In article , Forester
wrote:
Watching the proms I was frustrated at not being able to listen through
the hi-fi whilst watching an out of sync digital broadcast! I thought it
would be nice to connect the box to the hi-fi, but the sound isn't
quite as good as my tuner. We are about to move house and thinking of
updating my Philips OnDigital box to one of the newer Freeview ones.
I've noticed that the new boxes are MUCH quicker re. text and channel
changes, but what is the sound like?

Can't comment on other boxes. However I have a Nokia 221T DTTV box. This
has an S/PDIF (digital coax) output that I feed to a Meridian 263 DAC.

For normal listening I then use the output from the Meridian DAC passed
through the stereo system in the living room. The results sound pretty good
to me. Listen using a pair of Quad 988's and a relatively cheap MJ sub.

I also now have a DVD recorder, and have recorded a few concerts on that.
However in this case I currently use the scart output from the Nokia, so
this uses the Nokia's DACs, not the Meridian. It also means an extra stage
of ADC-DAC and recompression and decompression for the data in the DVD
recorder. Again, the results sound quite good to me, but not perhaps as
good as the Meridian.

The Nokia has analogue phonos for sound as well, but I think this just
feeds the same signals as via scart, so not necessarily any better than via
scart.

Hence I'd say that something like the Nokia (or some other DTTV) box
perhaps feeding an external DAC can sound pretty good.

I have to say my old box is quite poor on audio quality; the normal
NICAM signal sounds a lot better to me. Many of the radio stations are
atrocious quality. Are the new ones any better? I read somewhere
(Gramophone, I think) that digi boxes are let down by the part that
converts the digital signal to analogue audio out (sorry, don't know the
correct name), rather than the digital signal being the problem.

Dunno about DAB, but my experience of 'sound radio' via DTTV is that it
depends a lot on the station. Some use very low bitrates, and sound lousy.
Others sound quite good.

If I do buy a new one, I would prefer to have phono out because I have
no plans to upgrade my amplifier for the sake of the TV box. Are there
differences between the boxes?

Probably. :-)

My suggestion is to make sure you get one with a digital output as well as
phonos. Then you can feed the digital sound to a better DAC in due course
if you wish.

I'm thinking of getting another Philips, but only if the sound quality
is better.

Can't comment on that. Can only say that the Nokia I have seems quite
decent to me.

Slainte,

Jim

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