Two channel home theatre - HDMI versus Spdif for stereo

Since I gave up surround about four years ago, I have continued to use HDMI for my Sky Q satellite tv box and other AV sources. I thought that the convenience of HDMI switching by my Linn DSM was the most important factor. More recently, my attempts to improve the sound of streaming have led me to think otherwise.

I decided to try switching off the HDMI option in my DSM, to see if I got better sound from streaming without it. I was aware that the Sky box was source of noise and wondered if isolating it with a Optical Toslink cable might be beneficial. Also, I hoped separating the PCM digital audio of the Blu-ray player by Coaxial Spdif from the picture signal in HDMI might improve the stereo sound quality of music video discs of concerts, etc.

I came as a surprise how much better it actually was. My wife’s Bruce Springsteen Blu-ray, London Calling was previously unlistenable, in my view. Now it sounds great. Last night, I really enjoyed the sound of Tangerine Dream’s Dante’s Inferno, another one I hadn’t been able to get into. I am quite excited about watching more of the few music Blu-ray and DVDs that I have, such as One Giant Step, Paul Simon, Talking Heads and Rickie Lee Jones.

I am not knocking HDMI because it’s clearly great for the surround formats and is very convenient. However, for stereo PCM, I can get much better sound quality with Coaxial Spdif.