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In Reply to: Surround sound features. posted by Audio Engineer on August 2, 2001 at 14:39:44:
Not sure you can do it but could you have a "Direct" meaning true direct including analog volume control? This would open up its appeal to dyed in the wool analog fans.Personally I feel the best processors can upsample and downsample without corrupting the signal so volume control in the digital domain is fine. However you may never convince some audiophiles. But then again, it depends on the market you are aiming at and maybe the number of such purists might never touch a digital unit so attempting to cater to the very few who would is not worthwhile. Following this line of thought opens up the question as to whether to include a phono stage at all. Personally I would not bother but leave it as something which could be connected to one of you high level stages via an external phono amplifier component. Having a "stereo" option which mutes the surrounds might appeal to some wishing to use it for phono input.
Another suggestion I would make is to space out your RCA sockets. Nothing is more irritating than attemting to plug tighten (or the reverse) RCA leads with thick cables & thicker plugs when those rotten sockets are placed very close together. My personal feeling is you might have such a large number of inputs and outputs in your present plans that this problem is likely to arise.
As a corollary of the above para, a nice touch would be to have a little plate under each input socket upon which the user could write down or attach a small sticker about what they have connected . This would also force a little more distance between each pair of inputs. In the same vein avoid being too specific with labelling. Phono, CD, DVD are pretty standard but for the rest I suggest Video 1, video 2, HL 1 (high level 1), HL 2 would be better than "cable", "satellite", "tuner" etc which not all might use.
I presume you would use a remote control and the design of most of these is POOR with the Meridian 800 series taking the cake - needs a table and has rotten small buttons. With the sort of complex receiver you are planning, if used with the multitude of inputs allocated, a programmable remote such as the Philips PRONTO would be just about a necessity. However, as suiggested above, your remote could have nicities such as a "Stereo" button which muted the surround channels as well as the standard "mute", "Volume" etc controls. A "balance" control is something many audiophiles would appreciate also. Another hate I have with remotes is those that use rubber buttons which do not always respond on first press.
Full marks to you to ask for suggestions. I get the feeling that quite a few designers present us with what they think we would like without researching it. No offence is meant to those audiophiles who end up designing equipment as most of those DO have a reasonable grasp of what is required. Not so the guy(s) (I cannot believe any woman would be involved) who designed that ghastly Meridian remote!
Good luck
John
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- Re: Surround sound features. - John C. - Aussie 23:41:29 08/02/01 (0)
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