Denon AVR-3805 won't send digital audio to two rooms -- alternatives? (1 Viewer)

[Andy_Steb]

Ted,

You’re on the right track (second receiver vs. Zone 2). Let me try to sum it up for you.

The DACs in the Denon are better than the DACs in the Mac Mini. This is why the optical connection sounds better than the RCA connection. Even if your mini was able to output digital and analog at the same time, it wouldn’t matter because you prefer the digital connection.

The whole idea behind 2 zone receivers is to be able to play two different sources in two different rooms. The reason your Denon will only play analog on zone 2 is because, (has nothing to do with DD, DTS or licensing) in order to play two different digital sources in two different zones your receiver will need two sets of DACs. You’re going to be hard pressed to find a receiver to replace your Denon that will output a digital signal on zone 2.

Your options,

Analog out to receiver – you’ll get sound to both zones, will have to learn to live with the sound quality.

Drop the Mac mini and find a music server with a better analog audio output.

Digital out to receiver – you’re going to have to connect living room up to zone 1 with some sort of audio distribution device.

USB or Firewire sound card with better analog out than the Mac mini.

Second receiver – digital out of your Denon to a second receiver (second receiver will have the responsibility of digital to analog conversion in living room) to run the zone 2 duties.

Forget about 2 zones and set up a dedicated two channel system in living room.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the detailed answer.

Does that mean that if I were to find an older receiver without the "zone" concept, like the Denon AVR-2800, I'd be able to play in both rooms (A & B speakers in this receiver's parlance) from digital in?

(I mention this specific model because I used have it and loved it until I broke it -- I could either have my old one fixed or buy a working one off ebay). Any other possible receivers that would do what I want?

Thanks again,
Ted

 

[Scotty P]

that is a limitation of zone 2 (or more) outputs, they will only switch and pass through analog, to do otherwise they would have to include another DAC in the receiver (which would be a nice feature.) That would be fine for stereo/ PCM sources but for DD/DTS there could be some weirdness. Don't know of any receivers that do this.

I had a similar problem with my D Link Media Lounge. Would only output digital or analog (not both at same time) and the analog output was poor quality. (although for my zone 2 use, the quality wasn't too bad, but bad enough I didn't want to use for main room listening) I found an Audio Alchemy "DAC in the box" on Ebay for around $100 (great sounding DAC), split the digital out, sent one line to the normal digital in on my receiver, then sent the other digital out to the DAC, then the analog from the DAC to the analog in on the receiver-works great. That would be the ideal solution.

The mentioned option of dedicating another receiver to zone 2 and using its digital input would work also (digital splitter with one line to main receiver and other line to zone 2 receiver would still allow for different source selections) although it would create some hoops to jump through selecting other sources to zone 2. The preamp outs to another receiver would work, but you would have to make sure and change you listening mode to stereo for zone 1 or you would be missing some information going to zone 2, you would have to have same source playing in both zones.

 

[torrschar]

Hello . I have the same situation with the AVR3805. I want to play the same digital source in the main room and the second room (Deck) To sum this up: I need either a DAC and a power amp or a second receiver that has a digital input to drive my speakers on the deck. I'll need to split the digital signal(Optical) in two. I have a PC running Kodi with an optical out. Is this correct?