There was an Etronics person there and it was the idea my business partner got from him. It would make sense if true.

The real disappointing thing is the lack of Cirrus Chips. I want an audiophile solution to HDMI processing units not a Denon Receiver.

There appears to be a great deal of mis-information out there about the reason behind the delays in receivers and processors that use the new Cirrus CS 49xxx series DSP chips. The bloggers who are spreading that info are doing everyone a great dis-service.

Reports that the dealys are due to HDMI issues are not true. The audio DSP chip does not connect to HDMI directly, but rather, it sees the streams that are output from the HDMI Receiver, or "Rx" chip. None of the audio DSP products out there now have built-in Rx capabilities, and while some of the video processing chips in the works from a number of manufacturers will add an on-boards Rx, none of the audio DSPs will.

The reasons, unfortunately, lie elsewhere. Let's just say that those who are talking don't know, and those who know are not talking. Wish I could talk, but I can't. (Those dang NDAs have sharp teeth these days.)

HDMI Rx chips are readily available with 1.3a capabilities from more manufacturers all the time, though for the moment Silicon Image is the leading supplier. They are NOT the problem.

I hadn't realized that folks were linking the Cirrus DSP chips to HDMI input itself. Even without being in the know, that seems unreasonable - the latest 49700 chips (the chip mentioned in Outlaw's October "Double Down" newsletter) would reasonably be equivalent to the 49300 in the Model 950 and the 49400 in the 970 and 990, which obviously had no relation to HDMI at all.

The CS 497xx chips will be a significant improvement over the current 495xx and 494xx series and the older 493xx and prior series. Big step up in MIPS available so that they can do all the new codecs and many other improvements.

Designers have a choice these days between Cirrus, TI, Analog Devices and Freescale (formerly Motorola's semiconductor division). Each of the four takes a slightly different approach such that one isn't necessarily better than the other, but rather each has it's strong points and issues.

All communicate via I2S with the outputs of the HDMI Rx chips and that is how the signals get from the source to the DSP when HDMI used. In theory, there is no reason why you couldn't use the earlier chips with HDMI, but you wouldn't want to since the chips don't have te power to deal with the new codecs; it's the processing requirements, not the communications links.

Take a look here:
http://www.cirrus.com/en/products/pro/detail/P1117.html

Punch the "Description" and "Features" buttons for more info.

I ah gettin' awful anxious the hear 8 channel audio and see HDMI video passing from from the new 980!!! Come-on 'Laws, kick 'er out!!
(My cowboy needs some work - hope the new AVPs are almost done. When do we sign up for the Beta's?)

Outlaw: For the new processor, don't forget to include 5.1 analog inputs with full ANALOG Bass Management & distance settings for your Multichannel music (SACD & DVD-Audio) fans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Also include internal DSD decoding (for SACD over HDMI).
Actually, TWO 5.1 inputs would be nice, one for a universal player, and one for those with Quadriphonic legacy systems to input.
Thanks

Surroundophile,

This is my first post on the site (been lurking for about a year before registering) and I just wanted to say that I completely agree with your suggestion!

SACD is amazing.

That's all.

Is there a small contradiction in your request, surroundophile?

When you ask for a 5.1 input with full analog bass management, it makes me think you’re looking for a purely analog path. When you ask for distance settings, wouldn’t that would mean suggesting the intervention of conversion to digital to institute those settings?

If I wished to have a purely analog path after an SACD player, and that ended up bypassing any digitally derived distance settings in the pre/pro, then I would use an SACD player that allowed me to choose distance settings affecting the SACD analog output. That way when I use digital sources with my pre/pro, the pre/pro takes care of the distance issue, when I playback SACD, the player takes care of the distance issue.

These days, with some 7.1 analog source options out there, I’d aim for a minimum of two 7.1 inputs and prefer three – maybe 2 x 7.1 plus 1 x 5.1, or 1 x 7.1 plus 2 x 5.1.

The delays are due to the Cirrus chip needed to decode the new audio codecs properly. It gets tied to HDMI because of that.

The issues with the CS497xx chips are on a variety of levels, and while you are correct that they are tied to data streams that are delivered in via HDMI, the HDMI connection, itself, is not part of the problem.