This may have been hashed before. With exception of HBO and Showtime programs in 5.1, is there any real noticible dfference between the two?
Opinions...RCA vs Optical audio?
- Thread starter KAB
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I just got my fiber opic cable yesterday, but I have noticed a slight improvement over RCA's. Not like night and day, but the optic cable has a more defined, clear output. Plus the surround effects seem to be more pronounced. I'll be trying it out more tonight, but so far...I'd say go ahead and drop the $10 on the optic cable...you will like it!
KAB said:
5.1 or not, it won't make even the slightest difference. The only chance that it could make a difference would be if your A/V receiver has differing electronics behind the various inputs.
Keep in mind, these cables just carry zeros and ones. As long as they reach their destination, they should sound exactly the same. I have fiberoptic for my 510 and another for the ATSC tuner in my TV, and I'm using coax for my digital out from my DVD player (only have two optic and one coax on my receiver). I'm using a cheap RCA cable for the DVD, works just as good as the fiberoptics. Anyone who tells you different, is mistaken.
griz_fan said:
Hmmm...I thought "zeros and ones" generally meant digital. A/V = analog, does it not?
You're stating that there is no difference in digital vs. analog sound?
Aren't we talking about the audio output out of a Dish receiver?
So we are comparing the DD optical output vs the RCA stereo output, right?
The optical is much better. It outputs the audio stream from the broadcast directly into your A/V processor or receiver. It is very good quality.
The RCA outputs are handled through the receiver's rather low quality stereo section. It does a fair enough job to get decent stereo sound out of your system, but, obviously, you will never get DD 5.1 out of it. Your receiver/processor can apply Dolby Pro Logic or some other surround sound matrix'ing process to it to get pseudo surround sound. I don't know why anyone would go this route if they have a receiver or processor than can handle a digital input.
And anyone who thinks the stereo output section of a Dish receiver is the same as the stereo processing in a good pre/pro or higher end A/V receiver doesn't know what they are talking about. Or has a crappy speaker system. The opamps and stereo processing circuitry in a DBS receiver are really low end electronics. The differences are easily measurable in s/n ratio, channel separation, distortion levels, and more.
So we are comparing the DD optical output vs the RCA stereo output, right?
The optical is much better. It outputs the audio stream from the broadcast directly into your A/V processor or receiver. It is very good quality.
The RCA outputs are handled through the receiver's rather low quality stereo section. It does a fair enough job to get decent stereo sound out of your system, but, obviously, you will never get DD 5.1 out of it. Your receiver/processor can apply Dolby Pro Logic or some other surround sound matrix'ing process to it to get pseudo surround sound. I don't know why anyone would go this route if they have a receiver or processor than can handle a digital input.
And anyone who thinks the stereo output section of a Dish receiver is the same as the stereo processing in a good pre/pro or higher end A/V receiver doesn't know what they are talking about. Or has a crappy speaker system. The opamps and stereo processing circuitry in a DBS receiver are really low end electronics. The differences are easily measurable in s/n ratio, channel separation, distortion levels, and more.
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DWS44 said:Hmmm...I thought "zeros and ones" generally meant digital. A/V = analog, does it not?
You're stating that there is no difference in digital vs. analog sound?
A/V = audio/video receiver. Basically a home theater receiver. I may have been confused by the OP's question. I thought he was talking about the two kinds of digital audio connections (fiberoptic and coax).
But, having re-read things, I now realize he was interested in the difference between the analog outs (red and white cables) vs. digital outs. In that case, you'll obviously notice the difference on any channel that offers DD (such as pay-per-views, some of the premium channels). For everything else, the difference will be far less noticeable, though you might be able to make the argument that a digital signal is less prone to problems than analog. Also, your A/V receiver may do a better job of the analog to digital conversion than the Dish receiver. So, there may be benefit.
Sorry for the confusion!
I once performed a blind comparison between the optical out through a Panasonic DD decoder which was then connected to a mid-line Yamaha receiver vs taking the RCA outputs directly into the same Yamaha. The Panasonic decoder had a volume control, so I was able to level-match the volume of both connections to within 0.1 dB.
The Yamaha was driving a very modest pair of Paradigm speakers.
I found it easy to tell the difference between the two. The optical -> decoder -> receiver had more clarity and better separation. I could identify which was playing within a few seconds.
Now if someone is using some inexpensive little cube speakers, it would be more difficult to tell them apart.
This was using a Dish 4900 receiver.
A decent receiver or pre/pro will have better DACs, better opamps, better isolation, and a number of advantages over a Dish receiver. In the case of a receiver, the signal will not have to go out over an RCA to RCA connection before going into the preamp stage. The Dish analog outs aren't terrible but Dish knows anyone serious about their audio will be using the optical outs, so they put in a very run-of-the-mill analog audio stage, probably no better than that found on a cheap DVD player or those on a $99 stereo receiver. Probably very inexpensive DACs too.
The Yamaha was driving a very modest pair of Paradigm speakers.
I found it easy to tell the difference between the two. The optical -> decoder -> receiver had more clarity and better separation. I could identify which was playing within a few seconds.
Now if someone is using some inexpensive little cube speakers, it would be more difficult to tell them apart.
This was using a Dish 4900 receiver.
A decent receiver or pre/pro will have better DACs, better opamps, better isolation, and a number of advantages over a Dish receiver. In the case of a receiver, the signal will not have to go out over an RCA to RCA connection before going into the preamp stage. The Dish analog outs aren't terrible but Dish knows anyone serious about their audio will be using the optical outs, so they put in a very run-of-the-mill analog audio stage, probably no better than that found on a cheap DVD player or those on a $99 stereo receiver. Probably very inexpensive DACs too.
