morn or wait til after Xmas...).

I'm not sure if the album was originally an analog recording or I'll get an apples-to-apples comparison, but it's worth a shot.

For the record, I consider the SACD version to be among the best sounding SACDs I've ever heard.

[Sinelanguage]

hi,

iam from the UK and here you can buy a pioneer ax5i reciever for about £850 + Pioneer 757i DVD for £389  ((www.digitaldirectuk.com)).

This gives: DVD-A/SACD/DTS/DD/CD ((MP3 via USB)) via the i link and eliminates jitter because of the clock link feed back to the reciever.

Also room acoustics EQ calculated in the digital domain.

Pioneer 868AVi is more costly but incorparates HDMI DVI for direct digital to plasma video link which is said to produce the best ever DVD pictures seem on plasma.

So for £1200 or less you can get a good bit of clean D/A proccessing with just the amp left for the analogue. But im sure that too will change over the next 6months and then Video and audio right through the chain will be digital.

Dont know what this post is meant to say?!?  but im excited and am thinking of going with pioneer ax5i+868AVi(futureproofing((until HDDVD rears Doh!))

I suppose.. i think that this technology does what digital needed to do 20years ago... to remove Analogue from the path and allow for the diffrent way in which it is transmitted and processed to realised more succesfully to bring it on par with vinyl in some terms. How ironic that its only happening now to CD when we are using the same link to broadcast hi-rez Digital data!!! hehe    still ....

rant over..  err. dont know if that made sense or was even correct. But i think digital hates analogue so its best to keep them apart      


Analogue=   Digital=:nono:    fight!