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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it. |
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In Reply to: No need to apologise posted by John C. - Aussie on April 9, 2007 at 14:59:18:
You wrote:"Not sure about that UX-1 Mk2. I eventually dug up the following, apparently unbiased, review at "Secrets of Home Theatre" which casts some doubt on the video ability (which everyone raves about on the much less expensive Denon) but makes only passing reference to the audio. However it appears to be describing the Mk1, not the Mk2. "
Firstly, any publication with a name like that has a definite and defined target audience that is implicit in the publication's title - and that audience will, at best, give equal weighting to both video and audio (as you are), or be more hung-up about the video side of things (both from a picture quality AND "latest feature count").
Publications with defined target audiences that are niches of a larger segment are, automatically and by design, "biased" as what they will look for and how they will assess what they find will be done from the perspective of their target readership. Also, the reviewers level of grasp of audio may be lower than the grasp of video and, in audiophile terms, may be woefully inadequate. That's "Challenge Number One"...
Challenge Number Two, on the other hand, is linked more to the different levels of "technological maturity" in digital audio and digital video.
Challenge Number Three is a by-product of No 2 and is the current "rate of technological progress" (as driven by market demand) between digital audio (minimal) and digital video ("maximal") resulting in multiple standards at the underpinning technology level. Examples of these include physical media (HD-DVD vs BluRay), encoding/decoding standards, compression algorithms (lossy vs lossless), display technology war (Plasma vs LCD), device to display connection (analog vs digital; connector-type; cables; etc).
So, what you are faced with is two parallel development processes:
1) Digital Audio (around since the early '80s)
2) Digital Video (virtually a 21st century phenomenon)The first is more mature, has survived format wars, and has seen the market split and segmented until (in 2-channel mode particularly) it has started to decline.
The second is still immature, is in the middle of format wars, lacks an obvious winner, etc.
So, given the above, what should someone do (with a balanced need for both good audio and good video performance)?
Well, pure logic dictates that, in an area characterised by rapid technological advances and multiple standards, one DOES NOT "buy the most expensive boutique models", but rather look for something with designed-in "future-proofing" - where the manufacturer has adopted a modular plug-n-play approach with the designed-in capability for these modules to be exchanged at a later date as the technology advances. This would justify the high initial cost as it would extend the useable life to give a reasonable ROI.
If no such "Utopian Device" exists, then settle on a lower cost compromise or "trade-off", where - right from the outset - one acknowledges that this is a temporary acquisition, is not OTT costly, delivers "state-of-the-art" functionality with acceptable quality, etc, etc....
The dilemma outlined regarding relative maturity of audio vs video is why I've kept the two totally separate - each in their own room with no component overlap. It's also why I've stuck to vinyl and red-book digital and ignored both SACD and DVD-A from a music program perspective, and why, from a movie watching slant, I have a Denon HTIB system which is more than adequate until the standards begin to stabilise.
Finally, the MP3 / download / iPOD / etc. fad looks set to stay and to expand into more than just audio. I spotted an article in HFN&RR on a new device from Meridian which will dock a video iPOD and upscale it's video picture to 1080P... So, your question needs to take into account another category of source medium - solid-state memory (also HDD-based) and source devices such as PC's, laptops, iPODs etc... This trend has the potential to see the Internet replace any and all physical media for both audio and video applications - making it even more inadvisable to buy OTT components...
I'm 10 years younger than you are (or, depending on perspective, you're 10 years older than I am) and - having seen some of my peers from university days begin to shuffle off this mortal coil - have stopped making long-term purchases...
Bottom Line: Go for the Denon!
DevillEars
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Follow Ups
- I'd suggest a bit more research or just buy the Denon... - DevillEars 23:12:50 04/09/07 (1)
- Good advice thanks - John C. - Aussie 20:57:19 04/10/07 (0)
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