DAC expert! which is better? (from Denon DVD-Audio player). (1 Viewer)

[TanD]

from denon product website.

the upcoming denon3800 dvd-audio player use "Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz PCM 1738 Audio DACs"

the upcoming Denon 5800 receiver upgrade/5803 use "Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz PCM 1738 Audio DACs"

the upcoming flagship denon9000 dvd-audio player use "Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192-kHz PCM 1704 Audio DACs" same as the current denon 4800 dvd-audio player.

which DAC is better 1738 0r 1704?

they use 1738 for the flaship receiver and lower model dvd-audio 3800 (I know the burr-Brown 1738 is DSD capable)

but the 1704 for the flaship DVD-Audio player?

Doesn't make sense right!?

 

[John Kotches]

As I understand it, the 1738 DAC was used in the 5803 (and on the 5800 upgrade board) so that the DSD bitstream could be transferred from the DV-9000 (via DenonLink) into the receiver for D/A conversion.
Denon could not work out an agreement with Sony, so cannot offer the feature on the 9000/5800 combo.
A very slight performance tradeoff was made in the 5800 so that it could (with the 9000) offer universal playback compatibility.
The 9000 was designed as a very high performance DVD-Audio player, and as such the better PCM DACs were chosen.
Regards,

 

[TanD]

John, as I understand your statement you mean the Burr-Brown 1704 is better than the 1738 (which use on the upgrade 5800 and 5803 and the upcoming Denon 3800 DVD-Audio player) as a PCM DAC.

I would suspect that Denon 3800 may have SACD since it is using the 1738 (which is DSD capable) and the Specification sheet is 'Preliminary'. OR it will not using the 1738 at all if it won't support SACD.

 

[John Kotches]

Tan,

Only if Denon were to work out a license with Sony, which is not even being pursued for this product.

The 1704 is a small measured performance improvement over the 1738, and I suspect I couldn't tell the difference between them very easily, if at all.

Regards,