Salesman Suggested The Following

[greenhorn]

I’m pretty new to better quality Stereo\Home Theater world, have some basic understanding, but by no means do I really know my way around this stuff yet. I was out shopping for a new DVD player and the salesman suggested a unique (to me) way of hooking up the DVD player I was looking at to my Pre-Amp. The DVD player is an ARCAM DV 78, the Pre-Amp is an Anthem AVM 20 connected to an Anthem PVA-7. He said he was told about this setup by someone from Anthem a while back. He said it resulted in a very pure sound with no processing done to the signal, close in a sense to vinyl.

So, not being very sophisticated in processing, configuration and all… anyone have any thoughts? Is this a common configuration that can be done with most DVD players and Preamps\ integrated receivers that have the Analog Audio 6 channel in? Anyone else doing it?

You use the red white “Analog Outs” from the DVD player and plug them into the Front Left and Front Right 6-Channel Analog Inputs on the back of the Pre-Amp. When you play the CD you select the 6 Channel input on the Preamp and set the 6 Channel input to bypass all digital stages. The other thing he mention is this is strictly 2-Channel stereo, nothing is sent to the sub, that your 2 fronts will be handling all the Bass.

I reviewed the Anthem AVM 20 manual and it states pretty much as above, but it doesn’t suggest any specific reason a person would use this configuration only that if the 6 Channel input is unused, the Front-Left and Front Right inputs can be used as a 2 channel input.

I did use this setup and the music did sound very good. Any thoughts on all of this?

[PewterTA]

You CAN do that.

What are you doing is allowing your DVD player's DACs to decode the digital information off the disc and send it as an analog signal to the Pre/Pro. Another way to do this is (I believe) there should be an option in the Pre/Pro's menu to set a signal for (say CD for example) a Bypass (or pass-through) mode that eliminates all the digital processing the Pre/Pro does.

Now this is how you NORMALLY should do this. Especially if you have a good CDP with a really good DAC in it. I've not heard and do not know exactly what the DV78 has it in so know the quality you are actually getting from the DVD player.

All you can do is hook it up the way the Sales guy said and switch inputs back and forth during playback and see which sounds better to your ears.

-Dan

[OttoMatic]

Yep, it pretty much depends on who has the better DAC -- the DVD player or the preamp... Your ears will have to decide.

[whoaru99]

All true, except that you should be able to set any of the 2-ch analog inputs to accomplish the same thing, afaik. As long you have the input type set to "Anlg-Dir" you should be good to go.

You can also use the digital output at the same time to a second input and easily switch back and forth to see if either one sounds better to you. Just be sure the speaker configurations are the same and that you've tried to do some level matching. For example, when you use the "Anlg-Dir" input, all the bass management is disabled. So, when you use the digital input as comparison, you need to make sure the speaker configuration assigned to that input is also set up with no bass management, etc.
Then, for level matching, if there are variable outputs on the player try to use those, if not, use the Anthem's variable input level adjustments. A voltmeter at the speaker terminals is the most accurate in conjunction with say a 1kHz test tone.

If you don't level match, the one that is louder generally sounds better to most people; even if the loudness difference is not obvious.

Keep in mind though, there really is no right or wrong in this regard. It's which ever sounds best to you regardless of the connection methodology.

You may find yourself caught between the apparent theory of purity of using analog direct, or between digitized analog input and digital input to employ bass managment. Again, no right or wrong, just what sounds best to you - or, which philosophy you subscribe to.