Receiver with analog 7.1 input where to find?

When your running analog (4 cables) from the Forte to the Marantz, the forte's DAC is being used, when running Digital (HDMI) from graphics card to Marantz, the Marantz's DAC is being used, that is really the difference, I would guess your ears would be the final judge to which sounds better.
The HDMI cable can carry 8-channels (7.1) of PCM (uncompressed) 24-bit/192Khz of digital audio, so there is no drawback from using HDMI itself.
The advantage the Forte does have is it can process CMSS-3D headphone audio, before the audio is sent the the Marantz, the headphone audio would feed thru the "front" speaker channel output, from the Forte to the Marantz, a S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) connection, between the forte and Marantz could also carry processed CMSS-3D headphone audio.

 

Thank you for the info.

 

Receivers with multichannel analog inputs do not have ADCs on these inputs. This means they cannot apply enhancements such as Audyssey room correction or even basic equalizer settings to multichannel inputs. The stereo analog inputs do have ADCs though.

 

It's like this, ADC's means Analog to digital converters which is used for recording and what not. Everything ends up as Analog, so using an ADC converts analog to digital, then when you playback the recording, it needs a DAC, to output it to speakers or headphones. Digital to Analog Converters or DAC's is what you mean, and if a receiver has multi channel Analog, or stereo analog, no DAC's or converting is done by the receiver. It's all done by the source input, such as the soundcard. Running into digital input, uses the receiver's DAC's, which quite often aren't as good as a high quality soundcard...

regards,
RagDoll.

 

Modern AVRs aren't like old school amplifiers. Their stereo analog inputs have ADCs. The input audio is converted to digital and then the AVR performs Audyssey room correction and applies other equaliser settings and then the DAC once again converts it to analog to output to the speakers.

The multi channel analog inputs on AVRs, unlike the stereo analog inputs, behave like old school amplifiers. Meaning, when using multi channel analog inputs all the AVRs processing features are disabled. This is NOT what you want when you buy a $1000 AVR. Room correction makes a day and night difference.

After using the multi channel inputs on my AVR, the sound was so horrible from my SB Zx without room correction that I went back to using DTS Connect just so I could get Audyssey room correction since that wasn't possible when using the multi channel analog, making my SB Zx useless. I'll still get OpenAL / EFX in games that use it though so it's better than using GPU HDMI audio.

 

I think you are getting a bit confused, with ADC's, You mean DSP's which is Digital Signal Processing...

 

It needs to ADC before it can DSP. You can't DSP analog signals. Then it DACs once again. Because of the cost of high SNR ADCs, they only support DSP on the stereo analog inputs and neglect the multi channel analog inputs.

If you are using HDMI or SPDIF, then obviously there is no ADC in the receiver and you get the full DSP features of the receiver. But if you want to use an analog multi channel sound card, you CANNOT get any DSP features of the receiver since the multi channel inputs don't have ADCs. You can only get receiver DSP effects for your analog sound card if you use the stereo inputs since the stereo analog inputs are digitised by the receiver.

 

I've now connected it via HDMI and moved the invisible display it creates in Windows into the corner so I don't accidentally move the mouse into it. The multichannel analog input route was useless since without ADCs on the inputs there was no Audyssey room correction.

An alternative option is to use the multichannel analog inputs and perform room correction on the PC using something like Dirac Live Room Correction. The disadvantage of this is it becomes the default playback device and you lose hardware OpenAL and EAX 5.0 support.

 

Or measure with amplifier and use the calibration with Windows built in EQ.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?256319-Equalizer-in-WINDOWS-7

As for automatic room correction from aplifier... System should be measured with correction on and checked that it didnt do anything stupid. I'm using manual room EQ from my RX-V773.

 

The Windows room correction only works for the HDMI device and some onboard audio devices. It doesn't work with most analog sound cards. The feature is completely missing when you go to Properties.

 

@Locu, so you run a DTS-Connect line so you can use room correction?

You do know that Dolby Digital Live (DDL) and DTS-Connect (DTS-C) are both very Lossy codecs so you are downgrading your source signal before it even gets to your receiver.

 

HDMI supports lossless 7.1. Previously I was using the Sound Blaster Zx with DTS Connect but it's useless in most games now so I switched to HDMI. Also there was no audible difference between analog and DTS Connect (without room correction) apart from additional latency.

 

Just offering information on DTS-C....it is lossy, similar to Mp3. Best avoided if sound quality is what you are after. To note, most around here running receivers avoid digital both S/Pdif and HDMI as the are both limited in certain ways. However, to each their own....use whatever works for you.

 

That's a nice receiver you picked up there. How is it working out for ya?
Add in a nice high end source through analog and you should be rocking!

