After purchasing the new TL, music sounds better in the car than in my house. It is NO Mark Levinson system, but the sound quality is extremely high. It finally hit home that my el-cheapo faux "surround sound" stereo, which I bought while I was in training, was no longer adequate.

Having the new TL has made me want a REAL surround sound system in the house. So I've bought a new Yamaha RX-V1400 receiver (handles up to 7.1 systems) and am in the process of choosing a decent set of speakers.

Damm you, Acura! Making me spend extra money.

P.S. I am also having to re-rip all my CDs to my iPod. AAC 128k is no longer good enough as I can hear EVERY defect in the music in the car (I use a cassette adapter). 192k, here I come! Maybe this time I'll actually fill the iPod.

 

what do you use for a cassette adapter?

 

I am using an old Panasonic SH-CDM10B adapter I had hanging around the house. Works fine. I'm going to try the iTrip for 3G iPods, however, but in theory it doesn't sound as good as the cassette adapter. If this is true, the iTrip will be eBayed.

 

Why dont you go to a audio shop and see if they can add a aux in adapter..

I just bought a iRiver iHP-120 and wonder how much it costs to add aux in on my 98 Avalon

 

I've had a 5.1 home theater for a few years and having the same type of system in the car was one of the sellling points for me. I've been purchasing DTS and DVD-A discs and I'll cart them back and forth from car to home. Yep, quite a fun toy to have. Neuronbob, be sure to rent some James Bond movies and other flicks that have things that blow up and helicopter sequences. Makes for an optimum theatrical experience.

 

Thanks for the advice, greg. I just bought a set of Onix Rocket ELT-1 speakers so I can start with a 5.1 system. They arrive later this week! The plan is to go eventually to a 7.1 system, but....one step at a time....

 

I have had 5.1 system at home for about 5 years now. But I had to buy a new DVD player that could handle DVD-A, once I bought my TL. I agree it can get very expensive to keep up with the latest a technology and I agree you can't have a better system in the car than the one that is in your house. I just bought the Queen, Night of the Opera DVD-A sounds fantastic.

 

Yeah, the real problem is not buying another DVD player that plays DVD-audio (not to mention SACD too on the hybrids), but also upgrading the A/V receiver as well. My current psudeo 5.1 receiver does not have 6 inputs so I will have to upgrade that as well. Got me eye on the Denon DVD-2900 Universal Disc Player ($800) and one of their receivers with 6 input. I like the AVR-4802R ($1700). May have to settle for less or wait.

 

I have the Denon 2800 receiver and it is great. You can hook up your dvd audio using the optical audio connections. Far better than my last Pioneer receiver and any input can be electronically attached to any output so no physical switching.

 

Actually, you don't want to hook up your DVD-A player to your receiver using the optical connection, as you won't get the hi-res version of the audio. The optical connection only carries a downconverted signal, the only way to hear the true high-res version is to make the 6 analog RCA connections (5.1) from the player to the receiver, and select the "external" input for playback (the input name may vary from brand to brand, but on the Denons it's definitely the external input).

 

It seems like that additional clarity would be lost by running it down six analog (pre-amp?) connections. I have the same inputs on my Yamaha VX-2200 and I just can't imagine going back to analog inputs. (Not to mention the price of all those monster cables!!)

 

Granted, the $$ of the cables is a PITA, but trust me that the additional resolution isn't lost... Analog is actually the preferred connection among audiophiles. If you're listening via the optical, you're hearing nothing more than CD quality thanks to the RIAA's insistence that high-res be analog only. There are a few proprietary digital connections between dvd-a players and receivers from the same manufacturer (DenonLink and I believe Pioneer has one also), but in the case of the Denon it's on a $3,000 player connecting to a $4,500 receiver... suddenly, the cost of the analog cables doesn't seem so bad!!

JonDeutsch, help me out here, I know you're a big audio guy. Did you cover the analog-only connection requirement in your DVD-A primer?

 

just100, that was my understanding too. There will probably be a future standard optical solution for high res, but none exists now.

 

Thanks for that info. I, too, assumed that using the optical connection from my DVD player to my receiver was enough for DVD-A. Looks like I'll have to invest in more Monster cable once I'm set up....

Right now, the only DVD-A is my Acura demo disc. It's actually a DVD-V too...if you put it in your home DVD player or computer, a menu pops up, giving you entree to each musical and instructional selection.

 

Yeah, all DVD-A discs also have DVD-V tracks too, to ensure 100% compatibility with all DVD players (DVD-A or not).

And, yes, DVD-A requires analog connectors to your receiver/pre-amp. Digital connectors are limited to CD quality at this point in time.

There are a few, very high end, proprietary digital connectors for DVD-A, but you're looking at $10k+ combined equipment at that point.

Jon

 

I'm looking at the Onkyo 6-disc dvd/cd changer to go with my new setup at home and it has the direct path setup where the lens reads the disc and ports it right out the optical port in the back, NO PROCESSING. So how can that limit it down to CD quality audio ?? Shouldn't that feed the full signal into the optical in on the Amp for full processing ?

I believe the model is the DV-CP701.

And it just looking at the model #.. I guess I now get to bump up to the DV-SP800 for the dvd-a and sacd capability.. oh well.

But it has the Direct Digital Path as well.

Mmmm christmas present to myself.

 

AHHHH FUDGE..

Then I read this:

The DV-SP800 is THX® Ultra certified, meeting Lucasfilm Ltd.'s super-strict standards for accurate home theater sound. It has built-in multichannel decoding for Dolby® Digital and DTS®. Since you'll be using the DV-SP800's 5.1-channel output to connect to your A/V receiver anyway (it's the only way to hear multichannel music on SACD and DVD-Audio), you can simplify setup by letting the player decode both music and movies.

from the description for the SP800 on Crutchfields site.

I just love standards.

 

It means I've got to upgrade my Panasonic S35 DVD player. Luckily, the S55 is coming, which is the same player with 5.1 outputs for DVD-A, or I may swing for a XP30.