Datasat LS10 AV Processor Review

[Sal1950]

It's so nice to be able to just hit power on the tv remote and have the sound simply work instead of handling three remotes, selecting inputs, and then adjusting the volume. It even has better dialogue clarity.

Must have been something amiss in your setup if dialogue clarity was an issue over what you hear now.

We are mostly there too. We have a dedicated theater but instead watch movies on TV with 2 channel system.

Boy some of you guys are a boring lot. You grind your teeth over a few points in a SINAD measurement which if audible at all is subtle in the extreme, but give a ho-hum Panther shrug to a real multich experience. The Panther rating I would give to a multich movie, or music source played back on a 2ch system would have at least 3 if not 5 or 7 of his appendages cut off. LOL. I'll never understand how people who have spent a lifetime trying to advance the SOTA in music reproduction can be so stuck in 2ch. Might as well just go back to mono if the reproduction experience is to be limited to just the front of the room, when real world hearing is an event happening to us in a 3 dimensional reality.
Bottom line. for me the change from 2ch to immersive audio is miles beyond anything that could be found from a few SINAD point change.

BTW, there is a big advantage from having to play remote roulette to operate your rig, no one else but you can figure out how to make it work. GOOD! LOL

 

[amirm]

I'll never understand how people who have spent a lifetime trying to advance the SOTA in music reproduction can be so stuck in 2ch.

It is a lifestyle thing. We just multitask too much to sit still for 2 hours in a dark room. It is not a statement of what is better.

 

[Sal1950]

It is a lifestyle thing. We just multitask too much to sit still for 2 hours in a dark room. It is not a statement of what is better.

Que up a few of your fav albums, smoke a big fat one, and kick back.
Take the time to smell the roses.

 

[amirm]

Que up a few of your fav albums, smoke a big fat one, and kick back.
Take the time to smell the roses.

I hear you. In summer I sit on the deck for an or two doing a version of that.

 

[Dimifoot]

The Panther rating I would give to a multich movie, or music source played back on a 2ch system would have at least 3 if not 5 or 7 of his appendages cut off. LOL. I'll never understand how people who have spent a lifetime trying to advance the SOTA in music reproduction can be so stuck in 2ch. Might as well just go back to mono if the reproduction experience is to be limited to just the front of the room, when real world hearing is an event happening to us in a 3 dimensional reality.
Bottom line. for me the change from 2ch to immersive audio is miles beyond anything that could be found from a few SINAD point change.

I will quote this one on every page, just to wake everybody up.
Sorry @Sal1950 for borrowing your intellectual property

 

[infinitesymphony]

I'll never understand how people who have spent a lifetime trying to advance the SOTA in music reproduction can be so stuck in 2ch. Might as well just go back to mono if the reproduction experience is to be limited to just the front of the room, when real world hearing is an event happening to us in a 3 dimensional reality.

We urban dwellers don't always have the opportunity to set up surround systems, either due to noise, space, cabling, or room/acoustic considerations. When I eventually set mine back up, I'll promise to queue up all of the DVD-As and SACDs I bought back in the mid-2000s.

 

[RayDunzl]

Somehow, that just seems silly to me.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Ah yes, the classic room without doors, windows, furniture, or a display. I call dibs on the subwoofer seat.

 

[thehun]

Monoprice's HTP1 was either built by Datasat , or they were hired to consult on it, either case the resemblance is obvious including the PC set up idea, though on the Monoprice it was updated quiet a bit for both looks and usefulness it seems. In any case Monoprice gives you a better product than this for less than half a price including a full on set of Dirac live and bass control, even though it didn't impress Amir much. [dacs]

 

[Francis Vaughan]

Datasat is owned by ATI who do a lot of bespoke work for Monoprice. So no surprise. They are probably trying to recoup some of their investment in Datasat without overtly undermining the brand.

