Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Tos Link or analog 5.1

I thought analog was uncompressed therefore will sound better than optical. Maybe that is true with HD DVD audio tracks but not SD DVD. Thanks

No, it's the format that determines whether the audio has been compressed. Standard DVDs use a compressed audio format(which can, however, sound excellent when well-done), both for DD or DTS tracks, and the type of connection can't change that.

Thanks Everyone I will stick with my HD DVD player. Now I need some QS8s to replace my rears and my HT should be complete

Since my Rotel 1098 prepro has higher quality DACs over my denon dvd player, I'm using digital cable between the two.

How do you know which DAC is better? Thanks Drew

Drew, I just noticed that in my first reply I was apparently thinking so much about the DVD question that I used DVD instead of DAC in my following comment. The point is therefore that in modern equipment DACs are all excellent and can't be distinguished by ear; the differences still existing between them are so small that only instruments far more sensitive than our ears can measure them. So, this isn't a valid topic of concern these days.

Well, according to the specs the Rotel pre/pro is cleaner quality over my cheap denon dvd player and the rotel is supposed to have better quality parts. Another reason is that the rotel supports hdcd and therefore I have to use the digital cable to use it, otherwise I'll just have to use regular cd sampler from the denon using analog cables. But to be honest, I really couldn't hear the difference between the two and the toslink cable was cheaper.

The Burr Brown Dacs in the Rotel CD players are one of the best digital to audio converters around. It may not be the only reason those players sound so good but its typical of the high quality parts Rotel uses in all their gear. Its the main reason I sold my old player and picked up the Rotel 1072 CD player. On a high resolution audio system or linear speakers like the Axioms, devices with better DACs come across as more detailed, transparent and with higher resolution.

In fact, because they are at the beginning of the system chain they are very important to performance. Like alot of devices they give off various harmonic and phase distortions which are measurable and as a result different quality DACs have varying audible characteristics. DACs also vary by resampling frequency with the cheapest ones sampling at 16K times and the best ones at 192K times per second. They also vary by the amount of dynamic range they can produce. Other great Dacs are under the Wolfson, Sigma-Delta and Crystal brand names. They all aren't created equally and much research continues in making better Dacs.

Because they aren't all of equal performance on some systems analog outputs will sound better than using digital outputs and vice-versa. Besides letting your ear be the judge it also helps to know what the DACs are inside the devices and their performance characteristics.

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On a high resolution audio system or linear speakers like the Axioms, devices with better DACs come across as more detailed, transparent and with higher resolution.

In fact, because they are at the beginning of the system chain they are very important to performance.

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Facts must be validated by 3rd party, blind and indepedent testing.
Until then, it is subjective speculation and not a very good one at that.

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Because they aren't all of equal performance on some systems analog outputs will sound better than using digital outputs and vice-versa. Besides letting your ear be the judge it also helps to know what the DACs are inside the devices and their performance characteristics.

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All good myths but thank you for highlighting them yet again for the newbies who are trying to learn facts and not standard salesmen lines that get consumers to buy more expensive and useless products.

For our next trick boys and girls, how to make your system sound better by placing magical bullets on top of the equipment. My cousin's mother's brother's dog's flea heard a difference, so it must be true.
http://www.totemacoustic.eu/english/acc/beak_01.html

I can't belive that someone made those. Amazing.

Maybe that is why so many people have been putting plants and other decorations on their speakers.