Hey gang,
I'm thinking of getting the Oppo BDP-95 and I have a few questions about setup after grokking the manuals, and wanted to hear your expert opionions.
I'm planning to go from the Oppo BDP-95's 7.1 analog audio outs to the corresponding "7.1 Analog In" on the back of the 990. The 990 is then connected to 5 Outlaw m2200 amps via XLRs, and these in turn to 5 Dynaudio Focus speakers. I have a Dynaudio Sub 500 that is connected to the 990's SW XLR. I do 60% HT, 20% stereo+sub, 20% SACD.
So on with the questions.
The Oppo BDP-95 and Outlaw 990 both offer decoding for Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. How do they compare? If BDP-95 is markedly better, it makes sense to stick with the plan above and connect the two via 7.1 analog, and put the 990 in BYPASS mode. On the other hand, if the Outlaw 990 is markedly better, I would probably want to connect the two with TOSLINK fiber optic for these formats (but it would be kind of a PITA to keep track of & switch to this).
Only the Oppo BDP-95 decodes lossless audio such as DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD so clearly I will want to leverage the BDP-95 for this source material, and have it go into the 990 in over the 7.1 RCAs with the 990 in BYPASS mode. Same for DVD-Audio and SACD. Right?
When running form BDP-95 to the Outlaw 990 in BYPASS mode, I understand it's the BDP-95 that would be responsible for handling speaker size/xover and distance settings. I've read that the 990 will still do some processing with the low-frequency signal ("bass management") before pushing it out the SW output -- is this right? Exactly what does it do?
Thanks for the help!