 

[MinMan]

ATI purchased DataSat 3 years ago - several years after the LS10 & RS2.0 were developed and released.
The old DataSat units process Dirac at 96 bits while the new HTP-1 process Dirac at 48 bits.
It's possible that ATI may be structuring their market segmentation...
There may be more that is unknown about their strategy.
BTW - when will working HDMI 2.1 processors be available?

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Datasat is owned by ATI who do a lot of bespoke work for Monoprice. So no surprise. They are probably trying to recoup some of their investment in Datasat without overtly undermining the brand.

It all gets very incestuous.

 

[SinnerSaint]

General:

Comments have gone off the specific unit reviewed [thanks amirm] & into the SQ [+ value] of A/V preamps.

Here's my solution [attack at will]:
universal player [w/best video possible] coaxial digital output to 2 channel DAC. XLR from a balanced DAC to the pre/pro.

Therefore bypassing the pre/pro DAC for stereo listening [using pre/pro bypass as well]. Multi-channel signals would go from the player to the pre/pro directly via HDMI [not as critical/though still want the best for the buck sound].

A compromise, an added expensive, & limiting as to which pre/pro [even many HiEnd preamps are w/o balanced inputs] for sure.

However, get my stereo listening to the level of quality & affordability desired. W/the pre/pro that best suits my multi-channel needs as well.

Waiting to at least CES 2021 to see what may be available.

Enjoy.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

coaxial digital output to 2 channel DAC. BNC from the DAC to the pre/pro.

You run into the problem that the rights holders that wag the tail of the technical designs have decreed that consumer gear will never let an uncontrolled raw digital stream become accessible. So no S/PDIF outputs. Even notional pro gear makes it harder. The simplest answer seems to be Dante. You can get Dante to AES EBU adapters for about $100. You then need to set up the Dante routing. I get annoyed by the problems, not because of that tiny bit of probably inaudible performance deficit, but because it makes impossible to DIY DSP and active speakers. You need to use ADCs on the output and generally have a much messier and expensive solution.
Not that anyone with a bit of electronics skill couldn’t add digital output to most AVRs currently available.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Here's my solution [attack at will]:
universal player [w/best video possible] coaxial digital output to 2 channel DAC. BNC from the DAC to the pre/pro.

You mean RCA from the DAC to the pre/pro? BNC usually implies a digital connection. The universal player will need to be set to downmix any surround content to 2.0 stereo PCM when you use the DAC.

 

[abhijitnath]

I've asked before, but how does the hdmi to aesebu thing work for streamed movie content, blu ray, save, etc? Aren't there drm/hdcp issues? So is it only for htpc type content?

 

[ace_xp2]

Depending on how needful you are of modern decoding, old harman avrs output spdif if I recall right, from the 520 up to the 7550. This means a relatively simple surround set up, at best 7.1 hdmi, but it would allow the 2 channel pcm output signal from the chain.

It would also mean putting the signal into the avr and extracting the pcm when needed which is essentially opposite from what is described, but it would get you there.

 

[abhijitnath]

I think SPDIF downsamples 7.1 ie it can't pass 8 channels of PCM, just DTS and the like.

I do want the modern codecs, sadly, otherwise one of the excellent MiniDSP solutions would work just fine! Thank you for the thoughts though.

 

[bobof]

It's just not possible to legitimately do anything useful with external to the processor conversion as the HDCP rules forbid making a box that receives an HDCP protected stream and outputs unprotected digital audio above the 48kHz lossy compressed DTS/Dolby standards.

In any case, it's not clear this would fix the issues of poor measurements from AV processors. More often than not the converters themselves in the boxes are capable of more than they achieve. Splitting the job at the digital interface doesn't fix any of the digital domain transgressions, of which there are often many (witness the large performance improvements between firmware versions on the Emotiva products).

 

[SinnerSaint]

You mean RCA from the DAC to the pre/pro? BNC usually implies a digital connection. The universal player will need to be set to downmix any surround content to 2.0 stereo PCM when you use the DAC.

Thanks for the correction!
XLR