Please advise a newbie on optimum sound set up :)

[babyloncher]

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

[systems]

In summary:

Setting your PS3 to "bitstream" effectively means "give the audio to the external processor to deal with" whereas PCM effectively means "the PS3 does all the processing and gives the processes signal to the processor to output directly to the speakers". Note that in order to output HD audio formats from a PS3 you *must* use PCM (as stated on the Dolby and DTS websites).

Setting your CD sampling rate on the PS3 is effectively doing the same as an upscaler does for an image. There is a help guide on the subject on the PS3 official website.

I have a question for you though. Are you using optical cables because you have them, or because you have to (no HDMI)? I would stick with HDMI where possible.

[mossym]

i'm guessing your using optical as if i remember correctly, the CA doesn't support audio over hdim. if that is the case leave the ps3 set to bitstream as it is the best you will get

[davepuma]

Yep, set to optical and tick all the boxes is the simple answer.

[babyloncher]

Originally Posted by systems

In summary:

Setting your PS3 to "bitstream" effectively means "give the audio to the external processor to deal with" whereas PCM effectively means "the PS3 does all the processing and gives the processes signal to the processor to output directly to the speakers". Note that in order to output HD audio formats from a PS3 you *must* use PCM (as stated on the Dolby and DTS websites).

Setting your CD sampling rate on the PS3 is effectively doing the same as an upscaler does for an image. There is a help guide on the subject on the PS3 official website.

I have a question for you though. Are you using optical cables because you have them, or because you have to (no HDMI)? I would stick with HDMI where possible.

Hi, thanks for your input so far

In reply to your question, like the gent below says i am planning on using optical because HDMI on the Cambridge Audio only passes through visuals and no sounds, and the visuals on the V2 will only be 1080i. If i connect the PS3 direct to my TV via HDMI i get 1080p.