[Xavier]

 http://www.pioneerusa.com/pna/produc...448491,00.html




Our flagship VSX-59TXi is the world's first A/V Receiver to offer playback capability of Windows Media Audio 9- Professional encoded media making multi-channel streaming, recorded, and even packaged PC audio in the living room, on the “big systemâ€, a reality today!

 

[Gordon McGregor]

Well, it really is ... as one don't need the soundcard using USB and processing audio through the receiver. With it's DSD1792 DACs 59TXi would be the best soundcard in the world ... as Lynx Two B uses CS4396 only

 

[Xavier]

It looks like it can only do stereo PC sounds

Panasonic, we need a 8 channel soundcard + pre/pro

 

[Gordon McGregor]

Xavier, no kidding about Panasonic ! I've found an interesting info about HE-200, they use High-End CS43122 DACs for front channles, CS4396 High-End DACs (but older ones) for other channels ... and cheap coupling capacitors with them ... funny, isn't it?

Here is the link (could be a bit slow in loading, quality of pictures is not so good, but enough to see): http://tester13.nm.ru/ And well, it is in Russian, but still the chips are visible at the pictures.

Concerning 59TXi no one knows yet about stereo or multi-channel ... my suggestion is - it makes no sense to implement WMA9 in stereo ... should be multi-channel.

 

[jfma]

Only stereo?


On PIONEER's website it says:


USB: yes, multi-channel compatible.


I agree with Gordon, proper support of WMA should be multichannel.

 

[barhoram]

would the 59txi be doing the decoding or would that be done in the pc--just passing the 5.1 channels to the receiver? I guess i would have the same question then about DD and DTS through the usb.

 

[jfma]

IMO, the 59txi is seen by the computer as a soundcard, and any audio stream (MP3, AC3, DTS, WAV...) should simply be passed through the USB to be decoded by the 59txi.


But this can only be confirmed by someone who has a 59txi (or its manual, which hasn't been posted on Pioneer's website).


Anybody has a 59txi yet?

 

[barhoram]

So does the 59 use a differnt usb chip than the 49 or 55?? I've been told that those 2 models and only do 2 channel sound?

 

[Xavier]

VSX-59TXi may do multi channel WMA9 because it is a format like DD or DTS. In other words, it only needs a single physical channel to convey the multi channel information.

But for games we need true multi-channel support or DirectSound needs to come up with a streaming format.

Think about it, a sound format that places sound in true 3D space and do not care about how many channels are present. Converting the sound from the 3D plane to speakers is the job of the processor just like how the computer sound card works today. So a rich man may have a processor that can drive 20 speakers and he will have 20 discrete channels. A person like me may have 5 or 9 speakers.

 

[talo]

I had the same question in another thread. Will the PC simply pass the signal along to the 55TXi and let it do the processing or is it something in the USB chips that limit it to stereo only. Seems odd this would be the case, that they would limit it to stereo operation, but who knows. I will attempt do some testing once the 55TX arrives.

 

[DanielSmi]

I think the USb in the 45TX and maybe 55TXi are USB 1.1 while the 59TXi is usb 2.0. I think 2.0 is required to transfer mult-ch audio since it's a faster connection than 1.1.


Daniel Smith

 

[Gordon McGregor]

Daniel, actually USB 1.1 can support the data-stream till 12 mB/s and as we know DTS data-stream is 1.536 mB/s max and DD multi-channel is only 640kB/s max ... so the point is not in the speed of connection. The problem is probably in the USB receiver PCM2902, as it is a stereo codec: http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm2902.pdf

By the way here is it's loop test by RMAA, we can see that this codec is pretty good not only for mp3 signals, but for CD signals as well
http://hepso.dna.fi/misc/pcm2902/PCM2902.htm

My suggestion is that in 59TXi they already had planned to support WMA9 and used another chip instead of PCM2902 for USB support ...

 

[talo]

Oh well, it was a shot...

Was hoping for something more than just 2 channel. Maybe some mod int he future...

 

[Gordon McGregor]

Quote:

Originally posted by talo Oh well, it was a shot... Was hoping for something more than just 2 channel. Maybe some mod int he future...

Why in the future? It is already exist

Buy this device http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...1119907053a313 , connect it by Firewire (the standard 1394 cable could be pretty long) to your PC, put it close to your receiver to make analog connections as short as possible - that's it ... or you can use SPDIF if you prefer D/A conversion in the receiver ...

 

[talo]

Really, the firewire connection from the PC will work? I thought it was proprietary for pioneer to pioneer devices. This is indeed good news Gordon, Thanks!!!

 

[Gordon McGregor]

Wait talo!

The firewire connection for PC to soundcard will work, not from PC to Pioneer! Firewire in PC (1394) does not support encryption ... There is a manual at M-Audio web site, please read carefully.

 

[talo]

I guess I will have to understand what I can and cannot do with both the USB and iLink of the 55TX. My hope was that my HTPC was the source for DVD Playback, Audio (MP3, WMA....), DVR and other media applications (photo viewer.)


Ideally I could have used either iLink or the USB connection to route the audio signal from the HTPC to the 55TX then to my wonderful Boston VR-Ms. I guess what I'm intepreting from your posts is that I will need to use either the toslink or digital coax on the PC sound card to perfom this function.


I apoligize for seeming to be dense on this, but integrating all of these electronics into a simply and efficient HT setup can be daunting.

 

[Xavier]

or put all these electronices to an external pre/pro with HDMI switching.

 

[talo]

I suppose I could spend that money, but why? I thought the thread was about seeing what the built-in connections the Pioneer offered can do for this type of connectivity. In the end if usb or firewire will not suffice, I can simply use the digital out from my sound card to the digital coax in of my receiver. Seems to be a more economical solution that spending a wad on some pre/pro with HDMI switching.

 

[Teeh]

If I'm correctly reading the popup that appears when the mouse is placed over "USB PC Input" at this site here , the 59txi does in fact act as a sound card. I suppose this means that it accepts and handles USB the same as SPDIF streams.