Help, We're Surrounded
The Age
Thursday July 4, 2002
But now there's an amplifier compatible with all the major surround-sound systems.
Surround sound is great, but does it have to come in so many flavours? There are now so many different surround formats that most consumers are confused.
At last count, Dolby Laboratories offered four surround formats: Dolby Surround, Dolby ProLogic, Dolby ProLogic II and Dolby Digital. Its biggest competitor, the US-based company Digital Theatre Systems, had three - DTS, DTS-ES and DTS Neo:6. LucasFilm, the outfit owned by film maker George Lucas, has the THX and THX-EX surround formats.
If all these weren't enough, equipment manufacturers such as Sony, Bose, Onkyo and Yamaha have their own proprietary surround systems.
What makes it all even more complicated is that most surround sound processes require that two distinct processes take place: coding and decoding. The proprietary surround sound systems promoted by hi-fi equipment manufacturers are decoders. They work with any signal that was originally coded with one or more of Dolby Laboratories' patented processes.
LucasFilm's THX and THX-EX formats are also "decoding" formats that work with Dolby-coded DVDs. Most DTS surround formats require their own specially DTS-encoded discs and DTS decoders.
Unfortunately, a few surround processes don't fit neatly into either category because they're "re-coders". Dolby ProLogic II and DTS Neo:6, for example, create five-channel surround signals from ordinary stereo soundtracks, so they'll work with CDs or with the two-channel downmix from any DVD soundtrack.
Equipment manufacturers are trying their best to ensure their products are compatible, but very few will work with all the surround formats. The notable exception is Denon's AVC-A1SR. It will handle anything from Dolby, DTS or THX, including the just-released DTS 96/24 multi-channel high-fidelity surround system. This is a new format intended to compete with the DVD-A and SACD super-fidelity formats and the Denon is the first amplifier in the world to offer a DTS 96/24 decoder.
It's also the first to offer multiple rear-channel speakers, which are selected automatically depending on whether the surround channel comes from a movie soundtrack or a hi-fi audio soundtrack.
Power output is very high (170 watts RMS per channel into 8-ohm loads), made possible because the AVC-A1 uses high-power bipolar transistors as output devices instead of the more usual integrated circuits. There are seven channels, so total power output exceeds 1 kilowatt, more than sufficient for any home-theatre system.
Denon's big beast turned out to be surprisingly easy to use, to the extent that playing back CDs or DVDs is basically a one-button operation, but we'd be the first to admit that mastering all 100 or so of the AVC-A1's functions would take several hours. The operation of the infrared remote control is fabulous, particularly the editing process for the macro functions that automate the procedures used most often.
The AVC-A1 is a tour de force for Denon and puts it firmly in the lead in the surround amplifier division.
Greg Borrowman is the editor of Australian HI-FI Magazine.
SPICKS & SPECS
PRODUCT Denon AVC-A1SR AX Surround Amplifier
PRICE $5499
DISTRIBUTOR Audio Products Australia Pty Ltd
Level 1, 67 O'Riordan Street, Alexandria, NSW 2015
PHONE 1800 642 922
EMAIL info@audioproducts.com.au
WEB www.audioproducts.com.au
© 2002 The Age