Kef q550 "upgrade" woes

I feel that as you have come from a pair of older Kef's you should certainly be hearing some parts of them that should be exciting especially since you have a woofer working on the bottom end

Have you changed the quality of the music from MP3?

Yeah well the bass deffo sounds tighter with the sealed unit, I like it, esp in this room.
However there's such a small amount of it, without the (also sealed) sub I'd have been quite underwhelmed.

Kef did suggest q750 to be honest when I asked what to replace q55, but I thought they'd still kick out some bass of the higher tones (like 70hz - 200hz) pretty loudly, and then my sub could handle everything else nicely.

I THINK they're a little clearer, but as said I'm really indecisive mentally. I have no idea to test.
I've just been listening though a tracklist and making notes on the tracks in iTunes (eg if I hear something distorted, not right, or something new in the tracks ☺).
 
- just plug to TV?
EARC - meh... dolby digital, pure, dts hd master, all sounds the same to me.

There are a lot of contradictions in your setup/posts

If you can't hear the difference, why is your pc sound card encoding everything as dolby digital?

I had a sound card with that feature twenty years ago. But since then HDMI from graphics card replaced it, sending the digital audio directly to the avr. Even the windows dolby atmos feature isn't necessary.

I have windows set to 7.1, and when I'm listening to music it sends the audio as 2.1 so that my avr receives it as stereo. From there the avr can upmix if I want

Seems odd to be so insistent on mp3 or YouTube and be complaining about poor sound quality or better quality speakers showing up imperfections

Maybe try a trial of tidal or Amazon Music?
 
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There are a lot of contradictions in your setup/posts

If you can't hear the difference, why is your pc sound card encoding everything as dolby digital?

I had a sound card with that feature twenty years ago.

Seems odd to be so insistent on mp3 or YouTube and be complaining about poor sound quality or better quality speakers showing up imperfections

Maybe try a trial of tidal or Amazon Music?

Thanks for suspensions but... How will amazon music be any better, if anything amazon will be streaming much lower quality or compressed mp3s and is connected with a lower quality physical 3.5mm jack (as oppose to toslink which even arcam seem to love). I could be wrong,
Is a quality bitstream not preferred to streaming via WiFi?

Or are you saying really I should be using cds or expect better speakers to sound worse or at least not any better?
I listened to the same mp3s in richer sounds demo'ing some monitor audio bronze 6, the sound was totally diff to the kef (much better mid range bass/punch I'd say, was likely a £3000 amp though 😂 ).

Can't say I noticed a diff in quality when I used amazon music got 8months though. Not surprised though, even some 128kbps tracks sound great (aac).

Is there something bad I don't know about dolby digital live? If you know of a more recent feature I should be using instead would love to know.
 
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Seems odd to be so insistent on mp3 or YouTube and be complaining about poor sound quality or better quality speakers showing up imperfections

Maybe try a trial of tidal or Amazon Music?

Not sure if you read before also but the imperfections picked up by q550 were due to onkyo filtering on audyssey, plus maybe them being brighter than the q55. No issues with those sounds now.

Once I got rid of audyssey, these "imperfections" sounded fine, not exaggerated, and I expect if I turn up the sound of the cards higher frequency to match brightness of q550 it'll be similar/the same.
 
Amazon Music, just like tidal offers lossless quality options. I never said anything about changing connection

And refer back to my edit re DD live alternative

Edit: all I see across two threads is you complaining about your purchases whilst using questionable sources and dodgy configuration options

At some point you should stop blaming the tools
 
Amazon Music, just like tidal offers lossless quality options. I never said anything about changing connection

And refer back to my edit re DD live alternative
awesome thanks saw your edit. I made one also: should I be using cds nowadays or something then? Thought nobody did (as main source). And was reading about a few mainstream music downloading apps not bothering with lossless as nobody was interested. Never seen on my alexa, how do i try it?

I'm still confused as to how hdmi would be better quality 0/1s... are you saying there is a potential issue with with my sound card putting my music into a low quality dolby digital live stream?
It won't send 2.1 with music on my pc at least, it'll send 2.0 which I believe is normal, then the amp sends bass to sub.
New to subs but that's what I understood. As before I was using "direct" mode. Now I must use stereo mode on amp, to use new sub.

