Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all players?

noblejose

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Hello all,
I'm stuck on a question:
how/ why the sound quality differ by the players, if I connect source player to a DAC via digital interface (Optical/ Coaxial)? Technically the quality should be same??

Here is the practical scenario:
Output from player through digital (opt/ coax).
DAC, AMP, SPEAKERS and Interconnects remains same.

Does the quality of sound improve if I change my player? (again I'm using optical/ coaxial out to a DAC)?

Expert advise please..
 
Re: Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all playe

what is your old and new source
 
Re: Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all playe

Hello all,
I'm stuck on a question:
how/ why the sound quality differ by the players, if I connect source player to a DAC via digital interface (Optical/ Coaxial)? Technically the quality should be same??

Digital is still "analog" down at the wire. Digital electronics is a logical construct but is physically voltages at the wire. Voltages below a certain value (the threshold) is a "0" and voltages above the threshold is a "1. Commonly low is 0V and high is 3.3V with a threshold of 1.6V (half the low and high). Another standard uses 0V and 5V. In optical the conversion is to light pulses with a transmitter and a receiver at each end. In both cases these transmissions are not perfect or at least not without some errors and side effects.

I hope this gives you a glimpse of why there are differences even in digital. Design of the system and parts quality all matter and result in differences as well.
 
Re: Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all playe

Hi Nikhil,
Very informative, thank you. I believe these difference in digital transmission should be much negligible comparing to the same with pure analogue case.

@audiodelic
I've a BDP-170 with coaxial out and analogue stereo out. I'm planning to get Marantz PM 6005, which has an inbuilt DAC. I believe that the internal DAC in Marantz will be a huge improvement over my BDP-170.

But I'm not sure, if I should consider a higher end Marantz CD 6005?? as better source..? -if this is the case, I can even think about a higher wattage AMP without inbuilt DAC.

I'm also planning to connect my tv optical out to this PM 6005; and believe it will do much better job for stereo music than HDMI out to my onkyo receiver.
 
Re: Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all playe

Hello all,
I'm stuck on a question:
how/ why the sound quality differ by the players, if I connect source player to a DAC via digital interface (Optical/ Coaxial)? Technically the quality should be same??

Here is the practical scenario:
Output from player through digital (opt/ coax).
DAC, AMP, SPEAKERS and Interconnects remains same.

Does the quality of sound improve if I change my player? (again I'm using optical/ coaxial out to a DAC)?

Expert advise please..

The jitter is supposed to be higher on the optical output compared to spdif. This mostly applies only when you have the same source providing both optical and spdif.
However I had better experience with optical output, which I believe is due to the electrical isolation from the player. Depends upon the DAC too.
Also the BDP player may not provide bit perfect PCM stream. In my case when I was using a philips DVD player the music volume was lower compared to the digital audio output on my PC.
 
Re: Source (player) to DAC via Optical / Coaxial; sound quality is same for all playe

Although im using coaxial now as my player supports it, ive had equal results with optical. Coaxial = less jitter, has that been tested in a blind session ?
 
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