Chalk me up as another who likes to hold the package in his hands. Unfortunately I think us old farts may be a dieing breed.

Purchased a HD-A1 earlier in the week after reading about how/why it plays regular CD's well here . Been thinking about getting a dedicated CD player for a while, and good CD playback reviews combined with the nice Continental One Pass discount (works out to just over 30% off retail+taxes)....was enough to get me off the sidelines....since I was looking at $300-$800 CD players, if the HDA1 plays CD's as well as reviewed above...then it is almost like getting HD-DVD video as a free bonus, at least that is how I justified purchasing a player before the format war settles out .

The HD-A1 should be here next week, so can't test things yet, but wanted to clear up connection questions using it with the 990. If I have read things right then my best audio option for hddvd's is connecting the 5.1 analog outs of the HDA1 to the 7.1 analog inputs on the 990, and turning off BM in the HDA1 using large speaker settings in it's audio menus. Connected this way I should be able to use the new HD audio formats, and take advantage of what some SACD player owners consider a bug in the 990's 7.1 direct, by using the 990 for BM. The problem is I have a 7.1 speaker setup, and use DPLiix for movies, and like it, especially with the increased output in the back rears after the firmware update.


Has it been verified that this can't be changed with an update? Also, I might be missing something technically, but why would the 7.1 analogs be designed to not allow processing on them? I see how 7.1 might be a problem, but when using only 5.1 analog how is it different than 5.1 from standard dvd tracks, especially since BM IS applied to the 7.1 direct input, doesn't that mean it already has been converted from analog to digital to apply the BM? Why can't it be directed to the 990's dsps? Outlaw has clearly explained why they decided not to use hdmi connections (which I agree with...have used the dvi switching in the 990 from the start), but I got the impression the 7.1 analog inputs were a way to allow future compatibility on the audio side of things if/when the HD audio formats came out. Maybe Outlaw made the assumption that since players were going to handle the processing of the new HD audio formats, all HD players would include 7.1 analogs instead of the the 5.1 put in the first generation of HD players....but it sure would be nice to use my 7.1 speaker setup with the HDA1, when using the HD audio formats.


On the music side of things, I would like to see how the multiple high end audio DACS/DSP's in the HDA1 sound unaltered when playing standard audio cd's...so using the 2 channel stereo outs connected to the 990's 2 channel CD inputs is the way to go here right? Something I am still confused on is if I use the 2 channel CD input, does that disable the Xover settings/BM on the 990....or am I going to be stuck with having to modify Xover's again.

I can imagine that one problem with allowing PLIIx processing on the 7.1 direct input is identifying when only 5.1 channels are present. You could monitor the inputs, but even a 7.1 source would have passages of silence on the surround backs.

If you want to use the HD-A1's DAC's for CD listening, you can do two things. One is to run the stereo analog outputs to the CD input and set that input to bypass. If you use the CD input and the bypass mode, the mains will get a full-range signal (since we're in analog bypass at that point) - but if the mains are set to small, a copy will go to the sub as well. The other is to use the 7.1 input for CD's as well as HD-DVD's, assuming the HD-A1 doesn't do any processing to it.

Thanks Gonk, I figured there might be some problems applying dsp to the 7.1 inputs. I am still confused about using the 7.1 inputs for CD's, I thought by applying BM on 7.1, the 990 needed to use it's DACS.

That's true, actually - with that in mind, the CD input is probably the better choice.

This is a related question to the use of the Toshiba as a CD transport. I am using the 990's DAC's by using the coaxial output of the Toshiba when playing CD's. Would it be better to use the Toshiba's DAC's by using the 2 channel analog output to the 990's 2 channel CD imputs. Which should sound better? I have been setting the 990 to bypass.

Cappra,

That is a good question, I am curious to find out which is better also. It seems Toshiba went with multiple high end DAC's and DSP's for the HD-A1, and I am not sure how they compare to the 990's DACs...but once my HD-A1 arrives I am going to be comparing the two. I currently prefer bypass mode for both music on the D* XM sat channels, and my current Zenith dvd player when playing CD's. Both are connected with optical cables. While I do like the two channel bypass sound for sat music, I am not all that impressed with the sound of CD's in this setup, and tried using the 2 channel analog connection from the dvd player, but did not like that sound much either. The 2 channel analog was tried before updating the 990's firmware, so maybe it sounds better now. Will be a real happy camper if the HD-A1 gives me CD playback that I like.

It sounds like I should use the 7.1 Direct input with my HD-A1 and let the 990 handle the BM, and speaker distance/levels since I have the speakers set to small. Therefore, I should set the HD-A1 5.1 outputs to all speakers "Large" to bypass the BM.

What should I set the Sub and crossover to on the HD-A1?

BTW I also use the coax connection connected to the DVD input for SD DVD viewing. I will have to compare the sound from the DTS track and the DD+ track on HD DVD.

Set the sub to "Use" so that the LFE track stays there (rather than being mixed into the left and right channels). Based on what I see on page 54 of the HD-A1's manual, the crossover determines at what point small speakers get crossed over to the sub - setting the HD-A1's speakers to large should make the crossover setting irrelevent.

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the differences between the DTS digital output and the DD+ analog output.

Thanks Gonk! I will report back this weekend!