I've always thought it was better to have a sound card to process the audio... Plus I'd lose all my eq settings no?
 
Think my old man even has an old SACD player somewhere. Even he thought it was useless though, on a £4000 quad and roksan setup. Do they even still do SACD? Or is lossless mainly just FLAC / ALAC etc?

Edit: not useless, but not worth the hassle.

Maybe I have inherited bad ears to not notice much if any difference in my FLACs vs mp3s (most are apple AAC I believe).

Interest in your guys thoughts on this, but at the same time don't wanna open a can of worms, as I honestly can't see how this would cause farting on one pair of speakers and not on another on the same setup. New ones should sound great... Again guys these q55.2's are looking old and cat has battered one mid range 😂 😂 😂.
 
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I would get back in contact with the dealer where you bought them. I obviously feel you are never going to get on with them

As for the differences, the 55’s being older will hide some of the information as the Uni-Q drivers has been radically improved since yours

So, what you could be hearing is what the MP3 really sounds like in your room via the equipment being used, warts and all

Better products have a nasty habit of showing more imperfections and this could be what’s happening in this instance to make matters worse although there is something niggling me

In reality, I would be surprised if the 55’s would out perform the 550’s with a woofer on the bottom end. But, hear the oddity. Your ears could just be so tuned into them, that the 550’s are just the wrong upgrade speaker for you

Have to say I would love to get my hands on the system to see if I could get it right!

If your able to take a video of the two system so we can hear playing the same track (even this this won’t be relevant for quality, it should enable us to identify the differences). That might give us an idea of what you are fighting with
 
awesome thanks saw your edit. I made one also: should I be using cds nowadays or something then? Thought nobody did (as main source). And was reading about a few mainstream music downloading apps not bothering with lossless as nobody was interested. Never seen on my alexa, how do i try it?

I'm still confused as to how hdmi would be better quality 0/1s... are you saying there is a potential issue with with my sound card putting my music into a low quality dolby digital live stream?
It won't send 2.1 with music on my pc at least, it'll send 2.0 which I believe is normal, then the amp sends bass to sub.
New to subs but that's what I understood. As before I was using "direct" mode. Now I must use stereo mode on amp, to use new sub.

I've always thought it was better to have a sound card to process the audio... Plus I'd lose all my eq settings no?


I was using DD live as an example of you contradicting yourself by using "old" technology whilst claiming you can't hear the difference in the newer codecs

All DD Live does is "dress up" sound coming from your pc as 5.1 and as it's bog standard DD then the bit rate isn't very high. So you may be getting a dolby digital signal that makes dolby light up on the avr but so what?

And DD Live certainly isn't needed to send bass to the sub.

My Nvidia GFX card goes via HDMI to the AVR, speakers are configured as 7.1 and small in windows sound settings. Just double checked with Skreams Let's Get Ravey Remix of In for the Kill via Spotify desktop app and AVR set to stereo - the sub woofer is most definitely outputting

Have to say I would love to get my hands on the system to see if I could get it right!

It's 100% his choice of sources and the way he has his system configured. Your last post in his sub thread was accurate I think - it's the way he has his soundcard set up to encode everything as 640 kbit/s Dolby Digital.

I can't be bothered to go through all the steps to check, but a few nights ago I noticed my Denon upmixing modes weren't doing anything and it was because of the way Windows sound settings were configured IIRC (actually I did check LOL). - with Windows set to 7.1 and outputting a stereo source (spotify) none of the AVR modes upmix probably because it's already receiving a 7.1 signal. If I set Windows Sound Settings to "stereo" then the upmixing works (eg vocals from centre speaker etc)

Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent and DD Live isn't entirely to blame.

I guess it's like configuring a HTPC with MadVR - you have to set every link in the chain correctly for best picture quality eg Full vs Limited colour range on GFX driver, MadVR and TV
 
I was using DD live as an example of you contradicting yourself by using "old" technology whilst claiming you can't hear the difference in the newer codecs

All DD Live does is "dress up" sound coming from your pc as 5.1 and as it's bog standard DD then the bit rate isn't very high. So you may be getting a dolby digital signal that makes dolby light up on the avr but so what?

