Best quality for CD/DVD: Analog RCA, Coaxial, or..?

[drosophila]

Without getting into cable brands or, well.. any brands, really, what's the word on analog vs. digital interconnects on CD players?

We're all accustomed to the ol' analog RCA plug, but I think equally so with TOSLink and Coaxial connections.. but what do you feel gives the better sound? Is it largely dependent on the quality of the A/D or D/A conversion onboard, or...?

Primary reason I ask this, besides being a dweeb, is i've had my eye on a number of new players, one of which only supports coaxial and toslink.

I'm wondering if the quality difference would be very significant, just based on connections, word clock, etc.. Something tells me this could be as subjective here as it is amongst the geeks over at Gearslutz (a pro-audio recording forum), but i'm curious as to the audiophile response.

[Andrew Pratt]

Without getting into cable brands or, well.. any brands, really, what's the word on analog vs. digital interconnects on CD players?

Its totally dependant on which unit has the better DAC the CD player or the Pre amp (Receiver). If its the Pre amp use a digital connection if its the CD player use analog. Often though its very difficult to know without trying both and seeing for yourself which you prefer...of course if its a very cheap CD player or DVD player the DAC's in the pre amp are very likely to be better but otherwise its best to test both.

[junior77blue]

All cd players that have a dac built in will have an analog outputs.

You only use digital outputs for external DAC. Depending which DAC's are better will determine which output you use from your CD/DVD player.

However, DD or DTS is usually better outputted by digital and let your processor do the decoding. Otherwise, you will need 6 analog outputs to get 5.1DD/DTS.

[junior77blue]

Didn't see your reponse Andrew...

[drosophila]

Kinda what I figured, since it's essentially the same deal with audio recording. Just had me curious a little, though, since choice of cabling doesn't come into discussion much on recording forums (other than the common "balanced vs. unbalanced" discussion).

One very large difference I notice, however, is that on the av side, there's a lot of mention of D/A converters, but very little in the way of A/D. As i've always understood it, the A/D is just as important as the D/A - if your A/D stage sucks, you're going to get crap in <-> crap out (however nicely trussed up). For instance, if I plug my synth in to my audio interface, it generally has a crummy signal on its own - if it's run through a crappy A/D, but a fantastic D/A, all i'm going to hear is a lot of detail from a degraded signal. Conversely, if I have a great A/D, i'm putting through a very clean, detailed signal, but not hearing it as well as I would with a good D/A..

Does the same logic apply for hi-fi?

[junior77blue]

A/D only comes into play if your playing a tape or record player...then you would just keep it analog. There's no need to convert it back to digital.

CD/DVD are all DIGITAL sources that need to be converted to analog. An anlog signal will always be better, since digitals are trying to emulate the analog signal.

[drosophila]

Technically, most of my synths are "digital", as well (aka "virtual analog"). Despite this, as they do contain some degree of good ol' circuitry, they still tend to benefit from a good A/D. Maybe i'm misunderstanding something, but just because something utilizes DSP as it's primary method of generating/processing sound, doesn't mean there aren't analog elements coming into play that would benefit from quality A/D.

I'm not going to try to stir up the analog vs. digital debate, though. I'll just say there are tradeoffs to both (though I still tend to like vinyl over cd).

[Bruce]

There is also one thing to be careful about. Many receivers and prepros take an analog signal and digitze it (including stereo) unless you specifically select the "analog pass-thru" mode for signal routing. This means the signal goes thru an additional A/D and then D/A cycle before hitting the speakers.

Many units do this with 5.1 analog inputs (SACD and DVD-A) as well as stereo, so the unit can apply bass management to the signal while it's in the digital domain.

Just something to keep in mind when you are trying to compare DACs between the player and receiver/prepro.