Whats better: soundcard dts decoding or speaker dts decoding?

In the cases of high end kit, it all depends on the quality of the DACS, With Z5500's I doubt they they are good enough for the difference to be particularly noticeable. Going with the digital cable means a lot less wires, and a more tidy install though.
 
Thanks for reply.

Well its all setup now & ive got both digital & 5:1 cables connected + optical from a 360 lol.
For normal windows/games/music I use 5:1 as spdif can only output 1 sound source at once.
For video I think it sounds better using digital & its strange how adjusting volume/bass/trebble in windows has no effect on the sound.
As the speakers are thx I presume you should not add eg trebble, as the speakers give the sound what was intended?

FYI: Everything runs sweet in windows7 7100 64bit, inc wmc playuback of hd/mkv & freesatHD.
Its nice to see on BBC-HD the speakers LCD display shows the source as dolby digital & plays back through 5:1 :)
 
THX normally filters a fair chunk of the high frequency's out, I would guess that the logitech's amp includes the THX filters, but its all down to personal choice, if its not as sharp/clear as you wish, its not criminal to boost the treble.

Personally I find the THX filters are too agressive, my AV amp includes the option to disable them, and I do just that. It sounds much cleaner without the post processing.

I expect the reason you cant adjust the base/treble etc on the digital out is because you have sp/dif bypass on, so it just sends the movie datastream to the speakers. The SB-Xfi doesnt have dolby digital live, which is why it cant combine and mix mulitple sources and output them on the sp/dif in 5.1 It should be able to output them in 2.0 though.

Having both sets is probably the winner here, the analog cables for gaming (EAX5 multi channel games), and the digital cable for sp/dif passthough of DTS and dolby digital.
 
Ahh the x-fi can only do multi source audio at 2.0, strewth at £95 I though it was a good soundcard lol, well maybe the onboard ram is used in some games?

Yeah Im getting used to switching between digital (films) / direct (windows etc) & its ok.

Yes you're right about thx filtering the trebble & im trying get used to it atm or may try & add trebble later-on.
 
Corasik said:
THX normally filters a fair chunk of the high frequency's out, I would guess that the logitech's amp includes the THX filters, but its all down to personal choice, if its not as sharp/clear as you wish, its not criminal to boost the treble.

Personally I find the THX filters are too agressive, my AV amp includes the option to disable them, and I do just that. It sounds much cleaner without the post processing.
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just as an additional, its only really the re-eq option that cuts the top end. if you have the option to disable this seperately then do so - you'll find it doesnt cut much if anything. I do prefer using THX processing modes with re-eq off, it must be said :)
 
To be honest, I think re-eq is the only thing that gets turned off when I hit the THX off button anyway, and there have been a few movies where they actually have been to bright and I've used the EQ. However I think that most DVD/BluRays are remixed for "home use" and include the high frequency filter anyway, its only if a DVD /Bluray includes the original cinema mix that it becomes too bright. Real cinema speakers are often behind the screen, and high frequencies are boosted to compensate. Re-EQ corrects that.
 
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juno_first said:
Its nice to see on BBC-HD the speakers LCD display shows the source as dolby digital & plays back through 5:1 :)
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BBC HD is Dolby Digital 2.0 being broadcast with the incorrect label of 5.1 most of the time, i think they did this to fix a problem on some amps that coudnt handle the switch from 2.0 to 5.1 on some programs
 
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