Official Classe SSP-800 thread. - Page 50

Has the price of the SSA 800 already gone up? my HT guy is showing it as $9000 list price -- should i call him out on it? he has offered me a decent break off list, but every penny counts. I just dont want to create bad blood cause i want him to do a good job.

My understanding is that as of October 1, 2009, the price went up to 9000 dollars.

The original quote i have is dated 9/25/09 -- but i think its a lost cause. i tell ya, nothing seems to be going my way today.

Ok now that I have the new board what setting would provide me with the best perfromace with Blu Ray.

I have my panasonic set to Bit stream.

I have a 7.1 system. If the disc is in 7.1 Dolby Tru do I set the 800 to DolbyTru (Which I suspect is correct) or Discrete?

If the disc is in 5.1 Dolby Tru what do I set the 800 to in order to use the full capabilites of my 7.1?

Also same question for DTS Master

Thanks

Interesting. I don't believe there are any sonic reasons behind that recommendation. IMO, it is more likely to be a marketing strategy.

Just thought I would let you guys know I picked up my Classe late this morning.

Quick question about the speaker level settings. For some reason the output is far too loud to set the speakers to 75db. Is there a known issue? -15db for the mains brings me to around 80db. Doesn't seem right...

Good point - for me 300 hours for Vincent van Gogh - 150

+1 yep.. Oct 1

Used Discrete and the SSP will recognize the format.

Classe has posted a firmware update addressing this problem.

There were issues with some earlier versions of 1.9.9.
Check your version (Menu->status->version info) if it is not 2.0.0 build 0064 go to Classe's web site and get the latest version.

If you have 7.1 and the stream is 5.1 if set to discrete you will only get 5.1 out. Use Dolby PLIIx Movie, PLIIx Music or Dolby Digital Ex these will generate rear channels. For DTS use PLIIx or Neo 6 ES.

Thanks guys. I do have 1.9.9

I assume the update is pretty straight forward?

Upgraded to 2.0.0 this morning. Looks like that resolved the speaker level issue. Thanks again all!

One more minor issue which still exists with 2.0.0. I'm having some minor issues with video output. The 800 will not output video from the source or the SSP800 system menu until I jump between sources or press video preview and exit out. Anyone experience a similar issue?

This seems to be a price hike for the new DSP board, the new price is the same for the normal 800 and the rackmounted version now that also has a list of $9000.


have fun with the new toy adidino, let us how they compare.

Just guessing,

Daniel.

Thanks that make sense

hifisponge

Well, there are 3 things that I did change at once, but they were all in the 800. The board AND the firmware AND a PS cable. I'm wondering if there was not something in the board that it may have been change to the VP in the firmware, or a change to the current draw although I highly doubt that. Haven't had any time to A/B as we're kicking off a new startup in a couple of weeks so it'll have to wait at this point to nail it down. I think it's an interesting issue to sort out.

Just installed the new board. That was actually the easy part. Replacing the power cable was the more time consuming as mentioned in a previous post. I am running the SSP-800 with 2 B&W 803Ds (front), 1 B&W HTM2D (center), 2 B&W DS8S (Surround), MCCormack DNA-500 (2x500W for Front), Rotel 1095 (rears and surrounds), Primare CD31 (balanced CD audio), Denon DVD 3910 (SACD/DVD-Audio) and Samsung BD-P2550 (BluRay, audio set at "Bitstream (Audiophile")

The most noticable difference was on the TrueHD recordings. The Police "Certifiable" BluRay disc was recorded in TrueHD 24/96 and the difference before and after the upgrade was quite noticable and improved. Same goes for the Rush "Snakes and Arrows" BluRay recorded in DTS HD MA and Queen's Live Montreal & Live Aid recorded in HTS HD HR 24/96 In these example recordings the sound was much brighter and fuller IMO. Samsung allows for audio decoding on the BluRay player (outpuuted as PCM) but I found the SSP-800 to be better as expected.

No noticable difference yet on balanced CD (Primare) and SACDs (Denon). It was awesome before the upgrade. Will probably take awahile to get through BluRay collection but so far I am hearing improvements.

I noticed that bitstream audio is a bit louder. I'm wondering if you decibal matched before and after you'd really notice a difference?

Yes I did notice a difference. Bitstream is louder (I would argue fuller, brighter especially in 24/96 recordings) than it was before the board upgrade. I did notice little discernable difference between some of my DTS HD-MA recordings. I suspect that in those cases max core value for standard DTS (about 1.5 Mbps) was good enough to capture more audio. I have yet to hear a DTS HD-MA with 24/96 (or 24/192); I suspect a good jazz or classical audio would have a lot more to hear than The Police's or Rush's guitar, bass and drums.

