5.1 Sound Solution?

[GlobusDiablo]

I'm pretty conservative when brands are concerned. I've read that Onkyo and Yamaha might have better specs, but I also find a lot of troubleshooting posts from these brands. But in the end, it's what tickles your fancy.

All the leading brands make excellent receivers.

[Avago-Earo]

I'm pretty conservative when brands are concerned. I've read that Onkyo and Yamaha might have better specs, but I also find a lot of troubleshooting posts from these brands. But in the end, it's what tickles your fancy.

All the leading brands make excellent receivers.

I've got a Cambridge Audio amp in the bedroom. Bought it quite cheap about 13 years ago not expecting much as, as far as I could tell at the time, they were a fairly new company. I certainly got a surprise though. Matched with a pair of Wharfedales it sounded amazing. Really rich tones and no particular frequencies fighting for attention. Still sounds much better than my surround system but, well, not surround sadly.

[DustKart]

I've got a Sony STR-DH810 in my living room (for Sky, DVD etc.) and a Boston Acoustics SoundWareXS Digital Cinema 2.1 on my PC.
For my headphones (AKG 550's) I use the PC via a Fiio Kunlun E18 DAC for some awesome sounds.
The E18 DAC is one of the best audio gadgets I have bought, especially for lossless audio.

[Avago-Earo]

I've got a Sony STR-DH810 in my living room (for Sky, DVD etc.) and a Boston Acoustics SoundWareXS Digital Cinema 2.1 on my PC.
For my headphones (AKG 550's) I use the PC via a Fiio Kunlun E18 DAC for some awesome sounds.
The E18 DAC is one of the best audio gadgets I have bought, especially for lossless audio.

Interesting. The main sound device I use on the PC is an AKAI EIE Pro. It's 4 in 4 out with MIDI in/out and 4 USB hub. It's real function is for recording music but I use it for Elite sometimes if I can't be arsed to reconfigure my devices. I just looked at the Fiio Kunlun E18 DAC and it looks like a pretty neat device. Quite fancy the AKG 550's too.

With whichever audio device I use I route it to my 5.1 system via auxiliary L&R and just have to put it through 'virtual surround' for now. Looks like it has to be an AV amplifier with HDMI ins to fully exploit the sound in Elite.

[Avago-Earo]

Well I looked at this, and sent an e-mail regarding use with an Nvidia GPU 5.1 audio over HDMI:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDelity-HDMI- ... 3ce843d8f6

And the e-mail reply was:

Thank you for your email and interest in our products.

This device is designed for this purpose and it will extract the 5.1 to SPDIF.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you do need any further assistance.
Yours Sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXX
Customer Support

I removed the name. Don't know the law about that.

So, if I get it and it doesn't work as described, I have a copy of this e-mail and the query on my original e-mail so I could send it back on that basis.

Worth thinking about.

[GlobusDiablo]

Well I looked at this, and sent an e-mail regarding use with an Nvidia GPU 5.1 audio over HDMI:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDelity-HDMI- ... 3ce843d8f6

And the e-mail reply was:

Thank you for your email and interest in our products.

This device is designed for this purpose and it will extract the 5.1 to SPDIF.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you do need any further assistance.
Yours Sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXX
Customer Support

I removed the name. Don't know the law about that.

So, if I get it and it doesn't work as described, I have a copy of this e-mail and the query on my original e-mail so I could send it back on that basis.

Worth thinking about.

"This device is designed for this purpose and it will extract the 5.1 to SPDIF." Tricky sentence... I would have liked to see the word uncompressed at the end.

Good luck my friend. Let me know what you find. But at 50 quid, I'd be looking at a whole new amp.

[GlobusDiablo]

"This device is designed for this purpose and it will extract the 5.1 to SPDIF." Tricky sentence... I would have liked to see the word uncompressed at the end.

Good luck my friend. Let me know what you find. But at 50 quid, I'd be looking at a whole new amp.

Could you ask if the outgoing spdif signal is uncompressed 5.1? That would make me happy!

[Avago-Earo]

Good luck my friend. Let me know what you find. But at 50 quid, I'd be looking at a whole new amp.

Yeah. Just can't see one for a monkey. Good luck is right though. I've been reading up on LPCM and uncompressed over SPDIF and it only handling 2.1 and it does make me wonder that if the device reproduces 5.1 from the HDMI to the optical then it has to be compressed somehow. So assuming it does this then, and correct me if I'm wrong, the real concern is how much and in what way has it been compressed?

Well I can say that 5.1 from TV (BBC and Channel 4 do 5.1) to my 5.1 blu ray amp via optical sound great, clear highs and earthy lows and stuff like planes circling match that seen on the screen so if I could get that quality it would be fine. But deep down I doubt it. I just don't know enough on the subject to check it out for myself and I am always wary of purchasing stuff based on figures the seller clearly wants to advertise. It could be really good and work as I would like for all I know.

It seeks a shame that these different formats are licensed so develepors have to pay through the nose to support them. Seems a bit like having to own Phillips, Betamax, and VHS recorders and cabling them all together with a selector switch just so you can use them all if you know what I mean.

Anyway,it seems you do know what I mean from your thread on Frontier, and judgingby the tone have found it just as frustrating. Well your ahead of me but you've certainly got me investigating and I've learned a fair bit these last couple of days. Maybe one of us will stumble across something one day and can post it here with a big flashing 'SOLVED' at the top. Until then though, with a sigh of 'I still don't really know though', it looks like an amp like the ones we descibed yesterday is the only sure answer.

Cheers for your posts, both informative and entertaining. I get the impression you know exactly what I'm trying to achieve in finding a solution.

Long live the day when this gets sorted.

[GlobusDiablo]

...Cheers for your posts, both informative and entertaining. I get the impression you know exactly what I'm trying to achieve in finding a solution.

Long live the day when this gets sorted.

I think we're on exactly the same page.

I don't understand the techie stuff at all. But shrude experience has taught me to be very wary of "second hand" developers.

If you could get an answer to the question I posted previously, we might be much the wiser.

[Avago-Earo]

"This device is designed for this purpose and it will extract the 5.1 to SPDIF." Tricky sentence... I would have liked to see the word uncompressed at the end.

Good luck my friend. Let me know what you find. But at 50 quid, I'd be looking at a whole new amp.

Could you ask if the outgoing spdif signal is uncompressed 5.1? That would make me happy!

Just saw this post after I posted my last novella on this thread. I have sent another e-mail to the seller. This is a copy paste of it and I know the technical wording is probably wrong but I should think it would make enough sense as to what I'm getting at:

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Does this device carry uncompressed 5.1 over SPDIF? If it is compressed does it match the intended 5.1 positioning and how good is the compressed quality or what format/ codec is it compressed to?

Thanks again

So We'll wait and see eh?