I would like to use my Sprout for playing movies from time to time. What’s the best way to connect my Pioneer Elite BD43fd to sprout?
Can the Pioneer output 2-channel LPCM digital? If so I’d connect that way if your coax digital input is not already in use. If the Pioneer only has a Toslink output you can get a cheap Toslink to coax adapter. Otherwise you’re probably limited to the analog input.
Here is what I have for terminals
Component video, composite, optical, USB and 2 ch analog.
The only thing in use right now is the HDMI direct to the TV and the optical to the soundbar. And I’m trying to find the specs for the LPCM because I don’t recall.
Although Pioneer won’t tell me if my player can handle 2 channel lpcm it is Dolby True HD. And from what I’ve read any player with true HD can do 2 channel.
The optical out could be connected to the Sprout with a Toslink-to-coax adapter but I couldn’t tell you whether the Pioneer would output a signal that the Sprout can understand. My old Time Warner cable box could put out LPCM that my DACs could decode but when I switched to Time Warner I found that was no longer an option (I could get 2 channel Dolby Digital but that won’t work for this purpose). Have you gone into the digital audio set-up menu for the Pioneer? If it doesn’t list LPCM as an option, my guess is it is not supported and you may be limited to the analog input on the Sprout.
Haven’t had a chance to look at the Pioneer yet. Lovely 12 hour shifts and all. Will be home after bit to unbox the sprout and play around some. If the toslink to coax is a no go and I have to use RCA what would be the Pros/Cons of using RCA to RCA vs RCA to the 3.5 analog? More curious than anything because I will be using a 3.5 to RCA for the sub.
You would have to use the stereo mini-jack input. The RCA jacks are for turntables, not line-level inputs.
Just figured that out. RCA to 3.5 it is. When I pull up options on my Pioneer blu Ray the only options it gives me are PCM, Bitstream and bitstream mix for audio out with no further selections.
PCM probably means LPCM. If it’s two channel it might work.
If the Pioneer has a HDMI output you could use a HDMI De-embedder, see link.
Was wondering if PCM was the same thing. But still won’t give me the option to choose between multi ch or 2 channel.
Jeff, the link didn’t take me to info on a de-embedder but I looked them up. Great idea! Know of any good ones?
Found a Kanex Pro HAECOAX de-embedder if anyone has any input.
I’m sorry I usually check links that I post. Try this one:
http://everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/search?q=De-embedder (I rechecked the link, it quit working, go to that page and search using de-embedder, page should then come up.)
The reason I sent you there was that he reviews a bunch of them, including the Kanex.
I had an unlabeled Kanex that I got for a very low price, I couldn’t find that either. (My old tablet quit working, no backup, lesson learned). I will see if I can the info on my desktop, tomorrow morning.
I never tried the analog outs, as the built in DAC, has to be crap at that price, but the digital outputs worked fine. The problem is that with my Oppo 83se the hdcp protections would not allow most DVDs to output hi-rez. When they did they were stripped from the HDMI and played at hi-rez on my DAC.
My preamp has plenty of inputs, so l run one long pair of cables from the TV, that I use for sound with the TV and the DVR. For the Oppo with movies I use the analog outs to the preamp. If you have the analog input available, I would get a cable with RCA’s on one end and a 3.5mm stereo plug on the other. Audioquest offers that style of cable for under $50, on up to the stratosphere.
Another option would be to find a external input switcher, that accepts say four in, one out. It would have to be a very good one or it will negatively effect the sound.
No problem. I actually found the article you where trying to find for me last night. I decided on the Kanex Pro for $40 on eBay. Will allow me to run an HDMI to a coax then to the back of the Sprout. I actually purchased the audioquest RCA to 3.5 (forest) for my Sub. Hopefully my Pioneer Elite player will allow the audio signal to cross over from HDMI to coax without breaking down to much. I read that my model should allow it. We will see
Let us know how it turns out. Since I got the PWT and the Lindemann DAC which doesn’t do DSD I let JRiver convert it to 176, which it does during playback. I am getting excellent sound, the Benchmark Dac2 is a good dac for the price, but with either files or CDs I’m loving the sound and I am even happy with the CD layer of SACDs.
What you will have to do is set the Pioneer to PCM and when playing DVDs or Blu-rays is go into the discs menu and choose the stereo option. You might be able be able to set the Pioneer to down convert to 2 channel, but you are better off choosing the stereo option on the disc. Because it could be down converting the Dolby Digital, assuming that you are using their analog outputs.
During the beta testing for the new universal transport, it became very clear that there are no standards for DVD and Blu-ray discs. If you are going to be watching a movie or concert, it is no big deal, you already have the TV on. What I never liked is the few DVD-A dual discs that I have, I still have to turn the TV on to set it up, just for music. And I have an acoustic foam cover over the HDTV, for music. So it involves a little dicking around.
The Sprout is very nice, but designed for those with limited inputs. It is a lot of player for the money.
When I bought my de-embedder it looked exactly like a Kanex without the labels. Searching on the model number I found this, it looks different, but the price is very good.
Take a look:
Jeff, I got ordered the Kanex Pro last week and should be here today so I’ll report back. I had already switched the player to PCM. I popped in Master and commander the other day and was disappointed there was no 2 channel option. Just dts 5.1 and Dolby 5.1
What options do you have from the TV itself? My old Panasonic plasma takes whatever it is fed over HDMI and puts out 48/24 PCM over Toslink to my Direct Stream. Not always the highest resolutions but I find it’s good enough for TV.
I run a toslink from my DIRECTV box to a soundbar for tv. Not as worried about maximizing sound quality for that. Just want something better than the soundbar for movies. $150 Yamaha soundbar vs $1,000 NHTs. But the tv has hdmi’s and toslinks.
Check the TV’s audio out settings and see if it supports 2 channel PCM. Is so, you should be able to run Toslink to the Sprout using a cheap Toslink to coax adapter.