Rotel RDA-986 owner manual Digital Signal Connections, Analog Signal Connections

DTS® SURROUND ADAPTOR RDA-986

Power Switch 1 and Power Indicator 2

The power switch is located on the front panel of your RDA-986 Surround Adaptor. To turn the unit on, push the switch in. The LED indicator above the switch will light, indicating that the unit is turned on. To turn the RDA-986 off, push the button again and re- turn it to the out position.

Digital Signal Connections

The RDA-986 features two standard digital inputs (optical or co- axial) which receive a digital data stream from a DTS-compatible LaserDisc or DVD player. In addition, a pass-through digital output connector (coaxial) can be used to send the raw digital data stream to another processor, such as a Dolby Digital® decoder.

Digital Inputs 5 and 7

The RDA-986’s digital inputs accept a digital signal from your LaserDisc or DVD player. Two types of digital inputs are available

–an optical input connection and a 75 ohm coaxial input connec- tion. Select the type of connection that best matches the output connector on your video disc player or other source component, using either a standard optical digital cable or a standard 75 ohm coax digital cable.

Digital Input Selector Switch 6

Atwo-position switch located between the digital inputs selects the appropriate digital input connector, either optical or coax. If you connect your video disc player to the RDA-986’s optical input, place this switch in the left position (labeled OPTI). If you use the coax input, slide this switch to the right position (labeled COAX).

Analog Signal Connections

The RDA-986 has 5.1 channel analog output connections for send- ing decoded DTS information (six discrete channels: left front, right front, center, left rear, right rear, and subwoofer) to the sur- round processor or system controller. In addition, the RDA-986 features a 5.1 channel analog pass-through input, which can be used to accept a decoded 5.1 channel signal from another out- board decoder, such as Dolby Digital, to the surround processor, thus simplifying connections in an elaborate system.

25-pin Analog Output 10

The most convenient analog output connection is the rear panel 25-pin connector. This is a standard DB-25 connector which car- ries all six channels of decoded analog signal in a single cable. If you are using a surround processor which has a matching DB-25 input, such as all Rotel surround processors, this will provide a convenient, simplified output connection. Simply connect the out- put to the matching 5.1 channel input on your surround processor using a standard female-to-male DB-25 audio connector.

RCA Analog Outputs 11

The RDA-986 also provides six RCA output connectors for use with surround sound processors lacking a DB-25 input. These outputs provide exactly the same analog output signals as the DB-25 out- put, except that connecting them requires the use of six standard RCA-to-RCA audio cables. If you use the RCA outputs, make sure that you connect the signal properly – the LEFT FRONT output on the RDA-986 to LEFT FRONT input on the surround processor, etc.

25-pin Analog Input 9

Coaxial Digital Output 8

The digital output connector is used to pass the unprocessed digi- tal signal from the digital input through to another processor. For example, the same DVD player might be used to play both DTS en- coded and Dolby Digital encoded surround sound material. A DTS encoded signal will be decoded by the RDA-986 and the resulting

5.1channel analog signal sent to the surround sound processor. A Dolby Digital encoded signal will be sent, unprocessed, from the digital output to the digital input of a Dolby Digital decoder for pro- cessing. This pass-through feature allows you to use the RDA-986 with an outboard Dolby Digital decoder or with a surround sound processor that includes built-in Dolby Digital decoding.

Connect the digital output connector to the digital input connector on your Dolby Digital decoder or directly to your surround sound processor’s digital input, if it has built-in Dolby Digital decoding.

DTS Indicator 3 and Signal Indicator 4

There are two LED indicators on the RDA-986 front panel which indicate whether a signal is present at the digital input. The SIG- NAL indicator lights whenever a digital signal from a source com- ponent is sensed by the digital inputs. The DTS indicator lights if that digital signal is DTS encoded.

In many systems, the RDA-986 will be the only outboard surround sound decoder; therefore, the only input connection will be con- necting a DTS source component to the digital inputs described above. However, elaborate systems may use two outboard decod- ers (the RDA-986 for DTS signals and a separate Dolby Digital de- coder). To simplify the wiring of such a system, the RDA-986 provides a 25-pin 5.1 channel analog input. This accepts the de- coded output of a Dolby Digital decoder and passes it through, un- changed, to the analog output of the RDA-986 to be sent on to the surround processor. The RDA-986 does not have to be turned on for this pass-through connection to work.

Switching between the digital input and the pass-through analog input is completely automatic, with the digital input receiving pri- ority. If a DTS signal is present at the digital inputs, the unit de- codes the DTS signal and sends the discrete analog signal to the RDA-986 outputs. If no DTS signal is sensed at the digital inputs, the signal at the analog inputs is passed through to the outputs.

Note: If you have a DTS signal at the digital inputs and an analog signal at the analog inputs, the DTS signal will take priority. To switch to the analog signal, put the DTS source component in its PAUSE or STOP mode.

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