Play audio CD's on your DVD and compare DAC's of DVD vs. receiver (1 Viewer)

[Rick_Brown]

I stumbled on a way to "A/B" the DAC's in your DVD player vs. the DAC's in your receiver when playing audio CD's:

1. Connect your DVD player conventionally using an optical or coaxial connection.

2. Connect the analogue L/R outputs from your DVD to the CD inputs of your receiver.

3. Play an audio CD on your DVD player.

4. Using your remote you can now switch back and forth between "DVD" and "CD".

5. When you select "DVD", you are listening to your receiver's DAC's.

6. When you select "CD" you are listening to your DVD player's DAC's.

You should probably choose either "Stereo" or "Direct" mode when doing this. You may find that your CD's sound better one way or the other, especially if either your DVD or receiver has better DAC's.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

Good tip, but there is a catch here. There is a potential for the output of one DAC being a little louder than the other which gives it a huge and spurious advantage- even if its 1 db. So before doing the A/B, use a meter to make sure the levels are matched. It may be necessary to make a slight volume adjustment to level the playing field.

You can also use a similar method to compare the coax and digital outputs of a DVD or CD player.

 

[Robert M]

I too have used this method to find out why my AVR5800 sounded so terrible in the direct and pure direct mode. I hooked the analogue cables out of the Denon DVP 5000 into the 5800 using the VDP input and the co-ax digital cable to the DVD input. I paid close attention to sound levels and realized a huge difference in sound quality between the two Denon products. Even using an anologe connection between my HK CDR 2 there was a big difference. In all I have found that using the 5800 in the direct or pure direct mode is an unpleasant experiance. I actually believe that there is a defect in my 5800 but I have been unable to get a response from Denon with regard to my findings. I am quite happy using analogue inputs for all my two channel listening and thus have not pursued repair of the 5800.

bob

 

[Mike Burke]

I have done this test several times using my Denon AVR 3200 and my Panasonic A110. I am using a M/C M1000D digital cable and a 400i Analog RCA cable. I found the digital sound on music to be SOOO bad but sounds pretty good with the analog cables. I preferred it over the sound from my Kenwood 5 disc changer. I bought a Sony CA70ES last Xmas and the Sony is much better then my DVD player for music!

I think for this price range we might be asking too much of the receiver. I have heard an AVR4800 doing the same thing and the results were much better (The Pure Direct option).

Mike