The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

I've been really enjoying some Atmos mixes on Apple Music. Listened to Another Green World the other night and now a bunch of Neil Young albums just turned up as well.

I currently listen through my Apple TV, which is hooked up to an LG Atmos Soundbar (with the rear surrounds). However, this of course has me thinking about ways to make it sound better - I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone has an Atmos/home theater setup that they've successfully integrated 2 channel vinyl into. Most home theater receivers seem to have phono stages, but I assume they are not very good. Anyone running a separate phono stage into a surround receiver with good results?
 
Closet Mix said:
I've been really enjoying some Atmos mixes on Apple Music. Listened to Another Green World the other night and now a bunch of Neil Young albums just turned up as well.

I currently listen through my Apple TV, which is hooked up to an LG Atmos Soundbar (with the rear surrounds). However, this of course has me thinking about ways to make it sound better - I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone has an Atmos/home theater setup that they've successfully integrated 2 channel vinyl into. Most home theater receivers seem to have phono stages, but I assume they are not very good. Anyone running a separate phono stage into a surround receiver with good results?
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You’re right the phono stages in them suck. They’re kind of a convenience afterthought and are the cheapest of the cheap. They work is about I’ll I’d say positive.

I haven’t done it but I can’t imagine it would sound great. The atmos mixes you’re listening to are specifically mixed to put cetain parts into certain speakers. A 2 channel mix through that processing will see the system approximate and attempt to do that which isn’t the same. Also unless it’s a really top end home theatre set up all that digital processing is likely to take away from a lot of the characteristics that differentiate vinyl from digital and make it special.

I’ll be honest and say almost everyone I know that connects their vinyl to an av uses the pure direct mode that bypass the processing and outputs the raw 2 channel. The exceptions are people with top end who might use Dirac room correction but still mostly would limit the vinyl to 2 channels.

If you have a phono stage knocking around by all means experiment but personally I’d not be investing much money into such an experiment.
 
hypothetically, if somebody were to get a new SACD player, and needed some longer RCA cables to hook it up to their receiver, what are some good affordable RCA cables to use? are blue jean cables better than something the monoprice RCA cables? this totally hypothetical person didn't really wanna drop nearly $100 on RCA cables...
 
MikeH said:
hypothetically, if somebody were to get a new SACD player, and needed some longer RCA cables to hook it up to their receiver, what are some good affordable RCA cables to use? are blue jean cables better than something the monoprice RCA cables? this totally hypothetical person didn't really wanna drop nearly $100 on RCA cables...
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Blue Jeans Cables are solid, no fuss/no muss, good cables.
 
MikeH said:
yea i like the blue jeans cables i have, but the length i'd need would cost me about $100...
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Also can try World’s Best Cables on Amazon. They are quite good, if not really the world’s best.

I’d avoid the star quad RCA versions, though. It’s a myth that star quad rejects more noise than coax in an unbalanced RCA cable.
 
Does anyone have a good source for a USB cable to go from my iMac to the PS Audio? I'm wondering if a better cable would limit the popping I occasionally get. Specifically a USB-C to USB-B.
 
I’d choose Anker Powerline+. Anker has been really reliable for me.

Edit: I use a Belkin cable with repeaters built-in for my 20 ft stretch from my Mac to the DAC.
 
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Angsty said:
As an aside, you don’t need an “audiophile” USB cable to get good performance. Moving bits reliably can be done with any well-made cable.
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I was wanting to try something a little higher quality since my cheap cable is the one that might be causing pops and distortion. I'm going to try one other and see if there's any noticeable difference.
 
Make sure any usb or lightning cable you use is certified. Cables without certification can look great but ultimately may disappoint in their performance.
 
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