And DD Live certainly isn't needed to send bass to the sub.

My Nvidia GFX card goes via HDMI to the AVR, speakers are configured as 7.1 and small in windows sound settings. Just double checked with Skreams Let's Get Ravey Remix of In for the Kill via Spotify desktop app and AVR set to stereo - the sub woofer is most definitely outputting



It's 100% his choice of sources and the way he has his system configured. Your last post in his sub thread was accurate I think - it's the way he has his soundcard set up to encode everything as 640 kbit/s Dolby Digital.

I can't be bothered to go through all the steps to check, but a few nights ago I noticed my Denon upmixing modes weren't doing anything and it was because of the way Windows sound settings were configured IIRC (actually I did check LOL). - with Windows set to 7.1 and outputting a stereo source (spotify) none of the AVR modes upmix probably because it's already receiving a 7.1 signal. If I set Windows Sound Settings to "stereo" then the upmixing works (eg vocals from centre speaker etc)

Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent and DD Live isn't entirely to blame.

I guess it's like configuring a HTPC with MadVR - you have to set every link in the chain correctly for best picture quality eg Full vs Limited colour range on GFX driver, MadVR and TV

Ok no offence my friend but suggest you'd go do a bit of reading about what DD live is before coming to a 100% (and incorrect) assumption the issue is sources.

DD live wasn't even invented when you said you were using it... I and its a newer tech than the tech you're using (hdmi)...

And you haven't said anything to convince me why music would fart on one speaker and not the other sorry.

Just played the same track from my phone...its more flat (as no eq from pc) but farts all the same (on the q550, not on my q55, headphones or phone speakers).
 
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Ok no offence my friend but suggest you'd go do a bit of reading about what DD live is before coming to a 100% (and incorrect) assumption the issue is sources.

DD live wasn't even invented when you said you were using it... I and its a newer tech than the tech you're using (hdmi)...

And you haven't said anything to convince me why music would fart on one speaker and not the other sorry.

Just played the same track from my phone...its more flat (as no eq from pc) but farts all the same (on the q550, not on my q55, headphones or phone speakers).

Offence taken - as I told you - I had Dolby Digital Live encoding in my system 20 years ago back when my first home theatre system was the Digitheatre DTS and the feature was literally built into Nvidia motherboards LMAO. (or it might have been AMD Athlon - my memory is understandably hazy(

HECK, if I hadn't just shutdown my desktop and started up my laptop I'd literally show you the instruction manual that for some reason is still saved in /Old PC Docs/ for this Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect SoundCard | Ebuyer.com

which is the last device I had with DD Live encoding.

But yeah, we've quickly reached the point that I was pretty sure would happen. You're too set in your ways to listen to advice. The fact you're flat out incorrect re DD Live means I have no desire to keep trying to assist you, especially when you're so spectacularly wrong
 
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"Dolby Digital Live (DDL) is a real-time encoding technology for interactive media such as video games. It converts any audio signals on a PC or game console into a 5.1-channel 16-bit/48 kHz Dolby Digital format at 640 kbit/s and transports it via a single S/PDIF cable.[25] A similar technology known as DTS Connect is available from competitor DTS. An important benefit of this technology is that it enables the use of digital multichannel sound with consumer sound cards, which are otherwise limited to digital PCM stereo or analog multichannel sound because S/PDIF over RCA, BNC, and TOSLINK can only support two-channel PCM, Dolby Digital multichannel audio, and DTS multichannel audio. HDMI was later introduced, and it can carry uncompressed multichannel PCM, lossless compressed multichannel audio, and lossy compressed digital audio. However, Dolby Digital Live is still useful with HDMI to allow transport of multichannel audio over HDMI to devices that are unable to handle uncompressed multichannel PCM.


