DVD vs. CD players for music

rlightfoot

My new Denon AVR1802 serves double duty for movies and music. I'm running 2 Polk Rt55i for fronts, the CS245i center, 2 Polk monitor series rj5s for rear surrounds and a Velodyne CHT-100 sub.

As far as music goes, is there a noticeable improvement if you play music CDs on a CD player versus how I'm playing them on my Toshiba 2715 DVD player?

jcaut

I believe that would depend purely on the quality of the D-A converters involved. If you're feeding the digital signal to your receiver and it's doing the D-A conversion, then there should be no difference. BTW, in my opinion the difference (if any) would be very small.

Jason

rlightfoot

JC:

not sure what D-A is, but if this helps, I'm running the signal via optical out to the receiver

juice21

D-A converter, digital to analog

jcaut

D-A= digital-to-analog converter. You're using the D-A converters in the receiver, then. So the sound really should be identical from either the DVD player or the CD, if both are connected to the receiver with optical cables.

(Juice beat me again!):p

rlightfoot

Alright - thanks.

organ

I got a NADC541 HDCD CD player in January and noticed the improvement right away. My receiver's D/A sucked(Onkyo TXDS575) compared to the one on the NAD. The biggest improvement was in the bass and overall imaging/soundstage. There was more depth and the sound was more "3D" and focused. If you decide to upgrade, make sure you buy a player with either the crystal or burr-brown DAC. These DAC's are very popular among audiophile quality CD players. My NAD C541 uses a 24bit Sigma Delta Burr-Brown. A few weeks ago, I sat down and hooked up the coaxial and L/R outs so I could do a comparison of the receiver's and CD player's DAC. The DAC in the receiver sounded flat, bright, and the music didn't get my attention as much as the CD player's DAC. The CD player revealed a lot of little details I was missing. It also has what many call the "British Sound" which is darker, more natural mids and highs without sound harsh and good tight bass.

Hope this helps,

organ

OrangeToupee

So, if your CD player has a quality DAC it's best to NOT use a coaxial or optical connection? So what's left, the red and white RCA cables? Is that the L/R connection you refer to?

scottvamp

You can run both optical and L/R rca's of your DVD player. Run your rca's to the CD on your reciever. If you are running CD's then select CD on your reciever and DVD through the optical for DVD's. Many Audio enthuisist perfer the sound of analog via high quality rca's rather than digital optical for music CD's. Personaly I haven't nticed that big of a diff. but the optical seemed to have a little more clarity on the top end and analog seemed to have stronger bass. Hook it up the way I said and switch back and forth and see what you think.

OrangeToupee

Thanks, Scott, I'll give that a try as I've never been happy with the sound of my cd's running through the optical cable that I employ, whick connects my older Sony DVD player to my Denon receiver. Perhaps the DAC in my DVD player is inferior to my Denon's DAC?

Aaron

CD players are superior, assuming you have a good one. Regarding the analog vs. digital out, the analog on my player sounds better.

Aaron

gidrah

Sometimes I listen to CDs through my Sony carousel and sometimes through my Panasonic DVD. The Sony is only hooked up analog (for now) and the DVD is digitally outted. The DVD is much brighter than the CD. I mostly use the DVD for classical and DDD recorded discs. Any recording that's older or has a warmth to the recording I use the CD.

This works fo me. Either way it's just a preference of sound. It's all good.