Marantz CD5400 - digital or analogue? (1 Viewer)

[Dave - A]

Greetings everyone,

I have a Pioneer VSX-D812 receiver and I have a Marantz CD5400 CD player coming soon. My question is, when it arrives should I use the digital out or the analogue out? In other words which unit has the better D/A converter?

If you use the digital output on a CD player, bypassing its D/A converter, how much does the quality of the player come into effect as far as sound quality?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Angelo.M]

Welcome to HTF.

You should demo both the analog and the digital connections and determine for yourself which setup you prefer. It doesn't matter what the specs are on either DAC; what matters is which output you like.

Using the digital output from your player relegates it to acting as a transport (literally, the thing that spins the disc and transports the 1's and 0's to the reciever) only. However, many folks will tell you, in excrutiating detail if you have the time () that the transport has characteristics which effect the resulting "sound," such as jitter, interference, etc.

Bottom line: test both connections and decide for yourself. My personal bias is against brief ABX testing, so I would using the analog connection for several days and then switch to the digital connection for several days and see, in the longer run, which you prefer.

Happy listening. Let us know what you find.

 

[John Garcia]

I agree with Angelo, you can't tell from specs, which DAC will sound better. My guess is the Marantz, but I have found that not all of Marantz' CD DACs are that great. Use interconnects of similar quality as well. With the CC4000 I was using, I couldn't tell much difference between analog or digital, but with my 222ES, there is a noticable difference.

 

[Chris PC]

Yep. Hook up the source player with digital and analog. If the receiver is anything like my setup, you can easily hit the A/D button on the receiver and do some AB listening, testing and comparing. I like my SR 7000's DAC's vs my Panasonic DVD player's DAC's, or maybe its just the way it is implemented. I use my SR 7000's DAC's anyways. Sounds good. Perhaps a different DVD/CD player may sound better.