Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: 5.1 448Kbps vs 2.0 448 Kbps (AC3) - which sounds better on a 2.0 syste (Read 4398 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

5.1 448Kbps vs 2.0 448 Kbps (AC3) - which sounds better on a 2.0 syste

Let's say a music dvd has two AC3 audio tracks that are the same file size.  One is a 6ch 448 and one is a 2ch 448.  Am I right to assume that the 2ch should sound better than the 5.1ch listening through a 2.0 speaker setup, since more bitrate is allocated to each channel that you're listening to? 

How about listening through a 2.1 speaker setup, which mix would sound better in this case?

5.1 448Kbps vs 2.0 448 Kbps (AC3) - which sounds better on a 2.0 syste

Reply #1 –
The quality answer seems obvious, and AFAICT is the right one (all other things being equal).

However, it's very unlikely that you'll get the same mix by folding 5.1 down to 2.0 vs playing the 2.0 mix itself. They almost certainly did a separate 2.0 mix. So the two choices could sound very different for that reason.

As for 2.1 - it depends on how your set-up does bass management (i.e. how it splits out frequencies to send to the sub). Presumably it does it properly, otherwise there'd be little point having a 2.1 set-up. No benefit to using the .1 from the 5.1 mix.

Cheers,
David.

5.1 448Kbps vs 2.0 448 Kbps (AC3) - which sounds better on a 2.0 syste

Reply #2 –
Those bitrates are so high that I doubt that you would be able to tell the difference; furthermore, it would be impractical to ABX test (you'd be comparing apples to oranges) because you would have to apply some kind of DSP to listen to the 5.1 as 2 channels (or vice-versa).

Bitrate aside, the 2 channel track should sound better played back on a 2 channel system (if you have an x.1 system, you should be able to set it to 2 channel operation to listen for yourself) because the engineers mixed the sound specifically for stereo. 2.1 would sound better because you will then realize the lower frequencies available in the recording.

There are also algorithms out there for playing 2 channels into x.1 channels (Dolby Digital EX and DTS Neo:6) which do a very good job of side-to-side localization. What you'd lose is the additional front-to-back localization that the engineers mixed into the 5.1 track.