List of Digital Home Theater Receivers

sony's got at least three models out right now....

STR-DA3000 ES

STR-DA5000 ES

STR-DA9000 ES

not sure of the pricing.....

I could be mistaken, but doesn't "Integra" offer a digital model....maybe more than one?

I bought the Kenwood 7100 but it falls short on power.

I ended up ordering the HK 2005. Ill have it tomorrow.
I had no idea the Sony 9000ES was an all digital. Ive heard good things about that unit. Ouch on the price though.

What is an "all digital" receiver?

Is this in the video or audio realm?

--Bill

digital amplifiers in the receivers....

Tubeguy:

Just what does that mean? Did the semiconductor companies just combine the D to A converter into the audio driver chip, and therefore it is now a "digital amplifier"?

The end output is analog, so the final audio output transistors are analog. What did they do, just clean up the signal path by putting the D/A converter and audio drivers in a compact chip, thus a "digital amplifier"?

Seems to be the same thing, just a new integrated chip that also perhaps has a newer and better D /A conversion than previous versions.

The Sony STR-DA3000ES model still has the same dual 32 bit processor technology that my unit has in it. Nice 150 Watts RMS into 4 ohms in the ES!!!

--Bill

Some Sony STR-DA9000ES info:

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Reviewer Paul Miller of Britain's Hi-Fi news points out that the Sony machine is similar in concept to the outrageously-good (and $10,000!) TacT Millenium. Both machines function as class-D or Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) amplifiers driven directly from a digital signal. What is so special about this since neither class-D operation or PWM are new technologies? Well, like TacT, Sony has now solved many of the problems associated with PWM amplifiers, such as upper frequencies with lots of distortion.

Sony uses its Direct Stream Digital process, which records a 1-bit signal at 2.8 million samples per second. This is 64 times the sampling frequency of standard Compact Disc, and it creates a more analog-sounding result. This leads to a striking improvement in stereo imaging and soundstaging. With advances in digital filtering technologies, the sound is no longer just analytically perfect, its emotionally moving. And while I might normally shun a Class-D amplifier, citing its usually heinous levels of distortion, for this method of amplification, its perfectly fine.

The neat thing is that with this type of technology is that the signal stays in the digital domain all the way up to the output posts for the speakers. Digital, it seems, is definitely maturing.

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It looks like this is a change. I guess to more analog direct input to analog output!

--Bill

Philips chip information:

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Philips Introduces Reference Design for Digital Amplifier

Philips Electronics has introduced a semiconductor reference design for the high-power, fully digital class-D amplifier solution. The company has integrated advanced pulse width modulation (PWM) technology to offer customers a high-performance, plug-and-play reference design based on the TDA8939TH amplifier chip. The reference design is said to allow customers to quickly implement a high-performance class-D amplifier solution into slimline applications for the connected consumer. The TDA8939TH offers a fully digital amplifier solution, while the PWM controller eliminates the need for additional sound processing chips.
(June 2004 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia)


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Is this just a different method of doing a D to A conversion?

--Bill

From another source:

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Digital Amplifiers
Analog music signals have been electronically amplified since the development of the first electrical phonograph in 1925. Originally amplifiers employed vacuum tubes to boost the analog signal to an amplitude (voltage) that could move a loudspeaker cone. A much more recent development was the use of transistors to amplify these tiny signals. Both of these technologies are relatively inefficient and produce heat as a by- product of their design. In order to mass- produce analog amplifiers at a reasonable cost the tolerances of the parts employed are reduced. This results in an increase in signal distortion and degradation and a loss in quality.

The distribution of Digital Audio on CD's removed a very weak link in the audio signal chain and brought the quality of studio master tapes to the home. However the tiny audio signals produced by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converters) in the CD Player were still fed into an analog amplifier in order to be heard.

Now a revolutionary new technology called digital amplifier has come to the audio universe. Digital amplifiers make it possible for the audio signal to stay in its pure digital form through the complete audio signal chain to greatly enhance sound quality. In a pure digital amplifier, (one with a digital input ), there is no need for Digital to Analog Converters in the audio signal path. Digital Amplifiers actually synthesize the desired output signal directly on the speaker terminals, thereby creating a high-powered digital-to-analog converter.

Until very recently, the fully digital amplifier was only possible in laboratories, or in extremely expensive high-end audio systems. Now the technology has been reduced to just one or two chips, dramatically lowering manufacturing costs. In many cases this superior new technology can be incorporated into products even more inexpensively than the archaic linear audio amplifiers that will soon be known as "things of the past."

In case we haven't made ourselves perfectly clear, beware of digital amplifiers that only have analog inputs! These products are actually hybrids and are NOT pure digital.

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Fine for digital souces, but what about:

VHS audio?

Audio tape?

LP's?

Radio?

Microphones?

What do you have to do, get rid of everything and start over???????????

