I have been running my Home Theater, CDs, and DVD audio through my Audio Research preamp & Bryston amp for the my mains, and then directly driving center and rear channels into my NAD 906 amplifier using my JVC XV-FA95GD DVD player (and its limited volume control) while I anxiously await my new 950. How does the 950's Cirrus Logic DAC/DSP/decoding compare (for sound quality) to the JVC DVD player (uses 1 bit PEMM DD decoder) in regards to:

- standard redbook CDs D/A conversion?
- Dolby Digital decoding?
- DTS decoding?

Obviously, I will have to use the JVC for DVD-Audio using the 950's analog pass-through mode (at least I'll have master volume control again! , but I am curious whether the 950 will do a better job in some of the other areas, given that jitter enters the picture when the transport and D/A are in separate components going across TosLink... The JVC DVD player currently sounds surprisingly good, especially given that it was just a few hundred bucks (even compared to my other 2nd Theta/Proceed CD rig which cost thousands a few years back...) The additional 6.1 and 7.1 ES & EX modes from the 950 will also be a treat that the JVC DVD player can't provide (if only I had room for more speakers...)
Will I hear an improvement playing CD's and movies using the 950's digital decoding, or will the JVC DVD player continue to be the best way to decode the bits?

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[This message has been edited by jbweeks (edited January 28, 2002).]

It's all guesswork from all of us (except the beta testers, who are bound to silence until the 950 ships), but I would expect to get better results from a pre/pro like the 950 for CD decoding, DD, and DTS decoding than from a DVD player. For one thing, the JVC won't do Dolby Digital EX or DTS ES (as you've noted, you don't have the speakers to benefit from this), but typically DVD player DACs are only sufficient -- not up to par with what a home theater pre/pro needs to have. Since you'll have the 5.1 analog connection in place, you'll have a chance to compare both options (let us know how it turns out if you do), but I'd plan on using the 950's brains for decoding for everything except DVD-Audio discs.

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Gonk

Hard to compare your DVD players internal DACs to that of a product that's not out yet. Besides, DACs are a small part of the equation; what you do after the data is converted to an analogue signal has just as much (if not more) of an impact on the sound quality.

Still, I'd use the player as a just a transport (except for DVD-A) and let the 950 do the rest; you have the most options this way. It'll allow you to listen to your CDs in 2 channel or multi-channel (using Cirrus Extra or Pro Logic II matrix decoding). If you're a purist, you can even skip the bass management and other processing by using the 950 in bypass mode. Speaking of which, the bass management and time alignment features of the 950 are probably something that your JVC player doesn't have; these alone can make a big impact on how good your home theatre sounds, let alone the surround processing modes.

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Sanjay

In addition, the internal processors in DVD players typically have very limited bass management and time alignment options, both of which are critical.