 

Hi guys. I don’t mean to resurrect a dead topic but I am looking to do pretty much the something with my X-Fi Home Theater HD cart. I no longer want to use the HDMI port on it because it’s 1.3a and doesn’t play nice with my TV’s HDMI 2.0 inputs. Does anyone know of a receiver that has both HDMI 2.0 inputs as well as analog 7.1 inputs? Also, how would I go about connecting the card to the receiver? Will 3.5mm stereo 2 RCA cable such as the one in the link below do the job?

http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Cable-...24?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=307409509&sr=-24

 

Don't use analog unless you're an expert and know what you're doing. AV receivers don't do any processing on the multi-channel analog inputs such as crossover etc. so the subwoofer won't work. Doing crossover on the sound card has other problems.

Sound cards are useless now. For normal usage either use your GPU, or if you want to connect the monitor directly then use a second HDMI cable for the receiver and clone the displays so you don't have a second monitor in Windows.

To use the X-Fi HTHD, you can connect the GPU directly to the monitor and buy a cheap VGA to HDMI converter and use it as a signal generator to feed a dummy HDMI signal to the X-Fi HTHD. You don't need to plug anything into the VGA port for it to generate a HDMI signal. Then connect the X-Fi HTHD to the AV receiver.

Receivers that do have analog are the Marantz SR5009 and above or the Yamaha RX-A1040 and above.

I personally use analog from my Sound Blaster Zx to my Marantz SR5008 and perform crossover on the sound card. I use Dirac Live on the PC for room correction.

The single most important thing in an audio system is room correction. I feel like such a fool for doing unscientific things like buying sound cards and speaker systems and keeping them in the same room without correction. You need to use Audyssey MultEQ XT32 or Dirac Live.

 

Yup, those cables will be ok It's difficult to find HDMI 2.0 and analog multi channel inputs for under 2 or 3k

Oh, here, used but still should be good

http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-NR30...pebp=1433852455925&perid=17W18MS86AETDNAPAE9K

regards,
RagDoll.

 

Thank you for the reply. I did not know about the VGA to HDMI converter trick. I also assumed you need to have something connected to the VGA to HDMI converter for it to make a signal. Right now I am doing something similar to using the 2nd HDMI port on my video card however I need to extend my desktop and it cause other annoying issues. I would try straight HDMI audio out of sound card but my receiver is HDMI 1.4 so no 4K at 60fps.
I don’t know what this crossover thing you are talking about is? Are you telling me that if I plug the soundcard's subwoofer out into the receiver’s subwoofer in I’ll have no bass channel? The VGA convertor sounds like the simplest solution. I just plug it into the HDMI in on the sound card and I’m good to go?

 

You can continue using your GPU with two HDMI cables to the monitor and receiver. If you clone the displays you won't have any extended desktop issues. You can run the receiver cable at a lower refresh rate like 4K 24 Hz. Only the resolution needs to be the same for both. The monitor cable will still run at 60 Hz. If 4K 24 Hz resolution doesn't show up for the receiver, then create a custom resolution using CRU. You have to use CRU to modify the EDID and add the custom resolution and custom extension block for HDMI audio. The nVidia Control Panel custom resolutions don't work in clone mode. Clone mode will also work for G-SYNC and 3D Vision monitors.

The cheapest receiver with 7.1 analog and HDMI 2.0 is the Marantz SR5009 (< $800). With 7.1 analog, you'll only get bass from the dedicated .1 LFE channel such as movies and some games. Stereo music won't have any bass from the subwoofer. For analog, you're supposed to enable crossover on the sound card for AV receivers. (The Creative speaker systems do have crossover on the analog inputs.) However the sound card crossover is inferior as it doesn't allow individual speaker crossover settings and the +10 dB LFE channel boost which is required will also be incorrectly applied to the crossed over frequencies.

When using the VGA to HDMI converter trick, connect the GPU to the monitor directly and the X-Fi HTHD to the receiver. The receiver will play only the audio while the GPU drives the monitor. I have an Altona VGA to HDMI converter which always generates a video signal. Other converters may not.

The X-Fi HTHD has crappy drivers that are abandoned. Trust me, you'll be relieved when you finally get rid of it.

Just abandon sound cards and analog completely. Buy a new HDMI 2.0 receiver with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 or atleast MultEQ XT and connect it via HDMI. You don't know what you're missing if you haven't heard room correction.

Even if the receiver supports 4K 60 Hz, I would still connect the GPU directly to reduce the input lag and just clone the second cable to the receiver for audio.

 

I tried that clone display method before but it only let me select matching refresh rates and resolutions.

Would this VGA convertor work for me?

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011410&p_id=11566&seq=1&format=2