Background
I am close to buying a Benchmark DAC1 to improve the sound quality of my Oppo 971 DVD. My interest is music DVDs which I will listen to in stereo. The DAC1 only accepts PCM input. The Oppo has a PCM setting which the manual describes as follows: PCM – Forces down-mixed 2-channel digital audio output. Choose this setting if your receiver/amplifier only supports PCM audio. I emailed Oppo for clarification and they told me that when set to PCM, the 971 will only output Left and Right Front audio information.
My Questions
If I am only receiving the Left and Right Front audio information, does this mean I will miss out on important audio information for stereo listening, e.g. the bass information on the .1 track? Or is the full bass signal included with the Left and Right Front audio information? Or do DVDs come with a 2-channel track anyway so this isn't an issue?
As you can tell I'm not a 5.1 or DTS guy, so advice from a DVD format expert would be much appreciated.
Nigel.
I am close to buying a Benchmark DAC1 to improve the sound quality of my Oppo 971 DVD. My interest is music DVDs which I will listen to in stereo. The DAC1 only accepts PCM input. The Oppo has a PCM setting which the manual describes as follows: PCM – Forces down-mixed 2-channel digital audio output. Choose this setting if your receiver/amplifier only supports PCM audio. I emailed Oppo for clarification and they told me that when set to PCM, the 971 will only output Left and Right Front audio information.
My Questions
If I am only receiving the Left and Right Front audio information, does this mean I will miss out on important audio information for stereo listening, e.g. the bass information on the .1 track? Or is the full bass signal included with the Left and Right Front audio information? Or do DVDs come with a 2-channel track anyway so this isn't an issue?
As you can tell I'm not a 5.1 or DTS guy, so advice from a DVD format expert would be much appreciated.
Nigel.