--Bill

That darn key again!

whoever that source is, they have decided to draw a line between "pure" digital amps and the rest.... that may be fine, but it is not what the rest of the industry has decided what a digital amp is....


all of the above amplifier sections of the receivers listed in the first post of this thread are considered "digital" amps by the industry....

some of them allow direct digital input from a digital source into the digital amp section...... but because they have to accomodate the rest of our analog sources they also offer an additional A/D conversion.....

as well as the receivers in this thread there are stand alone digital amps available from Tact, spectron, solar hi-fi, carver professional, bel canto, ps audio, and others....

some of these amps allow direct digital input...some do not..... but they all are still considered "digital" by the industry.....

and if you haven't auditioned any of these amps, you really should.... they offer great sound, less weight, almost no heat, and (in most cases) less cost.....

cheers!

Interesting stuff. Looks like these amplifiers are much more efficient. Less energy goes into heat dissipation, so more power supply current is used for audio instead of wasted in heat dissipation.

http://www.soundlabsgroup.com.au/lca...o_zappulse.htm

I am glad I do not have any big money tied up in my receiver. In a few years, I will update to a receiver with this technology.

For now, let the audiophiles buy these. That is only if the audiophiles believe in this type of magic!

--Bill

tubeguy:

Yup, this is the type of equipment that I will buy next time for sure. I think they need a bit of shake out time first to weed out the unforeseen problems.

I guess I will upgrade to this technology next year. After all, I do have good speakers to drive, and these digital amplifiers do not waste power supply energy in heat dissipation!

I wonder if the receivers have DRC??????????

Had to reset the DRC to .5 last night. Air force One was just too "dynamic" for my taste. Sure wish I had a bass limiter like you have on your receiver!!

--Bill

without trying to start an incident here.....

you could always add a digital amplifier to your sony receiver....

you can get the benefits that digital amps offer without having to give up the processor in your receiver.....

(i just couldn't pass that up!.......)

I could do that, but why? I love integrated receivers for lot's of reasons, and my subwoofer power needs are taken care of.

My receiver sells on E-bay for $80 less than I paid for it all the time. Chump change for 1 1/2 years of use!

Glad we both understand where the other is coming from!

I noted that the STR-DA3000ES has 150 watts per channel (4 ohms) in the power department. Nice!

--Bill

The Sherwood Newcastle R-903 has been shipping for about 10 months.

Jeff

Grayson, the MSRP for the Kenwood VRS-7100 is actually $500. The MSRP for the Kenwood VRS-N8100 is $800 and is due for release this July.

It would be a good idea if you hyperlinked each of those receivers you listed to the respective official Web site. I just provided the Kenwood links.

Oh, that stinks. I just bought the VRS-7100 for my parents and will set it up this upcoming holiday weekend. I hope it's not as puny sounding as you make it out to be.

beowulf7


I think you will be just fine. My room is very dead and needs some extra volume to come to life. Also my front l/r speakers are not very efficient.

I did figure out I was setup incorrectly and this caused the shut down I was experiencing. When setting up the receiver make sure you choose
the custom setting if your not using Kenwood speakers.

I can still cause my system to shut down if I have the eq turned on at high volumes. While I feel I can get by with the Kenwood I ended up buying the HK just for the extra headroom and piece of mind but the 7100 will be more than enough for your parents.

The 7100 was my first experience with a digital receiver. This thing is very clean and punchy and can play at ear bleeding levels. I was very surprised. I love the small footprint and it runs very cool to the touch. I dont think I could go back to an analog receiver again. For my needs this is perfect.

I do think digital receivers are the future and we will see many more come to market over the year.

Alan, that is more reassuring. Thanks for the review. FYI, we used to have a Panasonic SA-XR45 receiver. But its 6th channel didn't work right (had a loud hiss), so we wound up returning it. That was back in Jan. They've been receiver-less all this time. So I got sick and tired of waiting for the SA-XR70, so I jumped at this Kenwood VRS-7100 receiver once it was released.

My siblings and I also bought them Athena Point 5 MK II satellite speakers w/ the 10" Athena subwoofer (I think it's AS-P400). Also, all of the speaker wiring is 12-ga. I hope these satellite speakers won't make the Kenwood receiver sweat too much. I'm assuming you had floor standing speakers.

Were your speaker wires tough to get into the Kenwood's spring clip speaker input connectors? I'm concerned about that since 12-ga. is kind of thick. I'm thinking of getting "flex-pin" adapters to make it easier to insert a fat speaker wire into a cheap spring clip speaker connector.

Grayson, I'm sorry for hijacking your thread.

for sony you can add STR-DA2000ES , STR-DB900 and STR-DB1000R, the two last being european references , and not yet out.

Hi everyone,

I didnt see any Yamaha receivers on that list:

Yamaha RX-V1400(799.00)
Yamaha RX-V2400(999.00)
Yamaha RX-Z9(4499.00)

Thanks

Steve

those yamaha receivers DO NOT use digital amplifiers.....

Whoops

TauRus posted this in another thread. I think he meant to mention it here.

^ If you are able to, why don't you add the other receivers to your list in the first post?


Good idea on the linking

Well done.

I'm looking forward to playing w/ that Kenwood receiver this weekend.