Panny XR57: analog vs. digital inputs for music (1 Viewer)

[Jacob C]

So heres the deal, right now I am runnign a cheap DVD player through my panny via digital as the DAC in the DVD play it total crap. I am considering buying something like the oppo as a universal player. I was wondering if I would be better off maintaining the all digital path or if somehow using the DACs on the player and then converting back to digital (remember, digital amps) would be better. I realize that if I want to play DVD-A or SACD analogs are probably my only option. Please share your experiences. Thanks!

P.S. I am running ascend 170SEs and a STF-2 off the panny.

 

[FeisalK]

for playing via the DVD you should use the digital input- no point decoding it in the player then having it reconvert to digital in the receiver

for SACD on the Oppo you can have it sent out on the HDMI in PCM format - seen someone on AVS say the SQ is quite good still. DVD-A goes out on the HDMI as well but they've been doing that since the older XR70 anyways

note while you happen to be right about the ADC for digital amps in this case not all class-D implementations require a ADC stage - Only TI's Equibit convert PCM directly to PWM; the rest (notable exceptions Tact/Lyngdorf, and ThetaDigital's Virtu PowerDAC) use an analog signal to modulate the PWM

 

[Jacob C]

So with the XR57 is it possible to get better sound by using the DAC from the DVD player -> analog -> reciever ADC than with a direct digital signal from HDMI or is the HDMI going to be a hands down winner with this reciever. I realize this is a special case due to the design.

 

[FeisalK]

like I said all analog inputs will be converted to digital, so the output from even the best DAC will be converted back to PCM. there may be some downside to this DAC/ADC process, so I prefer the digital input if at all possible (can't help it if an older VCR or CD player is without a digital output, or listening to DVD-A/SACD on a player without HDMI)