c/d sound analog verse digital

[geareng]

I am new to this, but I have been a customer of Rotel for about ten years.
My problem is the sound quality is very different when I go from an analog input from my c/d player (rcc-955) compared to a digital input using a coaxial cable. I am using "Tributaries Delta Audio" cables from the c/d player to the processor (rsp-1066), not the standard analog cable that came with the unit. I really noticed it when I purchased my first HDCD. The amount of low end is significantly less on the digital end, and I was wondering if anyone else had experienced a similiar situation

[aud19]

Quite a few people (myself included) prefer listening to CD's from the analog outputs. It's just a matter of which DAC you prefer, the player's or the processor's. The quality of your digital cables compared to your nice Tributaries :P might have some effect as well. I personally prefer digital coax over optical (costs being equal), so who knows if you had it hooked up through an optical cable you might like it even less! 8O

Jason




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[mazuly]

Hi,

This is something I found myself when I was testing RCD-1072. It seemed that the analog output of this CD player sounded better than the digital output. Now the interesting thing was the digital output of this CD player sounded better than my RDV-1080 DVD player’s digital output which really confused me. I always thought that digital data from different players is the same and that you are at the mercy of the DAC of the processor, but that is not the case. Please read this write up on another forum written by John Dawson of Arcam (scroll dawn until you see his name) for some explanation of this phenomenon.

The Write Up

Thanks,
Maziar

[geareng]

Hello,
I must thank the two of you for the responses. I also read the article, and found it very enlightening.

I guess for now I will listen to my c/d's via my analog input for now, and try experimenting with a more high level coax cable.

But to add another variable to the equation. When you play a HDCD and the signal is going through the analog input into the processor, are you receiving a more defined signal or does HDCD only really work through a digital signal?

Thanks,
Mark

[mazuly]

Hi,

Well it depends if your CD player can decode the HDCD signal or not. In your case, RCC955 can decode the HDCD signal and therefore you would get the benefits that HDCD can provide using the analog output of your CD player.

One thing I like to caution you about is that you may be able to get better sound using better coaxial cables, but these cables will not cure the jitter problem. The benefit to better quality cables is that they will not add any extra jitter to the signal. I personally would spend the money on better quality analog cables to be used with your CD player. Now DVD players are another story .

Thanks,
Maziar