Or perhaps my ears have been dulled by 20+ years of hard rock listening

What's the best way to get MP3s from my PC into the Classe SSP-800.. should I use an Airport Express connected via Toskink or do you guys have any other recommendations?

I use a Windows Media Center PC via toslink. Depends on your source. The Airport Exp will work well. Using iTunes I assume?

Anyone aware eBass seems to disable the .1 channel when engaged? I don't think this issue existed prior to 2.0.0

Anyone else notice this?

I just set up a Config with all speakers = full range + Sub. Then played a test disc with an LFE sweep. LFE signal remains present whether e-Bass is on or off. Seems to attenuate a few dB when on.

In my normal Config, I have all speakers set for Crossed-over, and in that case, e-Bass kills the LFE signal. However, in a future rev of code, e-Bass option will be grayed out in this condition, since all the bass is already routed away from the mains.

What Config are you using?

Thanks Roger. Tom from Classe clarified that for me. I had all speakers crossed-over (including the mains). However, if I set only the mains to full range, will ebass work? or do all speakers need to be set to full range to utilize ebass?

I'm no e-Bass expert, but in my understanding, as long as some speakers are designated as full range, the e-Bass mode will work. Note that is scales down the sub, similar as when 2 or 3 subs are defined, to try to keep the total bass about right. I think it also scales the LFE, which would appear to be an error. I'll advise them and see.

Just got back my SSP-800 from repair and to have the new DSP installed.

I'm wondering what you all have your sub level set to in comparison to your main channels. Sure seems like there is a big gap in the levels between the two in my system.

I have my L/R's set to -6dB, and the sub at +9dB. That's a 15dB difference.

My main speakers have a sensitivity of 90dB, and the powered sub is a JL F112. Oh and I have the main channels hooked up via XLR and the sub with a standard RCA cable. So I think some of the difference is because the XLR connection is +6dB over the RCA?

The XLR does have about +6db gain for the rca in my experience. However, +9db on the sub sounds awefully high. What did you use to calibrate output levels? If you're using the internal tone generated by the SSP800, I wouldn't recommend that. Try using Avia or THX audio setup from most THX dvd movies. Also, the surrounds are about 3db too hot relative to the mains if you calibrate through the 800 speaker level menu.

I'm just doing it by ear right now because I know that the tone generator is not working properly. Which by the way is something that they haven't gotten right from day one. Doesn't seem like a difficult fix.

I'll run the test disc route tomorrow, but I'm pretty certain the levels won't change more than a couple of dB. Even before the upgrade, I had a spread of 9dB, which I've always thought was odd, but just didn't mention it until now. I just put a Y splitter going into the sub which gave me 6dB, but that still leaves with with a 9dB difference. I wonder if it is a problem with the sub?

The XLR output has 6dB gain as it's two signals in opposite phase of the same gain as the RCA. The XLR input loses that 6dB, so the overall system gain ought to be the same using XLR-XLR or RCA-RCA. That's the theory, anyway. A 90dB sensitivity speakers ought to need about -5dB trim to get to 75dB, so all looks textbook correct there. (Speaker sensitivity is measured with 1-watt wrt 85 dB SPL at 1 meter. AV cal noise looks for 75 dB with a 10dB lower drive signal at the listening chair.)


I'm assuming the total amount of bass sounds correct. Only the knob trim settings seem too far off. If that's the case, raise the gain on the F112, and turn down the trim in the SSP. Same sonic result, less trim range.

When I use the SSP's internal tones, my sub reads about the same as with a THX Optimode signal. And both of those read a few dB on the hot side wrt some other test discs on hand. This is due to there being differing standards for filtering the bass signals, and the fact that my room's bass response is not ruler flat.


From where I sit, the tone generator in the SSP has been fixed since 0062. Code 2.0 0064 has it right, also. I've checked it with external voltmeters on the line outs (to avoid any question of SPL meter accuracy), and vs other test discs. One of our compadres at "another forum" where we're discussing these matters reportedly has a hardware problem causing the noise level error. I have not seen any other evidence that the SSP signals are wrong in the latest code rendition. Yes, in the 0058 preliminary code shipped with early dual DSP boards, it was wrong. Might have been wrong in the single DSP, too but that's before my time.


Where is the master gain set now? If Fathom would have published a sensitivity spec, or had a calibrated THX setting, we'd know if it was behaving correctly or not. Since they did not do that, all you can do is keep turning up the gain until the trim offset is mostly neutralized.