has anyone else compared the sound quality of a media player with 1186 chip to Sigma chip? I had Egreat R300 with realtek and did not think it sounded as good as my HDX with sigma 8642 chip. The Egreat had thinner sound; not as full sounding in the bass
There seems to be many more choices of players right now with realtek chips than sigma but I don't want to lose sound quality and I need it to be able to read 3TB and 4TB hard drives

also is 1186DD the same as 1186 or is there a difference

I wanted to ask again about people's experiences with sound between Realtek and Sigma Chip

I just got the iconBit player with Realtek 1186 chip and it plays everything and it is quick and can read and play files from 3TB and 4TB drive so I give it strong grades for that

BUT the sound quality is not as good as my Sigma 8642 chip in my HDX; there is a clear difference; the sound on Realtek is thinner; Bass not as strong
I noticed on 5.1 playback as well as 96/24 audio files

this is the exact same thing I noticed on Egreat R300 with Realtek 1186 chip when I compared that to my HDX

so the realtek chip is great when it comes to features and playing all files but there is no way it sounds as good. I am sure of what I heard; I compared a few times

There is Positively a Sound Difference between the Sigma 8642 and Realtek 1186. Remember the 8642 is a blu-ray chip; it is a top of the line chip
It is now discontinued.

It could also be the quality of the DAC or the output stage in the player

The HDX BD1 is premium in that regard; all Audio Files and Video with HD sound and DVD sound are excellent on that player and seemed to sound similar with the Popcorn Hour A400, which has Sigma 8910 chip but too many other playback problems with the A400 at this point

FYI, another person from the forums who owns a Realtek chip player and a Sigma player did a Bass test using a sound level meter and he wrote:


I just did my test using a radioshack digital sound meter set to 70 with response time set to fast. And the pink noise 7.1 dts-hd test disc. number for number they were the exact same across the board, with the exception of LFE channel while it peaked at the same sound level it was sporadic and jumpy. with the 8911 sigma player bass sat at a flat 85 (yes i know its to high.. for this test I turned the sub amp all the way up) But the 1186 player would make the spl meter jump between 80-86 during LFE.


This is a big difference and would explain what I am hearing when I complain about hearing less bass on 2 different realtek players