Generally speaking, under what circumstances would one connect his CD Player to a A/V receiver via digital cable (optical or coaxial) and RCA cables?
Personally I just upgraded to a Yamaha RX-V2300 receiver and I have an old cheap entry level Kenwood CD Changer (CD-203) and was wondering whether I should connect using optical digital cable or analog RCA cables.
If I do use the digital cables, then does it mean that I am using the better DAC off the Yamaha? So if I want to upgrade my CD player, I should look for something with a better DAC than those inside the Yamaha receiver?
Thanks in advance, Matt
Derek
Posted on
You should connect the CD player to the receiver with the digital cable if you are using any of the receiver's DSP modes - like Dolby Pro-Logic. You also may want to connect things up digitally if your receiver has no provisions for a true analog bypass.
It's not so much that you want to listen to superior receiver DACs. More importantly, you don't want to listen to the CD player's DACs, the receiver's ADCs AND the receiver's DACs. All of these conversions can degrade the sound of your music. Even if the CD player's DACs are superior to the receiver's DACs, the receiver's DACs will still influence the sound. Why listen to 3 conversions when you can listen to 1.
Hope this helps.
Paul T
Posted on
I found with my new NAD T752 analog sounds much better then the digital coax line.. I mean "MUCH" better, much warmer and more dynamic and even louder.. weird I know but it's a 9 year old Yamaha CD Player so there is no optical outs just analog and digital coax.. My advise try them both and see what you find, my brother has a higher end Yamaha receiver and say he found just the opposite result so it may vary from each receiver/cd player..