Bellator

Understanding how the Audigy2 makes 24/96 happen aside... i just gotta say at the end of the day this stuff sounds freaking amazing! I ordered some DVD-A discs from AIX records and am listening to them on my Audigy2/ Logitech Z-680 rig. The sound quality is scary! You can close your eyes and feel like the instruments/ singers are just beyond reach.

So yeah, I may not totally understand how the Audigy 2 does it... but I am still very very very impressed at where audio technology has come.

BTW, I highly recommend you guys get a sampler 2 disc from AIX, it's free and has a ton of cool stuff on it.

http://www.aixrecords.com/catalog/sampler2.html

**edit** Bah i'm an idiot.. it's Free with any purchase.. otherwise you gotta pay, ma bad

dj_stick

i wouldn't mind hearing someof this through my digital speakers…

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Judas

Personally.. i prefer the Optical connected speaker/amp/sound card.... Full DVD-A is amazing.... but i must stress... enless the DVD is transimitting straight to the amplifiers... that support the resolution of the audio... it won't sound as good.... and on any sound card... DVD-A will sound amazing... compared to any audio format you can find....

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Necrosis

Dude what in the hell are you talking about? Any Sound Card...CHAAA Whatever!!

dj_stick

DVD-A will only sound better on a system cabable of handling 24/96 or higher

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Bellator

the Z-680s can handle 24/96 in full fidelity right? At least I remember reading that somewhere... so A2 hooked up to the Z-680s is giving me full 24/96 right?

dj_stick

if the speakers are digital and have a 24/96 decoder yes, or if the speakers are analog they will handle any resolution and samplerate put at it

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Judas

any sound card that can send a seperate signal through 6 channels (the 6th being a sub woofer)..

I'm lost by your comment... If you playback a DVD-Audio disk that can reproduce through it's own channels.... it will sound DAMN good ...way better.... in comparison to ANY other media format that you can playback on the computer currently....

Am i wrong?

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dj_stick

i think he's point is that the soundcard has to support a higher fidelity than other audio formats

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Judas

Here's the deal.... i've delt a good chunk with various audio equipment.... what's the true sorce sound that'll blow any audio format....media... you name it?... out of the water... the actual Instrument... hitting every frequency.... every tone...

Here's another thing...

When you you pop a tape into a tape player on a good system... play it back..... then stick a CD in.... do people notice it? 50/50 there usually..... when you compare a CD to a DVD-A ..... 50/50.... those that notice it really notice mostly the true surround sound..... nothing more... as alot of people just don't pay any attention to the fedality

All i was saying is that if you got 5.1 available... doesn't matter what sound card as long as it supports 5.1, you'll hear the music ... and you'll EASILY tell there is an improvement as long as you can disguish direction...

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dj_stick

your talking about the surround aspect of it, in that case definately

but if you take an old soundblaster 16, play the same recording on CD and then DVD-A through that, then you won't notice much of a difference… that's what i mean about the resolution and the samplerate, the higher fidelity the card can support, the better DVD-A will sound until the resolution and samplerate of the DVD-A recording is matched

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Necrosis

True. People who compress MP3's down lower than 256 should be shot.

I think I also like to compare CD/Digital 5.1 as opposed to DTS/DVD-A. If not more than clearity but also the aspect of volume with the wider range. It would be interesting to rip some DVD-A's then transcode, re-lable then let people see if they can pick what is what.

dj_stick

in many cases people may not be able to… i encode my WMA files at 64kbps and i am quite happy with them

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Bellator

WMA Compression = King

That sampler disc i talked about before... http://www.aixrecords.com/catalog/sampler2.html it has the same tracks compressed with DTS, Dolby, and MLP so you can compare. It also has 24bit/192khz PCM 2.0 and 24bit/192khz MLP 2.0. So if ever you wanted to actually see how the different compressions compare, there's your chance.

And yes, they do sound different.

Judas

Well.. a soundblaster 16 barely put out decent stereo... .... i refuse to download... or use any mp3 that is under 320kbps.... i ... in rare cases... accept 256..... but i agree... people should be shot for ecoding at less then that enless it's for personal use... with the size of hardrives today... even for me... with only 60gb.... there is just no reason to do it....

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dj_stick

my total hdd space is 160 gb, but my collection barely breaks 3gb, 1500 tracks @ 64kbps… sound fine for personal use, with the amount of traffic noise, wind, rain etc and for portable usage (burnt cd's) no issue at all - but i can tell the difference between the ripped tracks and the original CD

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