blown away!

[hakemon]

Ok, so I have been using my Onkyo TX-4500 MKII for music a while, and today I decided to plug in my PS2 into it, and pop in Starwars Episode II..

And WOW! As soon as the music intro came up, I was blown away.. with all explosions and everything, you can feel it, and it doesn't break up one bit.

And I'm driving FOUR huge speakers on it too...

[cbrworm]

Yeah - I had the same experience. I was literally blown away.

They really have gotten impressive dynamic range and quality into those games. It makes our gear shine.

[hakemon]

Oh I was talking about the movie. :p

(I only use my PS2 as a DVD player, because of all my players, it's the only progressive scan player I have for my HDTV)

[x_25]

Yeah, I learned this a while ago. :scratch2: I need to watch some movies with my new speakers. Those 15" woofers should make for some good explosions.

[wizargoz]

Analog vs. digital- and analog wins!

[automojo]

Analog vs. digital- and analog wins!

Hmm....isn't a PS2 digital?

[Mattwizz3]

Hmm....isn't a PS2 digital?

Nope open one up and its like an old clock in there!

[hakemon]

the audio out is analog, and im amplifying it analog..

that's good enough sound for me after hearing it for myself

[Arkay]

Just to clarify: ANYTHING that comes off a small silvery plastic disk is DIGITAL. The only truly analog silver discs are LaserDiscs, which are big (like black vinyl LPs). You cannot actually hear anything digital, though, while it remains digital. In order for it to sound like music (or sound effects, explosions, etc...) the digital information must be converted into an analog format. That's why "digital" equipment will always have a "digital analog converter" (DAC for short) built into it. You can also buy separate high-quality DACs, used in higher-end hi-fi systems.

You can also convert analog to digital; you would do this, for example, when inputting vinyl or tape recordings (which are analog) into your computer (which is digital). Once something has been converted, whether in the original recording process (digital recording) or later on through a analog-to-digital conversion/remastering process, it is effectively a digital recording, EVEN IF you subsequently re-convert it to an analog medium for playback. The process of digitization "chops out" parts of the sound waves, and while that missing information can be somewhat replaced through interpolation, it can never really be replaced. So what you hear after a recording has been "digital" at any stage, is effectively digital.

Whether gear is considered digital depends on how it processes the signal: if it uses coomputer-chip technology to process the signal as "bits" then it is digital in nature. If it acts on an analog wave pattern with discrete (not binary) components, then it is analog.

So the PS2 is a DIGITAL device, which uses a digital input. It reads the digital bits off of the disc and processes them with chip technology. The fact that it then converts that to an analog output (has a DAC inside it) is almost irrelevant, because this is ALWAYS necessary before you can hear digitally-recorded sounds. The basic functioning of the PS2 is entirely digital. The sound quality you hear from it will be limited by the quality of the digital recording/mixing process. It will NOT be true analog sound. For that, the original recording and the mixing and playback must all be analog.

Hope that helps clarify things for the confused.

[garagmahal]

The process of digitization "chops out" parts of the sound waves, and while that missing information can be somewhat replaced through interpolation, it can never really be replaced.

Now I understand why digital music is like drinking beer out of a can, there's just something missing!

[automojo]

the audio out is analog, and im amplifying it analog..

that's good enough sound for me after hearing it for myself

Ok, I guess my point is the starting format (@ PS 2 ) is digital. Having analog outputs does not make a device analog, they are there for convience, cost-or both.

[hakemon]

I know that, but the receiver is an old analog receiver, thus in this point, the amplification from such an old receiver sounded so good.

I know the disc is digital. In this case, AC3 compressed audio...

I only mentioned analog outputs because i wasn't using Toslink or digital coax (as you obviously can't, unless it's some modern digital amp which has it's own decoder built into it)

[automojo]

I know that, but the receiver is an old analog receiver, thus in this point, the amplification from such an old receiver sounded so good.

I know the disc is digital. In this case, AC3 compressed audio...

I only mentioned analog outputs because i wasn't using Toslink or digital coax (as you obviously can't, unless it's some modern digital amp which has it's own decoder built into it)

Sure I understand, it smooths the sound out a bit-takes the edge off- Toslink/digital connection merley moves the conversion process downstream-to hopefully a better D/A convertor.