AVRant #55: Monster Einstein
Tom says he’s not sick but he is. Have you ever wanted to download high rez audio online? Chris does and Tom and Clint talk about a couple of options. How do you A/B speakers if you don’t have a bunch of fancy equipment? Do the same thing that Tom does! Clint reports on his visit to Monster. Do you want a preview of the results? Hear how the Monster cables did. Do you own Monoprice cables? Want to know how they did? You might be surprised (Tom was). Clint describes how he was treated at Monster, the specifics of the test’s run and equipment, and some of the results. What do you do if you have more TOSLink sources than inputs on your receiver? What do you do if you want to get high def audio without analogue audio outs? Thanks for listening and don’t forget it’s the first of the month so vote for us at Podcast Alley.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Hey, I’m building an HTPC!! Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome! It’ll play HD, BD, DVD, and do DVR from over-the-air HD broadcasts. It’s gonna cost around $1K in parts and software. There are some new cool recent hardware advances that make it more feasible for the average guy… Don’t mock the UPS driver. He delivers your cool stuff!!
I just wrote a blog that addresses some of these issues. Did that this weekend instead of doing my homework. 😛
http://stoplightsleep.blogspot.com/2008/03/record-shop.html
I love my UPS driver… in a manly sort of way, that is.
Hey, did anyone notice that we’re the #10 podcast!!! #1 Tech podcast, but #10 OVERALL – out of 39,284!
We were 8 for about 30 minutes and then slipped back down. We’re 11th right now. Come on guys, get is back in the top 10!
What do you think about this?
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=2948&seq=1&format=2
Sure, that’s another solution. In AV, there is almost always more than one way to get around any problem.
One possible solution for somewhat high-res multi-channel audio to your receiver/preprocessor is to use a Squeezebox. It has digital coax and optical outputs, and will pass DTS over those links.
Anything higher bitrate would require HDMI to keep the audio in the digital domain, and like you said, you are probably talking a HTPC at that point.
Maybe we can convince Logitech/Slimdevices to introduce a Squeezebox with HDMI out. 🙂
Come to think of it, spdif can handle multi-channel 96/24 DVD-Audio, so the DTS through the Squeezebox digital outputs would be pretty darn good.
And the squeezebox server software that runs on your computer (where you song files live) runs on Linux, Mac, or Windows.
I’ve got the new Squeezebox Duet myself, and it’s pretty darn cool.
My understanding is that S/PDIF tops out at 2 channels of 192/24bit.
Multi-channel over S/PDIF is only via compressed formats like DTS or DD.
Being on the retail floor I will recommend the 1000 series Monster cable if it is to be installed in a wall where future change would be difficult. I do see other sales people just grab them and say this is what you need (ethics anyone?).
hmmmm…. so Monster Cabel is not Evil…? hmmmmm…. ..I dont know…
I was a Monster cable junky way back in the PS, PS2, and Xbox days thought the cable would give me better graphics. LOL that brings memorys, big fat s-video Monster cables for my consoles. But now my PS3 has a chepo wal-mart $24.95 phillips HDMI (3′). hmmm wonder if im mission anything. Should I return to the ways fo the Monster Cable? …hmmmmm…?