SPDIF support

[Bill McGonigle]

On Apr 6, 2007, at 14:55, brk wrote:

> I would venture a guess that in a double blind test, most people  
> couldn't tell the difference between the two decoders.  Especially  
> if you're just dealing with crap-level consumer gear (Sony,  
> Kenwood, Pioneer, etc) and crap-level speakers (Bose, JBL,  
> Infinity, etc), with crap-level room acoustics.

I agree.  I'd definitely put the money into better speakers, and be  
ambivalent about the connection methodology.  I wound up with some  
speakers sold as recording studio monitors from ROR Audio Research  
(now defunct) - they're small and sound great.  I have them hooked up  
over heavy gauge analog cable (not Monster) and driven by a mid-range  
Sony amp (in Stereo) + 15" Sub, and it's great.  There's a great big  
cable mess hidden behind the electronics in the living room, but I  
was maximizing for audio reproduction and budget, not cable  
neatness.  I'll be sad when the speaker substrate finally decays.   
Oh, and I've had these for 18 years - so invest every penny you can  
in quality gear and the amortized cost will still be low.

By way of comparison I've seen $99 "Home Theater" speaker systems at  
the Warehouse Club with SPDIF inputs, and I'm certain they don't  
sound as good, even though they loudly exclaim, "Pure Digital", right  
on the box.

On 5.1 &. 7.1 - it's cool, but I realized I wasn't hearing the  
surround unless I was listening for it when I realized one day my  
surrounds had been disconnected for about 3 months when I forgot to  
reconnect them after cleaning up a cable mess.  I still have the sub  
connected via an analog frequency filter and there's nothing wrong  
with it (that I can hear in a standard room).  I'm all for audio  
geekiness and have spent time playing in anechoic chambers, but this  
is a living room.  Also, I spend more time these days watching Norm  
Abrams and Fred Rogers than I do listening for the clink of brass on  
Chapter 29 of The Matrix, but I still need some quiet time with Miles  
Davis every once in a while and you just can't hear Tony Williams's  
brilliant cymbal work on bad speakers.

That is all to say, my design requirements may be different than  
yours, but there's one perspective to consider for where to allocate  
resources.

-Bill

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