But the overall bias against using headphones for TV/Home theater is as ridiculous to me as the home theater bias against headphones.
Huh? The bias against using headphones for home theatre is that you can't get home theatre on headphones! All you can get is stereo, an old, legacy TV audio format which was superseded years ago. And, you're not even getting a specifically designed stereo mix (as used to be the case) but an automated downmix to stereo generated by your Dolby chip from the 5.1 mix.
Both the traditionalists and the experimenters can benefit from external DACs.
I'm confused about who are the "experimenters" and who the "traditionalists"? Presumably the "traditionalists" are the ones using external DACs/headphones to listen in the old, traditional TV (stereo) format?
[2] A totally unfair, biased, and unscientific comparison on one hand. But a great way to glean any substantial advantage to the multi-bit approach....
1. You're just making it up! Do you even know what broadcast standard specifications are?
2. You're on a roll now, why let "a totally unfair, biased and unscientific comparison" spoil an opportunity for some serious fanboy'ism?
If i wanted surround i would just let my surround processor take care of it. I find 2ch to provide a much more realistic wall to wall of sound.
Your surround processor IS "taking care of it", how do you think it gets from surround to 2ch?
2ch stereo has never been a film audio format and never will be. All commercial films are made in a surround audio format and have been for 3-4 decades! It's called "home theatre" because it attempts to recreate the theatrical experience at home (not a difficult concept to grasp really!) and the theatrical experience is surround sound plus an LFE channel. Headphones simply cannot recreate this! Furthermore, in developed countries most of the TV programming is also now 5.1.
I get it, many of you seem to be Schiit and/or headphone fanbois and therefore obviously have a preference for headphones. That's fine of course but please, a touch of common sense rather this extremism would go a long way to stopping the vast majority of the audio world seeing audiophiles as complete nutters and allow those of us with an actual love of audio to use the term "audiophile" without embarrassment. By all means state your preference but enough of the silly claims; headphones by definition can only produce an ear to ear sound, let alone a "much more realistic wall to wall sound" and, it's not ridiculous for home theatre enthusiasts to eschew headphones and prefer the actual sound mix as it was designed. If anything is ridiculous, it's that you don't! As with all extremists though, they see themselves as "enlightened" and everyone else as ridiculous.
For this reason, I assume I'll get the predictable response when extremists are challenged/questioned (insults/abuse) and I doubt there's any point to me responding further but at least this is in the thread now, just in case there's anyone reading who's interested in rational info! Schiit gear is good and as a company they engage in less BS than some other audiophile companies but a Mimby is not designed for surround sound and downmixing a surround mix into LoRo stereo is NOT an improvement! Regardless of how good the Mimby really is, it cannot magically conjure up details which do not exist in the sound mix and although many films have excellent sound mixes, they are ALL significantly within the limitations of 16/44.1.
G