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RSP-1580 SURROUND SOUND PROCESSOR
Dolby Digital Plus
Built on Dolby Digital, the multichannel audio encoding standard for
DVD and HD broadcasts, Dolby Digital Plus was designed for the new
high-resolution delivery formats, but remains compatible with current A/V
processors. It is supported by the HDMI digital connection standard. Dolby
Digital Plus can provide up to 7.1 channels with discrete channel output
at higher bitrates than Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital Plus is an optional
sound format for Blu-ray, and a mandatory inclusion for HD DVD discs.
Dolby True HD
Dolby TrueHD is based on lossless coding technology to deliver studio
master-quality sound. Dolby TrueHD supports up to eight full-range channels
(the maximum allowed by Blu-Ray) of 24-bit/96 kHz audio. Dolby TrueHD
is supported by the HDMI v1.3 digital connection.
Additional features include Dialogue Normalization, which maintains
the same volume level when changing to other Dolby Digital and Dolby
TrueHD programming, and Dynamic Range Control (or ‘Night Mode’),
reducing peak volume levels to allow late-night viewing of high-energy
surround sound without disturbing others. Dolby TrueHD is an optional
sound format for Blu-ray Disc, and a mandatory format for HD DVD.
DTS-HD Master Audio &
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio
Like Dolby’s TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio is an advanced lossless
audio codec which is an optional sound format for Blu-ray discs, again
delivering the original recorded sound ‘bit-for-bit’. It is also an optional
format for HD-DVD disc recordings. DTS-HD Master Audio is compatible
with the HDMI v1.3 connection standard, and supports a maximum of
192kHz sampling at 24-bit depth in two-channel mode, and 24bit/96KHz
resolution for eight channels in multichannel mode. A DTS-HD capable
processor can also decode discs recorded with DTS-HD High Resolution
Audio. This format is not lossless but delivers virtually all of the original
recording, though not literally identical to the studio master .
DSP Music Modes
Unlike all of the formats mentioned above, the RSP-1580 offers four
surround modes that are not part of a specific recording/playback system.
These modes (DSP 1–4) use digital signal processing that adds special
acoustic effects to any signal. DSP processing can be used with Dolby
Surround recordings, Dolby Digital recordings, CDs, radio broadcasts, or
any other source material; however, typically DSP settings would be used
with source material for which there is no specific surround decoder .
The four DSP MODES in the processor use digital delay and reverberation
effects to simulate progressively larger acoustic environments with DSP 1
being the smallest type of venue (such as a jazz club) and DSP 4 being
a large venue (such as a stadium). Typically used to add ambience and
a sense of space when listening to music sources or other sources that
lack surround sound encoding.
2CH/5CH/7CH stereo formats
The RSP-1580 also provides four modes that disable all surround
processing and deliver stereo signals to amplifiers and speakers. The
four options are:
2CH Stereo:
Turns off the center channel and all surround channels in the
system and delivers a conventional 2-channel signal to the front speakers.
If the system is configured to route bass signals from the front speakers
to the subwoofer , this capability remains in effect.
Analog Bypass:
For 2-channel analog inputs, there is a special stereo
mode that bypasses ALL of the RSP-1580’s digital processing. The two front
speakers receive pure analog stereo full-range signals with no subwoofer
crossover, no delay, no level adjustments, and no contour adjustment.
5CH Stereo:
Distributes a stereo signal to 5.1 channel systems. The left
channel signal is sent, unchanged, to the front left and surround left
speakers. The right channel is sent to the front right and surround right
speakers. A mono sum of the two channels is sent to the center channel
speaker.
7CH Stereo:
This mode is the same as 5CH Stereo described above
except that it also distributes stereo signals to center back speaker(s)
installed in the system.
Other Digital Formats
Several other digital formats are not surround sound formats at all, but
rather systems for digital 2-channel recordings.
PCM 2-channel: This is an uncompressed 2-channel digital signal
sucas that used for standard CD recordings and some DVD recordings,
particularly of older films.
DTS Music 5.1 Discs: These discs are a variation of audio CDs that include
a DTS 5.1 channel recording. The processor decodes these discjust like
a DTS movie soundtrack when played on a CD player or DVD player
with a digital output connection.
DVD-A music discs: Taking advantage of the increased storage capacity
of the DVD disc, new high bit rate multichannel audio recordings are
available on DVD-A discs. DVD-A discs may include multiple versions
of the recording including standard PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS
5.1, and 96kHz/24 bit (or higher) multichannelrecordings using MLP
compression. Several of these formats (standard PCM, Dolby Digital,
and DTS 5.1) can be decoded by the processor when the DVD player is
connected with a digital cable. However, the existing optical and coax
digital audio connection standard does not provide sufficient bandwidth
for multichannel high sampling rate MLP recordings. Therefore, you must
use the HDMI high-definition digital connection to replay the high-resolution
audio soundtrack of DVD-A discs. Alternatively, the high-resolution audio
can be decoded by the DVD-A player and the resulting analog signals
sent to the processor’ s MULTI INPUT.
SACD®: This is a proprietary high-resolution audio standard for use on
SACD compatible disc players. As with DVD-A discs, the bandwidth is
too high for today’s digital connection. Thus, these discs must be decoded
by a SACD compatible player, with the output sent to the processor’s
MULTI INPUTS.
MP3: MP3 format recordings, often downloaded from the Internet, can
be played on portable MP3 players or some disc players that can read
CD-ROM discs. These players can be connected to the processor’ s digital
inputs, but must output a digital PCM stream.