LMAO
 
Here we go. Xplosion manual is saved on my pc and dated 13/11/2007 - so for some reason I've kept it for 15 years lol and that was AFTER I had similar feature on my Nvidia /Athlon motherboard and wanting to keep it was the reason for buying a separate soundcard with it on.......until I went HDMI and no longer needed it
 

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After some googling I've found it - the feature was Nvidia Nforce chipsets from 2001 (which tallies exactly with my memory as I was working at PC World at the time and bought a number of Advent Athlon systems via staff discounts)

nForce APU (SoundStorm)[edit]​

Main article: SoundStorm
Nvidia debuted their advanced NVAPU audio solution, branded SoundStorm, on the nForce MCP-D southbridge chip. It is the same as the audio processor in the Xbox chipset and supports many hardware-accelerated 2D/3D audio channels and advanced HRTF 3D audio spatialization. It also has a built-in processor for encoding computer audio into a Dolby Digital Live signal for external receivers to decode into a 5.1-channel audio spread. With its hardware acceleration, the difference in CPU usage when running popular multimedia applications was as much as 10-20%, potentially allowing faster performance in programs that are limited by the system CPU.


The SoundStorm audio system was one of the first consumer computer audio products to offer real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. This meant that one could play games or music and output them as a 5.1 stream digitally to an external decoding speaker system. This solves a common problem with most digital sound solutions of having to hook up both digital and analog connections at the same time so you can have surround sound in both games (using the analog connections) and movies (using the digital connection). Only recently has Dolby Digital live allowed competitors such as Creative's x-fi line up to offer real time DD 5.1 encoding.



So yes, as I've been telling you all along - by using Dolby Digital Live, you're using 20 year old technology to dress up everything leaving your pc in a 20 year old low bitrate signal. It may be "digital" but the bitrate is lower than what Netflix is outputting these days.
 
Offence taken - as I told you - I had Dolby Digital Live encoding in my system 20 years ago back when my first home theatre system was the Digitheatre DTS and the feature was literally built into Nvidia motherboards LMAO. (or it might have been AMD Athlon - my memory is understandably hazy(

HECK, if I hadn't just shutdown my desktop and started up my laptop I'd literally show you the instruction manual that for some reason is still saved in /Old PC Docs/ for this Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect SoundCard | Ebuyer.com

which is the last device I had with DD Live encoding.

But yeah, we've quickly reached the point that I was pretty sure would happen. You're too set in your ways to listen to advice. The fact you're flat out incorrect re DD Live means I have no desire to keep trying to assist you, especially when you're so spectacularly wrong


I'm not "set in my ways" just put yourself in my shoes you have said absolutely nothing to convince me DD live is the issue here:
I have absolutely no idea how you still think this is the issue if you've read what I've said above. 😂 😂 😂
  • They fart with no dd live and no pc involved
  • DD live sounds great....
-As does dolby true hd
-128kbps sound great (mostly) as do 966kpbs rips
- as does good old dolby digital from TV.
-as does alexa or laptop or anything else plugged in!!
Until I play these tracks no matter the source... And fart.

Ive listened to your glorious "New" tech, been there mate got the t-shirt, SACD +FLAC from when I was in school so like 1999??
And I thought it was much of an anti climax as most did at the time (and assumed, correct me if there's been improvements, still do).
You shouldn't Need lossless FLAC etc for your music to not sound like garbage or even great (again, I simply mean farting, this isn't an old vs new debate).
 
I'm not "set in my ways" just put yourself in my shoes you have said absolutely nothing to convince me DD live is the issue here:
I have absolutely no idea how you still think this is the issue if you've read what I've said above. 😂 😂 😂
  • They fart with no dd live and no pc involved
  • DD live sounds great....
-As does dolby true hd
-128kbps sound great (mostly) as do 966kpbs rips
- as does good old dolby digital from TV.
-as does alexa or laptop or anything else plugged in!!
Until I play these tracks no matter the source... And fart.

Ive listened to your glorious "New" tech, been there mate got the t-shirt, SACD +FLAC from when I was in school so like 1999??
And I thought it was much of an anti climax as most did at the time (and assumed, correct me if there's been improvements, still do).
You shouldn't Need lossless FLAC etc for your music to not sound like garbage or even great (again, I simply mean farting, this isn't an old vs new debate).

