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What I Got Today!


Brac

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It wasn't today, but a couple of weeks ago, when I finally got a Blu-ray player.  My 2005-vintage Yamaha DVD-S550 DVD player was starting to get glitchy when playing movies, but it still plays CDs just fine.  I'd had my eye on the Oppo 203, but with them going out of production, I decided to go with the Panasonic UB-900, which reviewers put in the same class.

 

Hooking it up turned out to be more complicated than expected, partly because HDCP 2.2 means that the way digital disc players and cable TV inputs were hooked up in 2016 (all sources to the receiver, then video out to the TV) stopped working in 2017, so now video sources have to go directly to the TV.  Also, HDMI Control now has to be Off instead of On.  If it's on, turning off the TV turns off the receiver, plus some other odd things were happening.

 

This is why I had no video output for a few days, but the audio from CDs was amazingly better than what the old DVD player puts out.  The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots sounded thin and bass-shy with the 2005 player, but with the 2018 player, it's full-bodied and more clear.  I was amazed!

 

Once I got video working, that was great, too.  I got the Eagles' Blu-ray Farewell Tour 1, Live From Melbourne, and it looks and sounds great.  The player automatically upscans DVDs, and Sheena Ringo's RingoEXPo08 concert DVD looks and sounds amazing. 

 

The UB-900 has two HDMI outputs, the usual audio + video output, and an audio-only output, with the idea that the audio-only HDMI output will have less interference and hopefully cleaner sound.  As well, it has a High Clarity Sound mode, and Sound Effects.  This lets you choose between 3 "Re-master" settings for different types of music, plus 6 Digital Tube Sound options, from "a tight, hi-fi sound", to "a soft, enveloping sound", plus 4 more.  I haven't experimented with those yet, since for me, less processing is better processing. 

 

I'm liking it!

 

 

panasonic-dmp-ub900-ultra-hd-4k-blu-ray-player-600.jpg

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1 hour ago, Schu said:

 

I think I might try that unit... it does everything including conversion?

I only played with it for a couple of songs but I went in to audio midi setup, found the dac and set the output to 192/24. I haven't tried optical or dig coax yet but I imagine it's pretty much plug and play. Really nice drive out of the amp, the knobs have a nice feel and it really looks good. It will also function as a preamp and I'm sure it would drive a pair of powered monitors very nicely. I think it makes for a cool desktop system. I want to get a balanced cable for the HE 4xx and try that circuit out.

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41 minutes ago, wstrickland1 said:

I want to get a balanced cable for the HE 4xx and try that circuit out.

I recently got a Inuke 3000 w/dsp which has both balanced and un-balanced circuits.  I have been educating myself on how those work technically, but there is a difference between knowledge and understanding, so forgive the next question.

 

If you use an unbalanced output from the amp, don't you need an unbalanced input to the headphones?

 

If you go from an unbalanced XLR connector to balanced (like RCA) the XLR needs pins 1 & 3 to be connected, like this Monoprice XLR to RCA cable.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4777

 

(sorry, the URL from Monoprice would not let me post the picture)

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1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

Click the picture, right click the new picture then use that url.

47771.jpg

EDIT IN CHROME:  I just  updated Carl's image ^^^ in this post by double-clicking on it then choosing a smaller size from a menu.  Every browser seems to treat this process differently.  Firefox doesn't work at all on this particular image.

 

I did that before and it didn't work.  I was at 98% full of my picture allotment so I spent the next 45 minutes deleting old and large pictures.  I am now at 62%.  Closed the browser and re-started it.

 

I tried it again and I got the 4771 jpg and had the same pinkish color in the URL box of the forum software and it froze at that point.  I've done that procedure before so I know it works, it just doesn't work at this moment with this picture.  If it persists with other pics from other sites I'll send a note to Chad.  Right now it's just a minor glitch, so no big deal.

 

Thanks for the help.

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17 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Try it in Chrome if you're using IE.  IE has been acting really strange for me lately.

I use Firebox, and maybe not a coincidence but it updated just this morning.  I'll try Chrome and report back in this comment with an EDIT.

 

EDIT IN CHROME: The image below was made using Chrome.

Interesting.  I can't re-size the image like I can with Firebox.  A click in the image turns it blue, but no way to re-size it.

 

Now EDITING IN FIREFOX:  The images have disappeared, and all I see is the "47771.jpg"  I didn't see the image in Firefox when you posted, just the numbers and letters.  Now your image and mine has disappeared.

 

NOW EDITING IN MICROSOFT EDGE:  I edited the image by double clicking on it and reduced it from 1000 pixels to 250.

 

 

47771.jpg

 

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27 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Spend a little money and get the real Firefox.  Those generic knock off versions are no good.:P

In your honor I went back and looked at the last few posts in Internet Explorer 11 even though MS doesn't recommend it any more.  😥

 

Everything looks good, it's clear now that only Firebox doesn't display the image properly.  🚽 

 

(it's my goal to use every single one of the new Forum emojis before the end of the year.  If Brad went to all the effort  to draw them, the least I can do is use them.   🌈)

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Chad's brother, no one talks about him much with good reason. 

 

I use those cables,  2 and 4 with XLR on each end, never had a problem and they are really flexible, and cheap.

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2 hours ago, dtel said:

Chad's brother, no one talks about him much with good reason. 

 

I use those cables,  2 and 4 with XLR on each end, never had a problem and they are really flexible, and cheap.

We understand why ...

 

310?cb=20140506061744

 

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6 hours ago, wvu80 said:

I recently got a Inuke 3000 w/dsp which has both balanced and un-balanced circuits.  I have been educating myself on how those work technically, but there is a difference between knowledge and understanding, so forgive the next question.

 

If you use an unbalanced output from the amp, don't you need an unbalanced input to the headphones?

 

If you go from an unbalanced XLR connector to balanced (like RCA) the XLR needs pins 1 & 3 to be connected, like this Monoprice XLR to RCA cable.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4777

 

(sorry, the URL from Monoprice would not let me post the picture)

In the case of the Heritage HP amp and the way I use it, there is no unbalanced input. It is being used as a USB dac and is fed from an Imac. I believe the balanced output has a bit more gain than the unbalanced.

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