Ep30 poor sound compared to 360......

dukesters · 21-09-2009, 1:07 PM

Recently got hold of an ep30 and whilst happy with the pq I find the sound is very poor when compared to my 360 hd dvd drive.

Both are going through to my non hdmi denon amp via optical but the difference in sound is huge. Ep30 is very dull in comparison especially in surround modes.

I think ive tried every possible setting on the ep30 but just cant get it near the 360. Is a real pest as the pq is alot better on the ep30 especially when it comes to sd dvds.

Anyone think the same or maybe its just me?

Keane · 21-09-2009, 7:57 PM

I've got both, and I found the same thing!

The 360 sound was better by far (I was also going through optical into my sony amp).

To be fair, I didn't play around with it for long and I'm sure it's not right. I just keep the ep-30 in the bedroom and still use the elite with the add on in the lounge.

If anyone can shed any light on why this is I would be very interested

Rom · 21-09-2009, 8:33 PM

This all boils down to you using a non HDMI capable amp. The optical connection can only carry DD & DTS or stereo PCM.

Now, the difference between the 360 and EP30 is that the 360 will take the HD audio off disc, decode it and re-encode the audio at DD's max bitrate (640k IIRC). It can do this because it has a lot of CPU power enabling it to do this.

However, the EP30 cannot, it can just decode the streams off disc and send PCM (over optical you will only get stereo due to the bandwidth limitation) or send the DD bitstream that is on the disc for your amp to decode.

The big difference is that a DD track on a normal movie is usually encoded at a lower bitrate than DD's maximum (340k IIRC) - so, the 360 will sound better.

If you move to an HDMI capable amp then the tables turn and the EP30 can pass the HD audio streams as full PCM and you will find that the EP30 will sound better than the 360.

Keane · 21-09-2009, 8:45 PM

Thanks for that

So basically, unless I upgrade to and hdmi enabled amp, there is no way around this problem?

Rom · 21-09-2009, 9:07 PM

Correct. Samsung implemented a similar system to the 360 in their BD players re-encoding the audio to high bitrate DTS.

Remember, the EP30 can't bitstream DTS HD or Dolby TrueHD so its not necessarily a really expensive option. you would only need an amp that can accept PCM over HDMI and leave the player to decode. You don't really need an amp that decodes DTS HD or Dolby THD.

dukesters · 21-09-2009, 10:49 PM

Thanks for an excellent explanation Rom

I was begining to think that the ep30 just wasnt upto the job.

If I were to replace my ep30 with a 35 or xe1 and use the 6 phono option would I then be getting the equivelant sound I would from a hdmi amp?

Rom · 22-09-2009, 9:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukesters

If I were to replace my ep30 with a 35 or xe1 and use the 6 phono option would I then be getting the equivelant sound I would from a hdmi amp?

Yes, that would work, you would get the full HD sounds from the players through your amp

dukesters · 22-09-2009, 9:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rom

Yes, that would work, you would get the full HD sounds from the players through your amp

Great stuff

gives me somthing to chew on but may end up replacing the amp anyway as the ep35 and xe1 still make good money. Off to the classifieds me thinks...

*Spader* · 16-10-2009, 11:02 AM

I did not know this, thanks for posting! Yet another reason to get an HDMI enabled amp asap.

One thing, I have the optical and the stereo outs from my EP30 running into my amp and the audio on CDs and stereo DVDs/HDDVDs is much better. I assume it's maybe the EP30's DAC.

However, I'm wondering - with HDDVD discs encoded with a DD+mono/stereo track how would I set my player to get the best possible sound out of disc, when playing through the dedicated stereo outs?