5.1 music not really blowing me away (so far)

Ok, let's not start that old wive's tale again........
the 45a does not convert SACD to PCM.

 

Not to hijack the thread Dave, but did you hear that from a source at Pioneer, or...? I had heard (from many) that it DOES convert DSD to PCM then to Analog... I'll be glad if someone HAS proven it not to, though

 

There were posts in a thread about this a while back. It has been proven that it does NOT convert PCM. Someone has an article about it.
Regardless, it sounds damn good!!!!

Dunno about the 563.

 

Yeah, this has been proven a long time back on other threads. Anyway, I agree that it sounds damn good in all modes. I never use anything in the receiver anymore. For music it is very important to have the drivers in all your speakers matching (except the sub of course). It made a huge difference when I replaced my surrounds with a set where the drivers matched the mains and centre. The difference was basically changing a titanium tweeter for a silk-dome. The speakers both titanium and silk where all made by the same manufacturer so it appeared to be a small change, but it wasn't. For movies of course it doesn't really matter but it does for surround music matching is important.

 

I missed that thread, Dave. I'll search for it. Thanks

 

Guy's absolutely right. You can get a good taste of what surround music is all about without matching your speakers, but you won't get all the way to bliss until you've got a matched set. I just completed my own matching (hard to do with vintage speakers but thanks to Ebay I got there) and I can tell you that there was a quantum leap in soundfield coherence and timbral accuracy when I made the last connection.

 

And bliss it is!!!