Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo How much difference does a good CD player make ??

"$150 Denon from Walmart" Are Walmart's different in Canada?

In reply to:

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Are Walmart's different in Canada?

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I don't know. I never frequent them.
You could substitute the word "Denon" for something more commonly found there. Perhaps JVC? or Panasonic? or Toshiba?

Too bad they didn't review any of the stuff everybody has. I'd be willing to bet that they would all look about the same anyway - maybe like that expensive Sonys chart?
Really, I just wanted to try out my new Oktoberfest-themed avatar. TADA!!

Oops, Saturn - you missed a part of my quote there...

I've maintained through the thread the DIGITAL OUTS of CD players.

If you use the analog outs on a Oh! Knob Kjob hacked Marantz, of course you'll end up with a different signal and response curve - you're using a lightbulb as a pre-amp!

Bren R.

Oh! Knob Kjob?!?!? you guys are funny...heheh.

"the DIGITAL OUTS of CD players."

Can I ask you why that is? Call me old school but I use analog cables for everything except DD/DTS. I always have spare cables laying around, never any toslink cables. I assume that ANALOG is always used. Am I an oddball?

Matt, there's a reason to use the digital output on your player even for CDs. If you use any type of processing on them in your 884(e.g. bass management for your sub or surround processing such as DPLII)rather than feeding the signals straight through, the processing has to be done digitally. So, the analog input would first have to be reconverted to digital by the ADC in the receiver, processed, and then again converted to analog by the receiver DACs for amplification. It's questionable how much these extra conversions mean, but they can't help and there's no good reason for the complication. Incidentally, a "digital" cable(usually meaning one with 75ohm impedance)doesn't have to necessarily be used on the digital output if you don't have one handy. The 75ohm impedance would only become significant at the wavelengths used in CDs if the cable was longer than about 40 feet. For the more common connection distances of a few feet an "analog"(i.e. not 75ohm)"RCA" cable works just as well.

I understand that any RCA tipped cable will work as a coax out ( My sub cable is a long non "subwoofer" coax ), but my old Sony changer only has a toslink out. Plus, when I compared the DAC's in my Denon, old Sony STR DE 595, and DVP 755V, the old 5 disc changer sounded the best! I don't know if the "degradation" makes the sound more appealing but the SOB sounds great through my Axioms. I don't feel the need to go buy a toslink cable. My question is still, am I the only person in the semi-audiophile world that uses analog cables?

From other threads it seems that a lot of people still favour analog connections. Have to admit I don't understand why -- in my case it's cause my stereo receiver doesn't HAVE any digital inputs except for the remote control.

My H-K 5 disc is set up through the analog outs - because it feeds into the line in on my soundcard.

I play CDs through the DVD player in the HT which is, of course, hooked up via SPDIF.

Bren R.

Bren R.