I’ve actually learned more then I ever knew this year. Went from a sound bar to assembling a 5 channel system. Mostly used but is awesome! I don’t know if the “craze” is dying...But it’s still alive and has a whole new set of technology coming out every year. With the new game systems the equipment market is now getting an overhaul. So maybe I’m one of the few getting into it or I’m a example of “rebirth” of the craze

2 channel can sound really really good and almost have a surround effect if done right. I like it real wide. But surround yes can be complicated but is awesome for movies and I do love the upmixers.

@@CrashCarson14 In fact, you can matrix surround using just 2 channels. Dolby Surround, Pro Logic, and Pro Logic II are good examples of this.

ThinkingBetter That is what I thought. I do remember SPDIF carrying “basic” Dolby digital and “basic” DTS. Anything beyond that is now exclusive to HDMI if I understand correctly.

I have the opposite problem! I have a great 2 channel system that is connected to my tv and sounds great (some of the time). Thing is over the optical link the tv turns off all its sound processing features. Like night mode/level normalization/vocal boost etc. This means that in many films I cannot hear the dialogue, yes that is even with the 2 channel mix. Simply cause I don't want the full dynamic range of a film and the problem has expanded to quite a few tv shows on prime and Netflix. Even the cheap ass low end sound bars mostly fix this! I've even tried the HDMI arc out on tv to extractor and the tv also turns off all those features. There is this gulf between HiFi and AV and I HAVE NOT a fuking clue why that is... There is nothing I can buy that I can place in-line between the spdif and the dac that does this. Even a media pc does not fix this, as both Netflix and Plex have no options to adjust the sound. How hard would it be for those apps to add a vocal boost? (and the same for a generic mp4 player).

@@jondonnelly4831 It's a well known issue. You want to hear the vocals of anything you see as if it comes from the TV instead of coming equally from two far apart speakers. This is an acoustical problem. Ideally you would have a center channel for this purpose. TVs don't generally boost vocals btw but can have EQ functions the sort that can emphasize a particular frequency range. Actually TVs are fighting the opposite problem of the soundstage being too narrow and that's why you can find sound processing like DTS Circle Surround and others aiming at making the soundstage wider while still preserving the narrow soundstage you want while watching the news. Perhaps another thing you might find different is the level control the sort of DTS TruVolume where the aim is to not experience loudness differences between sources/channels. If you add an EQ you can narrow down the frequency response if you want more emphasis on the vocals but it will hurt anything else intended to sound full-range. I've managed R&D of TVs in total volume of around 30 million units btw.

That's just the physical connection, but serving a total different purpose. I2S is highly optimised for transporting stereo music (it separates clock and serial data signals). Except the physical connector, it has nothing in common with HDMI.

dolby is a firm that makes sound for movie theathers and recently it is making a HDR standard for video. Dolby descends to home theather to provide surround sound in homes. First it was through pro logic system that made a surround effects out of the 2ch stereo or it was 4.0 analogue system that had effects mixed in. Than came dolby digital which brought 5 discrete digital channels plus one for the subwoofer. It was a standard for sound in DVD format although some of the them had only 2.0 dolby. Through time it expands to dolby digital true HD and now atmos 11.1 or 11.2 system that adds a ceiling channel and uncompressed sound. So it is very different in production and distibution from ordinary stereo. Since the great majority of music is in stereo, there is no need to design stereo equipment with dolby in mind. Dolby gives its best (and dts as well) in HT setup trough dedicated av recicer or similar or just through a simple tv speaker - sound projector like yamaha or sonos (which can eventually can be upgraded wireless into full 5.1 system). Hope this helps.

Freekwo 777 That was a great answer. Well, it was actually the answer! Ha! Thanks, Freekwo

Do you connect that DAC to an AVR?

@@xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx Yes, when running PCM via laptop to DAC using USB then D/A RCA cables to an analog input on the AVR.

@@gtric1466 Oh, I just realized you were talking about listening to music and not the movie sound when you mentioned the DAC part. Now I wonder if it's possible to somehow avoid the AVR internal DAC when going HDMI in from an audio/video source and, instead, going HDMI from the source just for the video + S/PDIF or USB just for the audio (5/7/9 channels, if technology allows, I ignore this) and connect it to an external DAC which then goes into the AVR audio inputs so in order to achieve the best outcome and audiovisual experience that you can have.

@@xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx So if you're listening to movies with you monitor HDMI is the way to go. To answer your question. HDMI is digital audio and video. So the DAC and processor in your AVR will decode the audio codec's that's the best sound option just make sure your Monitor HDMi audio is set to Bitstream and not PCM.

It would be great if I2S was actually a universally supporting thing. It seems a great way to interconnect dacs/digital amps, sacd, blutooth receivers. My raspberry pi supports it. We need something to replace spdif it has a lot of issues.

There are licensing fees on most of the homecinema audio/video standards. THX is also not free.

DAC with HDMI...

no they cannot support hdmi audio that's all.

Evan Williams That is very true for the basic (and now old) Dolby Digital and DTS formats. Due to the bandwidth limitations with optical and coax digital formats , HDMI handles the more complex versions of Dolby Digital and DTS - specifically Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and DTS HD Surround and DTS-X and whatever else is in the works.

David Jamison You are correct. As Hi-res/bandwidth formats weren’t specifically mentioned - I didn’t take that into consideration, for my response 🙂

Andy Delle high end how, what specs?

Yes when you're in icu bed

I have Yamaha's flagship receiver, the aventage RX A3080. DAC on it second to none. It put the Shiit Yggy I owned to shame. I use it for 2 channel and 4.1 surround music. You could also get their CX A5200 preamp processor and go the seperates route. Ya simply can't fck with Yamaha, the BIG BOSS!

@@wa2368 This is a fluke that I saw this but I just got a 3080 yesterday. Have to say the 2ch audio quality blows me away. Yes it's amazing for HT, but I was really surprised at red book playback quality. I am also very impressed with the headphone amp in the unit and overall I'm thinking it's the best receiver I've owned. I've had many flagships over the last 10 years from Pioneer, Anthem, Marantz and Integra and none have ticked all the boxes like this Yammy.

Jarek Nowak That is a good question. From what I think I’m seeing, I am guessing probably not.

do you know how dumb you sound?

Nuke Censorship I forgot about that.

no smart tv connected to the internet for you then.

@@jondonnelly4831 I know. I have questions about them. My laptop blows away any of these on onboard apps in terms of reliability.

Buying a Smart TV is like buying a smartphone and expecting it to still be secure and fully functional 10+ years later... I'd much rather connect a PC and run a Linux distro of my choice than use whatever mystery software a TV manufacturer cobbled together with little to no concern for security.

ehhh/ name one please?