Hello there,
I am fairly new to the site and was looking for some hopefully simple and straight forward advice. I am abit of a noob to be honest when it comes to sound, never had a surround sound set up before so i finally took the plunge after hearing my fathers excellent set-up.
I am just seeking your views on the ideal way to set up the new av system which i have just acquired. I managed to get a Cambridge Audio AZUR 540R V2 (£119 from Richer sounds in Glasgow). I will be hooking this up to a Tannoy fx5.1 speaker system (£69.99 also from Richer sounds).
To the amp, i will be connecting via optical the following, a Playstation 3, an Xbox 360 and my television (Sony KDL 40V3000). I understand i will only get basic dolby pseudo surround via the tv, don't worry guys i'm not expecting true 5.1 for that. The reason i'm thinking i will hook all the tv up via optical is because it has an optical out and i have a spare optical cable, so i thought why not.
Now this is where your advice would be greatly appreciated, i notice on the PS3's audio settings several options are listed under Digital out (Optical), for example Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Ch,AAC and a few linear PCM 2 ch's at different frequencies.
What should i choose? IS DTS best? What is AAC?
My
second question is more minor and is just outta interest. On the music options on the PS3 you can choose the audio cd output frequency, 44.1,88.2,176.4 khz. Regarding my set up (Amp etc), should i choose the highest? I imagine this will give the better sound?
Thirdly under the dvd/video settings on the PS3 i can choose Bitstream or Linear PCM, considering my set-up, what would be best? I watch blu-rays and dvd's on the PS3 aswell. Please note again that the audio will be by optical cable, not HDMI. The HDMI will only be used for visuals. Indeed this will be the case visually with all 3 of my inputs to the amp (ps3,xbox and tv,all HDMI). I heard generally that Linear is best, though this could be nonsense and this is only the case if the AV system can handle it, as its less compressed.
A kinda vague
forth query is in the not so distant future i will probably get a rear centre speaker, as the AZUR 540RV2 can work as a 6.1 system. If this is the case, i do not notice any 6.1 options on the PS3, only a number or 5.1 and 7.1 options (and the 7.1 only under HDMI sound options, not Optical which i will be using). What would i choose? Will the 5.1 settings upscale to a 6.1 effect?
Ok so i apologise for the mammoth post. Any comments/ suggestions to my questions would be really appreciated. Also in general terms, regarding my proposed set-up.
Thanks alot!
Mark