Hi, everyone,

I just got my new 970!! I'd been looking forward to it for several months, but now it's here, and I'm seriously excited! I don't do major upgrades very often, so when I do it tends to be in big jumps. In this case, I'm going from an early 90's Pro Logic decoder with an all-audio system and pretty awful speakers (homemade mains, which were okay back when I made them - in the 1980's!! - and no decent center or surrounds). Now I'm running B&W 600 series center and mains, and Def Tech surrounds ... and an Outlaw Audio 970 Pre/pro! Oh, yeah, and the Oppo OPDV971H DVD player and Panasonic AE900U HD front projector.

I got most of it hooked up last night (still need a couple more digital cables ...), and tonight I get to start configuration and callibration ... going to be a fun weekend.

Oh, yeah, I did have an actual question: The Oppo DVD player has separate L/R outputs for downmixed stereo (in addition to the L/R outputs that go with the 5.1 outputs for DVD-A/SACD), which are what I was using for my Pro Logic setup as well as for two-channel audio. Now that I can run the digital output for audio, I'm wondering if there's any need to use the stereo analog L/R outputs any more (not the 5.1 outs - I'll use those for DVD-A - I'm just wondering about plain stereo). I suppose I could do that if for some reason I decided that I like the D/A conversion in the DVD player better than in the 970 (unlikely, I'd think), but is there any other reason I might want to do this?

Thanks in advance, and I'm glad to be here amongst the renegades!

- Bruce

Welcome to the family, Bruce! Glad to have you around.

You can disregard the Oppo's left/right analog outputs - once you connect the digital output, you'll have no need for the downmixed stereo output. If we were talking about a player with a really robust stereo DAC, you might use that output for CD listening (connected to a stereo input on the 970 that was then set to analog bypass), but the Oppo 971 is a player that is built from the ground up to be a digital platform (both on the video side and the audio side) - the DACs are functional but not as good as the 970's DACs.

Thanks, Mr. Gonk! I had pretty much figured that a $200 DVD player wasn't going to be as good in the DAC department as the 970, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I experiment with configuration options, so I'll be back. Thanks, again.

- Bruce

Welcome Bruce! Like you, I have been slowing upgrading a circa 1988 system. It's been a tough, expensive road to go down, but it sure has rekindled my interest in the hobby. Looks like you've made some good choices on nice gear.

I'm looking forward to the Oppo in the next month or so. As Gonk mentioned, I've heard the player really excels when using the digital outputs, but is only so-so in the analog domain. I understand similar restrictions apply on the video side where, evidently, you must use the DVI output for optimum performance.

I've been using the component video outputs while I've waited to get a long DVI-HDMI cable (the projector came bundled with a 26' Monster component video cable), and to be honest, I've been pretty impressed by the quality of even the analog video. Of course, I'm coming from a 27" CRT with no progressive scan capability, so I'm prettty easily impressed. ;-)

- Bruce

The move to digital video will be a nice one, I suspect.

If the prospect of forking out big bucks for a long DVI-HDMI cable is putting you off, do yourself a favor and click over to monoprice.com. Their prices on these cables is about the best I've seen and quality is very good.

For any length up to the HDMI/DVI limit (15 meters), that's probably not a bad idea, but if you start getting close to (or even exceeding) that length you may find that many cables will fail to work. The only cables longer than 15 meters that seem to consistently work are more expensive ones that oversize the conductor.

Although I paid more than what I see advertised in monoprice.com (recommended by Videodrome), I can speak from experience that my 50' DVI-D cable from cablesforless.com is awesome. It is, as my wife calls it, "a man's cable". This cable is like a garden hose and I have not noticed any problems whatsoever with the signal. The only drawback is that the cable is so friggin' heavy that I had to strap it down so it would not pull out of the connector (or take down my very light weight Oppo DVD player) on its own weight.

Thanks for the tips, but I should have been clearer - I used the component cable while I was waiting to get my 970 Pre/pro, but since then I've been using the DVI-HDMI cable I got from mycablemart.com. They use 28 AWG wire up to 15' and 24 AWG for longer lengths, including the 25' cable I got. It looks like monoprice sells a 25' cable for less, and its 22 AWG ... oh, well. The cable I got works great and has a lifetime warranty, so I guess I'm only out a few bucks.

I appreciate the tips, though, since I'll probably still need more cables, and I hate to pay the ridiculous prices that exotic cables go for, especially for digital. I think there are an awful lot of snake oil salesmen out there getting people to pay too much for magic wire. I'm stunned whenenever I see people write about the greater clarity they hear using optical cable over coax. As long as the bits all get there ... ain't bits just bits?

Bruce, I totally agree that cables are overhyped.
I also agree that bits are bits and, as long as the signal makes it through strong enough to reliably tell a zero from a one, you should be OK. However, although the message is digital, the signal is still electronic (or optical) and subject to physical limitations. Kink, crush, or fold a fiber optic cable in half and it's useless. Send a "digital" signal over a lengthy copper wire and you will experience signal loss. In both cases, bits simply will be dropped (sometimes all of them); the ones that make it through will be read perfectly but you would have lost "information".

Probably the main culprit in the cable hype phenomenon are the very poor quality cables or cables poorly utilized. I once caught an installer stapling a fiber optic cable to the studs, with the expected results. The client could have easily been convinced to invest in "better" cable at that moment by any opportunistic snake oil salesman.

Anyway, this would make for a good debate at some dusty Outlaw saloon. I hope you enjoy your 970 as much as I'm enjoying mine.