Q How important is the signal to noise ratio? When you did your review of the Anthem PVA 7, you wowed over its S\N of -122dB. Yet, the Sunfire amps (a much pricier amp) don't list an S\N ratio. Are most modern amps "silent"? Should I be concerned about this spec? How does one go about finding out the specs of, say, the Sunfire Cinema Grand 2, or similar amp?

A S/N ratios are indeed important. If they are not specified, then they just have to be tested. With 24 bit digital sound, the dynamic range is way, way up there, and it takes a virtually silent amp to play all the quiet details of the music. But, in lieu of having a test instrument when you audition equipment, just put your ear up against the speaker, with no music playing, and listen for hiss and hum. If you are testing a power amplifier, turn the preamp volume control all the way down. If testing a preamp, then turn the volume control about half way up. A tiny amount of noise is not a problem, but if you can hear the hiss and hum a few feet away, that can affect the music in a detrimental way.

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Q I have a Bose Lifestyle 12, which does not have a set of analog 5.1 inputs. Would a DVD-A player still sound better with this system than with a conventional DVD player?

A Without analog 5.1 inputs, you can't play multi-channel DVD-A discs in 5.1, but you can play them in stereo, and you can play two-channel DVD-A. The same goes for SACD discs. You have to use just the stereo analog (two-channel) outputs of the player into your Bose system. In any case, it appears that some players are coming out this Fall that will have DVD-V, DVD-A, and SACD capabilities all in one player, so that will become the "conventional" DVD player you are talking about. The transports are all the same. It is just a matter of putting the decoding algorithms into the chips on board.

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Q I have a friend who is just now getting into home theater and is relying on me for advice. I have questions about how he should connect his DVD to his receiver. He has purchased the Outlaw Audio 1050 Receiver and the Panasonic RP-62 DVD Player. He is only going to use the front two channels because I can't convince him to get a center channel, rear channels, or subwoofer. Is the correct connection an optical cable (Toslink) and then just configure the receiver to turn the subwoofer off and put it on DD and see what happens? If so is there a phantom mode for the center channel in DD 5.1? Or can you put it in Dolby Pro Logic with the phantom mode and still send the signal through the Toslink connection? I would like to tell him to use the DACs in the receiver, but would it just be better for him to send out analog through the RCAs and put it in Pro Logic? I am a little bit confused on what to do without a center channel. If the best option is Pro Logic (either through the Toslink or analog) then would he need to choose two channel on the DVD menu? Also, eventually I may talk him into getting a center channel and at that point would putting it in DD 5.1 and turning the subwoofer off be the best option?

A Receivers have a two-channel mode that lets you combine all 5.1 signals into just the front left/right, so use a Toslink cable to the receiver. When in two-channel mode, there won't be any need for the center channel speaker. Set the bass management to "Large", so all bass will be there in those two channels. Once he adds the other speakers, then the settings for DD, DTS, and Pro Logic II can be used.

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Q First of all, thank you so much. Your site has proved to be an invaluable resource and in fact is the most popular website I visit (still haven't quite gotten all the way through your Q&As, but I'm trying).  Now for my question - I have NHT VT-1.4s for my front speakers and NHT VS-1.4s for the rear and center channels. I also have an 8" sub in the corner of the room. Would it be worthwhile for me to hook up a second sub to the rear channels? Or move the current sub to the rear channels and just use the two subs in the VT-1.4s for the front? If I do put a sub in the rear, would I just plug the VS-1.4s into the new sub and run the sub from the regular surround outputs on the receiver?

A Multiple subs are great, but I have found that placing one in the rear and one in the front can cause some cancellation due to the sound pressure being directed at each other. I would suggest using your first sub as a center channel subwoofer, by connecting it to the center channel pre-out, assuming you have a pre-out for the center. Or, you could connect the speaker-out from the center channel on the receiver, to the speaker-level input on the subwoofer, and the speaker-level out from the subwoofer back to your center channel speaker. If the subwoofer uses a high-pass of 80 Hz out to satellites, then set the low-pass on the sub to 80 Hz as well. Otherwise, you would get a hole in the sound between the low-pass cutoff and the high-pass cutoff.

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Q How great would the differences be between progressive scan DVD players if the 480i output is sent to a scaler such as the Omega One?

A Probably not nearly so great, because the value of doing the scaling to 480p in the player is that it is done in the digital domain. Once you convert it to analog and then do the scaling, some of the info is already down the drain.

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Q I have recently moved from Europe to the United States, and I have taken my home theatre with me. I have a Sony WEGA TV, model number KV29FC60E. This TV is capable of displaying PAL, SECAM, and NTSC, however, it only has a PAL tuner. I have a Sony receiver, model number STR-DB830. I have just had cable TV installed, and have a converter box from the cable company, a Motorola dct2244/1161/ABCDEFG. This unit is only capable of outputting through an American coax cable, and through red-white-yellow jacks. I want to somehow send the signal from the cable box into my receiver as S-Video and optical digital audio, and from there send S-Video to my TV. Is this possible? What type of converter do I need to buy?

A It is possible, but the output of your cable box is composite video and two-channel audio, so there really is no point in converting it back to S-Video, unless you have other S-Video sources plugged into your receiver, and need to use the S-Video monitor out to your TV. So, let's assume you do need this. A composite-to-S-Video adapter can be purchased at Radio Shack (I saw them there a few days ago, but it may be a new product). This will be connected to the yellow jack (this should be the video output) on your cable box, with the S-Video end then fed to your receiver. However, just connect the red and white jacks on your cable box (these should be the two audio outputs) to a set of analog input jacks on your receiver. There is no reason to convert them to Toslink digital first.

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Q I am looking for a 27 inch or 32 inch TV that will take an RGB input (3) cable connection. I am coming from a converter which converts my computer image to RGB. It also has a S-Video out, but was told that this would not
be as good in quality of picture.

A S-Video is much better than composite, but component video is just a little better than S-Video, not including the progressive scan. Toshiba makes some 4:3 analog TVs that have component video inputs. The 20" version is $269 at BestBuy.

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Q What is the specification for having multi-channel audio tracks for DVD-A?

A The DVD-Audio format mandates at least one track be either MLP or PCM in the DVD-A zone of the disc, and can be 2 to 6 channels. Valid word lengths include 16, 20, and 24 bits, while sampling rates include 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz, and 192 kHz. Play time realized on one disc varies wildly as you mix and match formats and the number of channels from a high of 767 minutes (MLP/16/44/2ch) to a low of 78 minutes (MLP/20/96/6 ch). Six-channel PCM is only available in 24/48 or 20/96 (or lower). Six-channel MLP is only available in 24/96 (or lower).

In the case of MLP 5.1 or 6.0 tracks, while a producer may include a dedicated two-channel downmix, it is not the slickest way to go, since the MLP codec includes the provision for downmix coefficients. A linear downmix includes all the music, so 5.1 and 2.0 tracks can be encoded as one with a negligible increase of storage space required.

Unfortunately, the downmix metadata is an option at the producer's discretion, and some titles have been released without either a dedicated two-channel track or downmix coefficients and as such get a note on the jacket that reads "No D-mix available".

If the producer decides to include a DVD-V zone on the disc (their option, frequently implemented), the DVD-V zone must follow the same rules for soundtracks as a regular DVD-V disc. That is, there must be at least one Dolby Digital track OR one PCM stereo track (all else, like DTS, being optional). If the one soundtrack is Dolby Digital, it can be anything from 1 to 6 channels (legacy note: downmixing is a mandatory function of consumer AC-3 decoders).

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