Dac Here Dac There Dacs Everywhere

[TTA89]

Alright can someone help me out here.

I am making the venture into SACD and DVD-A and I am looking at getting a Denon 2900 DVD Player. The DVI Video of this is supposed to be amazing and it also supports SACD and DVD-A.

I am also looking into Purchasing a Rotel 1056 at the same time and I want to make sure I understand how the Audo part works.

I am going to connect the DVD to the Rotel with a toslink or coax connection so the reciever can do surround decoding etc etc so it would be using the Rotel DACs right?

Now I am also supposed to connect cables from 6 analog outputs to the inputs on the reciever for SACD and DVD-A correct?? And this way the DACs in the DVD player get used?

So does the PLayer know to use analog when playing SACD or DVD-A? Which DAC's are better and why can't you have the Reciever do all of it? How does the DVD player know which outputs to use or does it just use all of them and you tell the reciever which ones to listen for?

[Andrew Pratt]

I am also looking into Purchasing a Rotel 1056 at the same time and I want to make sure I understand how the Audo part works.

Great choice:T

I am going to connect the DVD to the Rotel with a toslink or coax connection so the reciever can do surround decoding etc etc so it would be using the Rotel DACs right?

Correct.

Now I am also supposed to connect cables from 6 analog outputs to the inputs on the reciever for SACD and DVD-A correct?? And this way the DACs in the DVD player get used?

Right again.

So does the PLayer know to use analog when playing SACD or DVD-A?

Yes...SACD and DVD-A are going to be decoded by the player and sent out through the analog cables to your Rotel.

Which DAC's are better and why can't you have the Reciever do all of it?

Right now there isn't a standard method of transfering SACD and DVD-A via a digital connection like there is for DVD movies and CD's etc. There are some specialized digital connections like iLink etc that will allow a digital transmission of those signals but they only work on things like the latest Denon receiver and Denon DVD player (Pioneer also has one as well)

How does the DVD player know which outputs to use or does it just use all of them and you tell the reciever which ones to listen for?

Right the DVD player will send the info to both the digital and analog paths so it'll be up to you to decided which input you want to listen to at the receiver end.

[will1066]

Denon 5900 has DVI.

[Steve Goff]

The Denon 2910 and 3910 have both DVI and HDMI outputs, and an IEEE 1394 connection (which is an accepted standard for digital transmission of DVD Audio and SACD signals from a player to a processor, by the way) for transmission of all audio formats, including DVD A and SACD to receivers and processors that have a 1394 receiver. These are few, but their number is about to grow.