You will NOT believe this!!!

HBombToo

I wanted to try it first and really had my doubts but it WORKED.

I actually suped up my direct tv box... I fed the optical output into an audio research dac5 and tied the analog outs to my h/k.

I could not believe the clarity of the 2 channel tv broadcasts and the Stereo Imaging from the digital music channels competes with my Cal Labs CL 20.
Proof from a casual listener was required.
I had the volume set at normal/quiet listening levels because it was nap time and when the wife walked into the room she said, "What did you do???, its so clear...". That proud sense of YA filled my soul and when the baby woke up we had a fun filled evening of play.

I even did comparisons between the dac5 and the Cal and even though the Cal is 24 bit the differences are not even worth mentioning.

The dac5 stays and paeed with flying colors the infamous "WAF" test.

HBomb

liv4fam

I say whatever works.

Cool test man.:D

mantis

I believe you

TroyD

You are full of crapola. I don't believe you.

BDT

RuSsMaN

I lost my 'Drunk Misspelled Fat Fingered the Post' decoder ring. I have no idea.

Cheers,
Rooster

HBombToo

It is very strange and you guys have got a right to be scheptical. The dac5 does no good regarding DD or dts and I switch back to to the h/k optical in but for music and TV Stereo... it really sounds good. Even pro logic and the logic 7 sounds better. I figure take the 44.1khz input and handle it with a high res 20 bit dac and very good analog stage and its not bad at all.

2 things I think have been accomplished is a better anaolg stage from the dac and better clocks for jitter reduction.

HBomb is full of crapola and needs a decpder ring even when sober.

I'm just tellen ya.

scottvamp

All the trouble and you could have just bought a new DTV box with a digital out.

HBombToo

Originally posted by scottvamp
All the trouble and you could have just bought a new DTV box with a digital out.

I'm just trying to tell ya that my dtv box is digital...;)



Let me ask 1 question, is it possible that the difference I hear is because the 2 channel stage in the h/k 520 was an after thought in development?

Perhaps since DD is a licensed the quality of the output from the dac is standardized but for 2 channel h/k just don't care?

HBomb

HBombToo

I am really surprised that there has been very little interest in this post...

Am I totally off my rocker? Be nice now.

Believe it or not this forum has planted the seed of seperates so I took it 1 step forward and began looking at the digital to analog conversion processes and standards. I have done a lot of reading regarding Burr Brown dacs, the whole Mark Leveson thing along with jitter reduction and quality preamp stages. To say the least these are some very interesting processes and very complicated as well.

With as much effort that is spent on speaker performance and wire for subtle nuances why not focus on what were pumping into them. A highly developed dac with jitter reduction can take a POS cd transport and turn it into a very accurate and audiophile grade piece of gear. Just my thought!

I would like to here more thoughts on this topic because for me... I find it very interesting.

Regards
HBomb

danger boy

HBombToo, why didn't you feed the direct tv box optical out directly to your HK? I have mine set up that way... sounds good.. not sure if I hook it up another way it would sound any better.

HBombToo

The dtv box was originally set up with TOSLink to my h/k but for the hell of it I tied it to an external DAC and then fed the analog l/r(audioquest) from the dac into the h/k.

The audio research dac-5 has built in jitter reduction due to a very accurate internal clock. The audio improvement from the music channels offered over dtv was huge and the stereo only channels is outstanding. I think it is because of the reduction in jitter. Like I said, I did not believe anything would be accomplished anything but since integrating and listening to it since Thanksgiving I have decided to buy it.

I don't think the h/k 520 handles jitter very well and that is the reason for the audio improvement. From a 2 channel standpoint I have made a serious improvement but for dd/dts jitter plays less of a role due to signal compression and I think the h/k does just fine. Additionally, while taking advantage of Dolby Pro or Logic 7 features in the h/k the center channel is now more clear and the surrounds l/r actually are more dominant.

The dac-5 originally was a 3K dac and I'm picking it up for 450 bone in MINT condition. I figure what the hell, you can never have enough dacs laying around. plus I have ripped apart an older cd player that is going to be fitted with SPDIF outputs for integration with the dac. I want to get into a little optics for the hell of it since that was my focus my senior year in EE.

HBomb
Just trying to have fun with this hobby of ours.