I'm gonna stop replying soon because you're not worth trying to help, and you're responding to things I haven't even said (like how "have you tried Amazon Music or Tidal?" has now become SACD and FLAC)

All I've asked is why you're using DD Live, which is 20+ years old. To which you then tried to argue that it's newer than HDMI - which as I pointed out was laughably incorrect.

I also haven't said anything about your speakers "farting". What caught my attention was you, in two different threads, complaining about your hardware whilst having questionable configuation choices (like DD Live) and also contradicting yourself
 
After some googling I've found it - the feature was Nvidia Nforce chipsets from 2001 (which tallies exactly with my memory as I was working at PC World at the time and bought a number of Advent Athlon systems via staff discounts)

nForce APU (SoundStorm)[edit]​

Main article: SoundStorm
Nvidia debuted their advanced NVAPU audio solution, branded SoundStorm, on the nForce MCP-D southbridge chip. It is the same as the audio processor in the Xbox chipset and supports many hardware-accelerated 2D/3D audio channels and advanced HRTF 3D audio spatialization. It also has a built-in processor for encoding computer audio into a Dolby Digital Live signal for external receivers to decode into a 5.1-channel audio spread. With its hardware acceleration, the difference in CPU usage when running popular multimedia applications was as much as 10-20%, potentially allowing faster performance in programs that are limited by the system CPU.


The SoundStorm audio system was one of the first consumer computer audio products to offer real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. This meant that one could play games or music and output them as a 5.1 stream digitally to an external decoding speaker system. This solves a common problem with most digital sound solutions of having to hook up both digital and analog connections at the same time so you can have surround sound in both games (using the analog connections) and movies (using the digital connection). Only recently has Dolby Digital live allowed competitors such as Creative's x-fi line up to offer real time DD 5.1 encoding.



So yes, as I've been telling you all along - by using Dolby Digital Live, you're using 20 year old technology to dress up everything leaving your pc in a 20 year old low bitrate signal. It may be "digital" but the bitrate is lower than what Netflix is outputting these days.

And apologies no offence meant, quick Google confirmed it wasn't until late 2005 it was in the consumer market (I guess for sound cards not mobos?), but yeah auzentech and xplosion all ring bells.

I had them all I think but my knowledge or rather experience goes back to when I first got this amp (onkyo tx-sr508) in around 2010 or something, when lossless stuff like dolby true HD and dts hd master were brand new I integrated pc and Hifi.... and FLAC/SACD etc by that time were very old and mostly forgotten about.

I remember being exited for a sound card though as at the time, it was very very difficult to output games to a receiver in 5.1 as they mostly used a pc only 5.1 codec (IIRC something "3d" ?)
 
I'm gonna stop replying soon because you're not worth trying to help, and you're responding to things I haven't even said (like how "have you tried Amazon Music or Tidal?" has now become SACD and FLAC)

All I've asked is why you're using DD Live, which is 20+ years old. To which you then tried to argue that it's newer than HDMI - which as I pointed out was laughably incorrect.

I also haven't said anything about your speakers "farting". What caught my attention was you, in two different threads, complaining about your hardware whilst having questionable configuation choices (like DD Live) and also contradicting yourself

I asked that and you ignored -
1) I'm using it because I believe it is supposed to be superior to use a real sound card to a gpu/mobo passthrough, and mentioned I may be incorrect
And
2) I won't have any eq settings if I do that
+3) above it gives dolby 5.1 in any game that on any pc codec. Pc games may all have dolby now though? Not sure I've had this amp and sound card 10 years but it works.

Don't reply if you don't want to nobody is forcing you. You've got beef with DD live, (when this has absolutely nothing to do with my issue but you state "it 100% is") I still have no idea why when compared to what you're doing it would seem inferior and you still haven't really answered that either.

I mentioned SACD and FLAC because you're making out I'm complaining about sound quality when I'm using old tech.
 
Ok I've just tried your theory, sorry but what can I say... Sound quality from my gpu sounds, well flat (as no eq), and well... Of the same quality or maybe worse actually, to my ears at least.

And its still farting.

