Post by h4x on Aug 31, 2016 14:43:23 GMT -5
I love stereo audio. I have nothing against surround as a listener, but have found surround to be expensive in time, money and living room space. I was thrilled to find Emotiva releasing a 2.1 receiver, as I had just preordered a pair of the Emotiva T1 tower speakers. It arrived yesterday, and I've been listening to it quite a bit since.
The TA-100 sounds great. Prior to its arrival, I was trying out the T1 speakers through a Dayton DTA-1 amplifier hooked to my HTPC or smartphones. The DTA-1 is great for its price, but I felt like the bass reproduction was lacking and didn't know if I should have been blaming the amp or the speakers. With the TA-100 installed, I can say with confidence it was the amp. Bass reproduction is fixed as far as my ears are concerned, and I can finally hear the "booming" sound people have mentioned about the T1 speakers.
I'll summarize my second day of impressions.
Pros:
My primary use case for the TA-100 is to amplify audio from my TV. I watch TV more at home than I listen to music. I hooked it up to my TV via optical S/PDIF and started watching Netflix. I noticed the score music and sound effects sounding very well rounded, but I felt like spoken word didn't sound as warm and natural as I expected. It almost sounded like certain voices were talking into a can. I found this using the TV's Netflix app, as well as Apple TV or my HTPC's Netflix app.
Worried, I did an experiment. I hooked up the TA-100 to my HTPC as a USB DAC and compared the same vocal-heavy music between HTPC→USB→TA-100 and HTPC→HDMI→TV→Optical→TA-100. The vocals sounded fantastic through the USB DAC, but had similar issue as watching Netflix when going through the TV. This is my first time trying the optical S/PDIF output from the TV so I'm guessing and hoping that my TV just has a crappy digital mixer. For reference, it's an LG 47LM6700 and is outputting 48kHz PCM according to the TA-100. I look forward to someone else hooking up their TA-100 to a better optical source and telling me it's just my TV.
The TA-100 sounds great. Prior to its arrival, I was trying out the T1 speakers through a Dayton DTA-1 amplifier hooked to my HTPC or smartphones. The DTA-1 is great for its price, but I felt like the bass reproduction was lacking and didn't know if I should have been blaming the amp or the speakers. With the TA-100 installed, I can say with confidence it was the amp. Bass reproduction is fixed as far as my ears are concerned, and I can finally hear the "booming" sound people have mentioned about the T1 speakers.
I'll summarize my second day of impressions.
Pros:
- Sounds fantastic. "full" is the best way I could describe it. Tried a headphone-level output to the AUX input and tried both the USB and optical S/PDIF inputs.
- Low profile. I wanted something that could compare to the Marantz NR1707 in height, but closer to the Marantz SR5010 in quality. It does the trick.
- On a change in signal, it shows you the sample rate it's getting from a digital source. Great for making sure you aren't accidentally converting sample rate at your source device.
- A 3.5mm headphone output. Kind of tired of having to use an adapter for "pro" equipment using a 1/4" jack.
- The amber glow of the power button ring in standby is pretty
- Fine control over the volume level. Let's you increment in half-percents of max. Pressing and holding via remote doesn't adjust it too quickly.
- USB DAC device works with Windows', OS X's and Linux/ALSA's out of the box USB audio drivers.
Cons:
My TV issue, that someone on here might have some insight on:- Blue LED rings come in bright. At night, even with DIM setting at 0, it's kind of piercing when you are trying to watch TV.
- The remote navigation approach to the menu system is not bad, but I keep thinking the Mute button should be the OK/select button. Luckily, there's rarely a need to go into the Menu after you have the few settings the way you like them.
- If you use it primarily for TV like me, the lack of HDMI-CEC or a trigger input means having to turn a couple things on/off at once.
- My TV/optical sound issue (see below)
My primary use case for the TA-100 is to amplify audio from my TV. I watch TV more at home than I listen to music. I hooked it up to my TV via optical S/PDIF and started watching Netflix. I noticed the score music and sound effects sounding very well rounded, but I felt like spoken word didn't sound as warm and natural as I expected. It almost sounded like certain voices were talking into a can. I found this using the TV's Netflix app, as well as Apple TV or my HTPC's Netflix app.
Worried, I did an experiment. I hooked up the TA-100 to my HTPC as a USB DAC and compared the same vocal-heavy music between HTPC→USB→TA-100 and HTPC→HDMI→TV→Optical→TA-100. The vocals sounded fantastic through the USB DAC, but had similar issue as watching Netflix when going through the TV. This is my first time trying the optical S/PDIF output from the TV so I'm guessing and hoping that my TV just has a crappy digital mixer. For reference, it's an LG 47LM6700 and is outputting 48kHz PCM according to the TA-100. I look forward to someone else hooking up their TA-100 to a better optical source and telling me it's just my TV.
