Best Audio Quality

Achieving the best audio quality comes down to a few factors.

Cables
Equipment - quality, brands etc
Settings, Calibrations
Audio Source - analogue? digital? mp3? DVD? Burnt DVD? etc

This article talks about the first of these 4 factors - the cables. Having and using the correct cables is important.

Which cable to use? To get the best audio quality

From a surround sound stand point, the cable that gives the best audio quality is one that delivers the most audio channels (6 channels also known as 5.1) rather than a cable that can only deliver 2 channels e.g

This is only useful if you have surround sound. (An amplifier and 5.1 -7.2 speaker system).

In order of the best to worst:

Analogue 6 channel RCA
Toslink or Dig. Coax.
2channel RCA or Stereo
Analogue RF FM

What are the best material sources of audio?

To get the best audio quality, the material source is very, very important. All those downloaded mp3's only sound as good as the KB ratio and the quality of the recording and/or copy & duplication.

In order of best to worst: The best material source of audio is:

Vinyl record
Blue Ray DVD w/7.1
DVD/Blue ray with 5.1, HD TV w/5.1 channel
Digital radio, CD, MP3 with 120kb or higher, TV channel with 2.1, 2.0, 3.1,
Analogue FM - radio and television broadcasts

What's involved with speaker and amplifier calibration?

To get the best audio quality, speaker and amplifier calibration is one of 5 basic factors that needs to be addressed.

Settings of speaker/amplifier calibration include: (Marked with * = critical)

Manual calibration (not auto!) *
Surround Sound Test *
Channel levels *
Distance *
Speaker size*
Speaker impedence *
Zoning
Effect and toning settings *
Source selection
Microphone calibration
Sub woofer *
Pitch
Treble/bass
Input assignment *
More or less depending on amplifier

Speaker and amplifier calibration is as you can see, best done by a professional. Tv Magic has tv technicians who specialise in this area of expertise. We can come to your home/office/business to calibrate your lounge-room system right up to multi zoning commercial systems used in pubs & clubs. The difference of having these settings done by someone who knows what they're doing makes all the difference. You will actually enjoy your surround sound for once! And if you already do, we are always able to improve the audio quality by that much that we have customers saying "OH! that sounds way better!".