[kelly]

A few people have made references to a somewhat expensive Denon receiver that includes Dolby Headphone. If anyone has access to one, I have some brief questions.

Over in the HeadRoom forum, I suggested to Tyll that I'd be interested in a high end headphone amp that included Dolby Headphone. Tyll stated that it's not really possible to make a traditional amp with Dolby Headphone because the processing occurs in the digital domain.

Well, now I'm confused about what the Denon actually does. I thought the implication was that the Denon could do Dolby Headphone processing on any source coming through the analog jacks. Does it actually only work on sources coming through a digital jack?

 

[bootman]

That receiver (AVR-5803) has 192 kHz A/D capabilities, so it would appear that the analog inputs are converted to digital first before any processing is done on them.
(DH or otherwise. ie bass management)

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by bootman That receiver (AVR-5803) has 192 kHz A/D capabilities, so it would appear that the analog inputs are converted to digital first before any processing is done on them. (DH or otherwise. ie bass management)

 

[bootman]

Yeah I know, but how else are they going to do it over analog?
DH like DD is a digital format.
Now if they come up with a DH spec that works with Dolby Pro II then I guess it could be done analog.

 

[kelly]

boot
I mistakenly thought it WAS analog. Unfortunately this means I'll never be using it at home with my SACD player.

Still hope for the work system and portables I suppose.

 

[Calanctus]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly boot I mistakenly thought it WAS analog. Unfortunately this means I'll never be using it at home with my SACD player.

Kelly, is that because the A/D conversion would negatively impact the sound?

Isn't it possible at this point to do A/D conversion that is transparent, or almost transparent? I thought the technology had come a long way...?

 

[kelly]

Quote:

Originally posted by Calanctus Kelly, is that because the A/D conversion would negatively impact the sound? Isn't it possible at this point to do A/D conversion that is transparent, or almost transparent? I thought the technology had come a long way...?

In addition to A/D, which is expensive to do correctly by itself, there would also be D/A conversion, which is also expensive to do well. The bulk of expense in my digital source is in the DAC and amplification. To introduce another analog->digital->analog conversion to that would be... well, a stupid waste of money on my part.

 

[Calanctus]

Something else to consider: Denon is planning to introduce (if it's not already out) a DVD-A player with a *proprietary* digital connection to their receiver. It may not be for you, Kelly, since you have an SACD player already, but anyone who wants hi-rez sound AND Dolby Headphone without all those A/D/A conversions could do this.

A couple of quick links on the Denon player are here and here.