T+A K8 BluRay HD Receiver

There are two options how the T+A K8 can decode the surround sound: Dolby Prologic PLIIx and Neo:6. Decoding a two-channel CD through the PLIIx dramatically enhances the recorded ambience – the soundstage expanded and filled my room with masses of sound. The switching to the PLIIx, although very attractive for a listener, is not suitable for critical listening, however. The spatial expansion is not natural and despite its charming three-dimensional quality I had trouble to navigate in it – the locations of the instruments were smeared and sonic elements came seemingly from nowhere. It resulted to a kind of a vertigo effect when you desperately look for a fixed point to anchor yourself in the space – not unlike when you revert phase of one of speakers.

Without going into details on how the Neo:6 processes the sound I can say right away that Neo:6 totally wins over the ProLogic decoding (please note that I am still discussing the playback of stereo CDs). What it does is that it generates a kind of sonic envelope that is spread around a listener and invites him or her in. Where the jazz quartet of the New York Reunion suffered from the spatial haziness the Neo:6 could render the music with all the attributes of the best high-end gear including excellent imaging plus it lent the music extra spatiality. Valse Triste (Sibelius, Herbert Von Karajan and  Berliner Philharmoniker) is a classical waltz piece that shines with melancholy and brooding atmosphere. With the PLIIx you are taking a seat in the depth of an auditorium, with the Neo:6 you become Von Karajan – one can almost feel movements of the players on left and right as well as you have control over those in the farthest corner of the soundstage. This is exactly what a good surround set-up should sound like. The threat is that after listening to the T+A K8’s multichannel for few hours it is very difficult to downgrade to ‘only stereo’ mode. Once you switch back you would miss the magic and no matter how much audiophile your system is I bet you would find it uninvolving and boring. In the review of Sony’s XA-5400ES multichannel player we wrote: „The return to the traditional stereo is like... observing the outside world with only one eye open. “ The T+A K8 only confirms it.

Note: The final DRS rating reflects the K8's versatility and the sound in surround modes.