I'm so glad you tested for this..... and it's disappointing! I have a Denon AVR-X4400H in a mixed use system, and for 2 channel listening, I use Dirac Live/Processor on the PC and send 192kHz to the AVR in Pure Direct Mode to full range speakers. I understand that processor intensive room correction warrants a resample to 48kHz but it'd be nice to utilize bass management for 2 channel+sub without the resolution hair cut. I've asked Sound United and they insist it doesn't but I'd be surprised. It'd be great to see you do this test on one of their products. Do you have any in the pipeline?
I don't think I ever built one. Is there one off-the-shelf?
I hope that to be the case but you can't know for sure without a test Amir just did on the Onkyo. My main gripe is that AVR's in general freely tell you the input signal but not the post processing output. Arguably inaudible or not, people pay extra for high-rez recordings and assume they're getting it..... but maybe not due their equipment down sampling down stream.I have the x4400h too and I am quite sure it won't down sample if you simply set speakers size, crossover, and use direct mode.
It is a processor. It modifies the signal in the digital domain so it is prone to the same performance limiting bottlenecks as AVR's.Why is the Minidsp Flex in the comparison table classified as a Home Theatre AVR/Processor?
I'm in agreement. I don't understand the framing around the resampling "all or nothing" with using DSP when anyone who actually buys this product would be foolish not to utilize the DSP features. The rating importance placed on purchasing surround sound audio receivers with Parametric EQ capabilities only to run them in "Pure" or "Direct" modes misses the mark in my opinion.I'm baffled that you'd suggest that avoiding resampling to 44.1/48 kHz is so important that it warrants foregoing bass management and only using full range speakers. The choice between using a crossover, vs. full range speakers, is quite fundamental, has tons of implications on audio system design, and as such can result in extremely audible differences. In contrast, the kind of resampling you're worried about here is practically impossible to hear (unless the resampler is badly broken). The idea that someone would suddenly decide to completely rethink their entire approach and go for a completely different set of speakers just to bypass some resampler seems a bit ridiculous to me. I'm going to assume I misunderstood and this is just poor wording?
I mean… if I was stuck with this AVR, and bookshelf speakers, then my reaction to this resampler thing would be "oh well, that's not great, but it's not like this is going to make much difference" (assuming I even cared about >48 kHz audio, which I don't). My reaction surely wouldn't be "oh shit there's a resampler! better buy a new AVR or get full range speakers!". That would be ludicrous.
You are drawing the wrong conclusion. People who play high res music pay extra for that and like to know that their system is playing such. To the extend this AVR can't, then the work-around is as I suggested: build your system around full-range speakers. Then you are not missing anything. Your solution neuters high-res music and is just not acceptable. I have thousands of dollars worth of high-res music that I own. I want to play them that way. Period. I am not bending over to what this AVR wants to do.I'm baffled that you'd suggest that avoiding resampling to 44.1/48 kHz is so important that it warrants foregoing bass management and only using full range speakers. The choice between using a crossover, vs. full range speakers, is quite fundamental, has tons of implications on audio system design, and as such can result in extremely audible differences.
They just don’t think we would listen to Music using our Audio Video Recievers (AVR). Or don’t care?You are drawing the wrong conclusion. People who play high res music pay extra for that and like to know that their system is playing such. To the extend this AVR can't, then the work-around is as I suggested: build your system around full-range speakers. Then you are not missing anything. Your solution neuters high-res music and is just not acceptable. I have thousands of dollars worth of high-res music that I own. I want to play them that way. Period. I am not bending over to what this AVR wants to do.
Your suggestion says to get something as basic as bass management, I have to give up sample rate. And with it, give a pass to these manufacturers. So they will never up the sample rate. They have been doing this for decades now. Maybe 10 years ago they could justify keeping rates this low but not anymore, and not in something that costs $1,500.
I think you are making quite a jump/conclusion, that something would sound "poor" based on some certain measurements.It's great to see this graph fill out over time and show an ever growing group of "green" AVRs to show we don't have to settle for poor audio quality in favor of codecs, channels and features.