I've got a refurbished HK AVR 635 that I use probably 80 percent for music and 20 percent for movies. I have a small, crappy TV, so video processing is not as important to me as sound quality.
I typically use my DVD player, a Sony DVP-NS575P, to play CDs. It's connected to the receiver via digital coax. I've got a 5.1 setup with Athena bookshelf speakers.
What are the pros and cons of listening to music via digital coax? I assumed the DAC in the HK would be superior to that in a $90 DVD player, but now I'm not so sure. Should I use instead my 15 year old Sony CDP-C225, which doesn't even have digital outputs, to play CDs instead of my two year old DVD player?
And in an even more subjective question, I know the general consensus here seems to be that a dedicated CD player performs better on music than a DVD player. I was going to buy a cheap Pioneer universal DVD player (DV-588A-S) to play both SACDs and DVD-As, but then I started leaning toward getting both the Pioneer and the Marantz CC4300, which somebody here (Edster? Kano?) recommended as a good CD player.
Even more recently, I'm wondering whether I should go with the HK DVD 47, a more expensive universal DVD player but also a better one based on the reviews I've seen and from a company with a good reputation for audio quality. The thing is, I'd prefer not to have to purchase both the HK DVD 47 and the Marantz CD player if I'm not going to get a truly appreciable improvement in performance.
I realize this is a meandering question, but I'm just looking for general feedback about the issue of digital versus analog for music and the relative merits of the Pioneer, Marantz and HK machines.
I also used to play CDs via coax on my DVD player and believed that it sounded good. That was until I got hold of a decent CDP(connected via analogue) and it opened my eyes(and ears)
I do believe a good DVD player will give better sound reproduction than an el-cheapo CDP, but once you up the ante and invest in a good CDP it is like chalk and cheese.
I'm willing to bet your 15-year old CD player beats your 2-year old DVD player.
In theory, there is one major disadvantage to listening to music via the coax connection, which is jitter. The S/PDIF connection that you're using has buffering on both ends but this introduces a digital distortion which is time domain related called jitter. In effect, jitter is a sort of time smearing distortion caused by the buffering which you cannot get around. This has an effect on the timing of the signal which is most obvious in the level of engagement or 'connection' you feel to the music you're playing. By connecting to the analogue outputs of the DVD player, you go through the D/A conversion in the player. This is done at full bus rates so you don't get as much of the jitter distortion as you do through the S/PDIF connections.
HOWEVER, the D/A conversion in your H/K is likely to be done by higher quality chipsets than your $90 DVD player! Therefore, although theory has it right, you could get a better overall result even though you have more jitter!
Now the 15-year old CD player may have very old chipsets, but In know of quite high end CD players which still use relatively old chipsets very effectively. Therefore it's possible that - so loong as all the bits are working well - your 15-year old player may put your DVD player to shame.
Thanks for the responses. I'll look into the Cambridge 340.
Frank, is jittering a problem that affects all digital connections or just those from a DVD player? In other words, would it affect the playback of a CD player connected digitally? Again, I'm wondering whether I'd get better results using the DAC of a relatively inexpensive new CD player, like a Marantz, or the DAC of my HK 635.
Or maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on the DAC and not enough on the player's overall quality...
Are you sure the Cambridge 340 is a universal player? The only player I could find on the Cambridge site that clearly indicates both SACD and DVD-A capabilty was the DVD89.