[gregorio]

Many of the original responses were incorrect. There was no difference in LFE level between DD and DTS, or equalisation or directionality difference. DD had different audio compression presets which could be stored in the DD metadata, was more heavily data compressed than DTS and was typically played back by AVRs at a lower level than DTS. DTS did have a much better data compression ratio and was audibly slightly superior but most of the difference people thought they were hearing was purely down to the level difference. One responder mentioned THX but THX isn't an audio format. As far as consumers are concerned it's just means a piece of home cinema equipment has passed THX quality standards. In cinemas, THX is a completely different thing, it provides installation/construction standards, such as the amount of baffling between speakers to aid speaker separation. Another responder mentioned cinema sound being crap, the sample rate of DD being inferior to DTS and using your ears. Unfortunately, that responder's ears appear to have been working in reverse, there was no difference in sample rate between DD and DTS and cinema audio was superior to both because DCP only supported uncompressed wav 24/48 (no DD or DTS). Although in 2003 some cinemas were still using 35mm film but even so, 35mm film DD had a higher bit rate than the consumer version of DD.

Today, the situation is far more complex. There are numerous different formats/codecs covered by both DD and DTS and making sure you're comparing apples with apples is not as straight forward as it was 15-20 years ago. Depending on the individual AVR, the codec and the format chosen within that codec, DD can be better than DTS or vice versa.

G

 

[tripletopper]

There's one reason why I (from my personal perspective) say Dolby is better than DTS. My Dolby headphones (remember, we are on head-fi.org, a headphone enthusiast's site. On lddb.com you might get a different answer) get excellent directions on all Dolby movies, as expected because Dolby works with Dolby. Playing DTS on a game machine (PS3, Xbox One S) sounds good with my headset if you're in the right mode, the Dolby Digital Mode, not the Pro Logic mod on the headphones. Same goes for the game machine. Your options are either "Keep Native", "Convert all to Dolby", or "Convert all to DTS" (it's not that simple as that. There are 3 different setting on 2 different submenus which effect it.) which all my machines are on "Convert all to Dolby". But stand-alone machines usually don't have the option to convert either way. I assume if a Dolby Headphone works with all Dolby movies, then a DTS headphone would work for all DTS movies (As for Apocalypto, my ONLY movie with ONLY LPCM 5.1, I don't know what to do. But is LITERALLY one movie worth getting LPCM 7.1 headphones for, because nothing else outside a game machine else will decode it?)

So I bought a Sony MDR-DS6500 Surround sound which has a light for DD, D PL, and DTS, but none of the 3 logos. It's a third party interpretation of those sound languages. It isn't explicitly lying when it says it takes DTS input and plays, but the implied lie is that it will output in Headphone-mixed stereo. It sounds like a weaker version of a standard stereo LPCM track, but not a detailed.

I guess it's a hand-in-glove situation, Dolby Headphones fit Dolby Movies and DTS headphones fit DTS Movies. Though it's kind of annoying to read the fine print of what format the English track is in and getting the corresponding headphone, it might be worth it if other dual standard headphone is either weak like my Sony, or is expensive. And then there's the Apocalypto issue.

Anyone know of any Turtle Beach-like Gaming headsets that take at least DTS input (either Toslink or HDMI) and outputs a surround headphone track that is directionally accurate. If it also does Dolby for not that much more, that would be a plus because I can sell my Dolby headphones, but if it's too much beyond, I'll use the extra toslink wire and extra power plug.

Finally, it doesn't have to be a gaming headset, because it's going to my stand-alone 4K+3D player, which doesn't have sound language converters, and I can't use the Mic for anything on a stand-alone 4K+3D machine. A Mic is not a deal killer but if I have a choice, I'll decide.

Funny thing is that even Turtle Beach's DTS Headphones only work on Dolby input. World Trade Federation? Why would you want a DTS-specific headphone if it doesn't decode DTS sound on a machine that needs a DTS headphone to decode DTS movies right?

One feature I would want is 3.5 mm output so another set of wireless headsets can hook up to it.

I wrote to Turtle Beach. I say I have a typical BD+3D+4K collection and by a 3:2 ratio, the movies use DTS over Dolby. They will consider that making their next headphone. I say "hand in glove".

Any suggestions for DTS-> DTS Headphone converters?