[rogerbrubaker]

...looking for input on getting some quality audio out my DirecTV system. I was thinking an outboard DAC may the only way. I also need a good 2V RMS to clearly drive my tube amp. These receivers don't cut it, in several ways. Any suggestions? Experience? ...both receivers and DAC's.

Thanks a mil... roger

[satfrat]

My heart goes out to ya Roger, cuz there's not much you're going to to do to help an overly compressed MPEG signal. All the more reason I count my blessings for my ancient C-Band satellite system which thru the Motorola DSR-922 receiver gives me supurb digital music channels that haven't been compressed all to shit. I run a digital coax cable to my Sunfire processor and enjoy 5.1 surround via Dolby Pro Logic 2 processing. The whole deal here is having a quality signal from your source and when Direct TV packs as many channels in their satellite transmission as they do, it's the signal quality that suffers. You'd be better off getting a good FM tuner & antenna! JMO, of course. Regards, Robin

[PeteG]

I have my DirecTV going in to a Denon receiver with some good dac's
in it, and as Satfrat said it is still to compressed, I can only listen to the music channels for a short time. But when watching high definition concerts from DirecTV the sound is alot better, specialty OTA signals.

[Hooge]

Though it's not satellite I have a digital cable TV box that has a coaxial digital output with 40 Music Choice music channels. I have the digital output (Belden 1695a/Canare based cable) going to a Monarchy DIP and then to my Ack! dAck! (via Stereovox HDXV). I get great sound from this! I believe the compressed audio is 192k or even 256k, sounds damn good. I think the DIP really helps here too, cleans up the signal, boosts it and sends a very "ideal" looking signal to the dAck!.

[lcrim]

I have done some experimenting with the sound quality difference between my living room HT setup and my mostly music setup in the bedroom.  Both systems use a Samsung 360 hidef receiver and a directv dish.   In the living room its sound out is taken through digital coax to a Sony digital receiver (3000)  including an inline Bybee and the sound is therefore never converted to analog and the quality is quite good.
The bedroom system has a Decware Select SET and no preamp but rather a switch box and the feed from the Sammy is via the analog outputs.  The Select is very revealing of upstream components and while the music quality is listenable, it never reaches the quality achieved by the other sources, CD and analog.  It lacks the immediacy, sparkle and bass extension I hear downstairs in the totally digital setup, but it doesn't utterly suck.
Larry Crimmins