Am I doing something wrong? It should sound crisper over hdmi? What am I missing exactly with this old tech - is it the same difference as dolby digital from Netflix to say dolby pure HD on 4k blu ray? Please answer me that one as that will save me the hassle of changing everything lol 😂

Or did you just have a really bad sound card when you used it maybe? Those xplosions and sound blasters were terrible in my experience tbh, compared to the asus I have now (but drivers suck badly).

How can I find the proof that this signal is being dressed up as a low quality signal and then test?
-believe me I'd love to prove your "100% this is the issue" right, as simply use hdmi seems like a very cheap and easy fix.
 
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I still have no idea why when compared to what you're doing it would seem inferior and you still haven't really answered that either.

As I've told you MULTIPLE times but for some reason it still isn't sinking in.

DD Live is 20+ years old. DD Live is "encoding" everything leaving your system as a 640kb bitrate file.

As I told you (I am answering, it's just not sinking in), Netflix DD+ audio is higher bitrate than what your DD Live is giving you.

What difference does it make having an actual soundcard when the only feature of the soundcard being used is the DD live chip that's encoding everything in a lower bitrate than what Netflix can output? loooooooooooooool?

That's what I'm getting at - why you're so insistent on using 20 year old technology that is clearly outdated - I mean you're so married to DD Live you refuse to accept that there are better alternatives in the last 20 years even after being decisively proven wrong about DD live.
 
As I've told you MULTIPLE times but for some reason it still isn't sinking in.

DD Live is 20+ years old. DD Live is "encoding" everything leaving your system as a 640kb bitrate file.

As I told you (I am answering, it's just not sinking in), Netflix DD+ audio is higher bitrate than what your DD Live is giving you.

What difference does it make having an actual soundcard when the only feature of the soundcard being used is the DD live chip that's encoding everything in a lower bitrate than what Netflix can output? loooooooooooooool?

That's what I'm getting at - why you're so insistent on using 20 year old technology that is clearly outdated - I mean you're so married to DD Live you refuse to accept that there are better alternatives in the last 20 years even after being decisively proven wrong about DD live.

Right back at you, multiple times.... Eq settings llloooooooooollll
You're saying a sound card won't do anything else with the signal (other than drop it's quality when changing it to DD live?)
Why then did the various sound blasters I have sound pretty bad, on dd live, in comparison to the asus xonar dx I have now? Interesting.

So you mean bit rate is being set to "640kb"ps? That's pretty high though... Not far off flac?
 
Right back at you, multiple times.... Eq settings llloooooooooollll

I'm ignoring obvious questions - because if you think a sound card driver is the only place in your system to tweak EQ then you have bigger problems

"You're saying a sound card won't do anything else with the signal (other than drop it's quality when changing it to DD live?).........So you mean bit rate is being set to "640kb"ps? That's pretty high though... Not far off flac?"


Which brings me back to my ORIGINAL suggestion - go look up what Amazon music and Tidal can dish out in terms of lossless uncompressed audio and bitrate

IN FACT, do not reply until you've actually gone and seen for yourself.

I will say it again, one final time.

You are using 20 year old technology which is capped at 640 kbps. Not only is the quality of the signal you are sending to your AVR hideously outdated, but the delivery mechanism spdif/toslink, is hideously outdated.

You are the audio equivalent of a 20 year old Ford Mondeo doing 60 in the left hand lane of the motorway, whilst being overtaken by Tesla's doing 90-100mph+

640 kbps might have been fine 20 years ago, when the alternative was downloading MP3's from Napster at 128 kbps LMAO but not anymore.

My point again, based on your posts across two threads (especially the stuff in the sub thread about youtube/itunes and windows settings vs direct avr mode etc) was a) making sure you've got windows sound settings configured correctly b) that you understand how windows outputs sound and c) trying to understand why you're so obsessed with DD Live

As far as I can tell, and I cba to keep going back across each thread - you're feeding your AVR and speakers with dogcrap low bitrate stuff from youtube and wondering why your new speakers are exposing the flaws in that signal.

I'm pretty sure Amazon Music has a 3 month free trial and Tidal has at least one months.

