I am planning to purchase a DVD player (specifically Sansui DVX3500) which has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, and therefore has 5.1 channel pre-outs (aside from the usual coax and optical outputs). This initially seemed perfect for me, because I have 5 large hi-fi speakers at my home, each with their own woofer, and the ability to amplify all of the speakers sufficiently. However, my amplifiers do not have any decoding ability (like for Dolby or DTS). Purchasing this DVD player would have meant that I could simply direct the signal from its 5 satellitle channel pre-outs to my amplifiers and be able to watch movies with perfect Dolby Digital sound.
However, a concern that I now have is that the DVD player is going to cut the bass off the output signal for all 5 satellite channels and cross it over specifically for the sub pre-out. If this is the case, then my hi-fi speakers will not play much bass ! .. and I will need to go out and purchase a separate sub .. which is a complete waste and defeats the purpose of using my hi-fi speakers. Am I correct about this ? Is this the way in which the DVD's internal decoder would operate ?
I know that some DVD players have an option to setup the sound for "large" speakers or "small" speakers. What exactly does the option control ? Does setting "large" prevent the decoder from removing bass from the satellite speaker signals ?
Unfortunately the dealer which I'm purchasing from only has a demo model of this DVD set up with a 5-small-satellite-and-1-active-sub system, and is reluctant to reconfigure everything to test what I'm asking.
Please advise ! .. I'm not sure anymore about whether to purchase this DVD player.
- 5 full frequency range channels (20-20000 Hz or whatever available on source) - 1 low-frequency (LFE) channel. Often used for special effects (could even range 0-200 Hz).
Setting satellites to "small" means that everything below a certain frequency (say, 100 Hz) is not sent to the "5." channels, instead it is diverted to ".1" channel, i.e. subwoofer. So in your case it is just to chose "large" satellites.
The ".1" LFE track can in some systems be treated in the opposite way. That is, chosing "subwoofer off", to divert ".1" to "5." channels (actually goes to front speakers only).
There's much more to it, and it would be helpful if you'd give more details on your current system.
Oh, and BTW: Does this Yammie player decode DTS? Iff not, I strongly recommend buying another one.