"BUT I CANT HEAR ANY DIFFERENCE" that's not a reason to not use the highest possible source you can find/afford
 
I'm ignoring obvious questions - because if you think a sound card driver is the only place in your system to tweak EQ then you have bigger problems

"You're saying a sound card won't do anything else with the signal (other than drop it's quality when changing it to DD live?).........So you mean bit rate is being set to "640kb"ps? That's pretty high though... Not far off flac?"


Which brings me back to my ORIGINAL suggestion - go look up what Amazon music and Tidal can dish out in terms of lossless uncompressed audio and bitrate

IN FACT, do not reply until you've actually gone and seen for yourself.

I will say it again, one final time.

You are using 20 year old technology which is capped at 640 kbps. Not only is the quality of the signal you are sending to your AVR hideously outdated, but the delivery mechanism spdif/toslink, is hideously outdated.

You are the audio equivalent of a 20 year old Ford Mondeo doing 60 in the left hand lane of the motorway, whilst being overtaken by Tesla's doing 90-100mph+

640 kbps might have been fine 20 years ago, when the alternative was downloading MP3's from Napster at 128 kbps LMAO but not anymore.

My point again, based on your posts across two threads (especially the stuff in the sub thread about youtube/itunes and windows settings vs direct avr mode etc) was a) making sure you've got windows sound settings configured correctly b) that you understand how windows outputs sound and c) trying to understand why you're so obsessed with DD Live

As far as I can tell, and I cba to keep going back across each thread - you're feeding your AVR and speakers with dogcrap low bitrate stuff from youtube and wondering why your new speakers are exposing the flaws in that signal.

I'm pretty sure Amazon Music has a 3 month free trial and Tidal has at least one months.

"BUT I CANT HEAR ANY DIFFERENCE" that's not a reason to not use the highest possible source you can find/afford

OK so 640kbps is poor quality, no worries my friend, thanks for your time but we've got nothing more to say to each other.

CD rips I've done on pc/laptop in lossless aren't far off that lmao. I see exactly what you're saying but can't agree and we never will, you're a person who gets lost in numbers whereas I listen with my ears.

P. S I can only assume you're ignoring the questions as you can't answer them. The issue you present me is a non issue and won't change. If FLACs sounded 10 times or even 1.2x better, I'd have a 1tb library. I do get FLACs, for albums I really like anyway, but honestly not sure why I do 😂.
 
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OK so 640kbps is poor quality, no worries my friend, thanks for your time but we've got nothing more to say to each other.

P. S I can only assume you're ignoring the questions as you can't answer them, please don't, as above. The issue you present me is a non issue and won't change.


I answered it - there are other ways to tweak EQ.


As for 640kbps - yes, compared to Amazon/Tidal Ultra HD/Master quality, it is. LMAO

Do you even know how DD Live works? What do you think youtube audio bitrate is? Just because the DD Live encodes at 640kbps doesn't mean that everything you listen to is 640 kbps. If you're "listening" to music via youtube that is less than 640 kbps do you really think the DDL is "upscaling" it to the 640kbps LMAO

You're beyond helping - which I kinda knew already, I just wanted to see how beyond help you actually are.

Did you actually bother to look at what Tidal can output?

Master Quality audio reflects the original source and can stream up to 9216 kbps or 24-Bit / 192 kHz (typically 96 kHz / 24 bit).

It's fine - keep on spending money on upgrades you can't afford (you already mentioned credit) and blaming every piece of hardware instead of your own playback / configuration choices.

There is ZERO reason not to set up the free trials of Amazon Music and Tidal instead of continuing to listen to MP3 or youtube music videos LMAO

"Just let him do what he wants to do. Life is too short to waste time trying to convince idiots to do intelligent things." Should probably take this advice myself
 
ll, you're a person who gets lost in numbers

It's got nothing to do with numbers LMAO. you're literally using 20 year old audio technology and wondering why you're "back to square one" lol


If there's no benefit to higher bit rates, why do you have a separate blu-ray player? Why not just use your PC as a HTPC and download blu-ray rips and listen to the lossy Dolby Digital soundtracks instead of the lossless TrueHD, DTS-HD, Atmos etc?

LMAO STUMPED
 

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