Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater RCA or Coaxial

For playing 2ch cd's I have connected a denon 2910 to a denon 2805 with rca hook-ups. Questions? Can I connect via coax cable? Will this still work for 2ch? Any benifits?
Thanx

Tom

This one is tough and the Denon owners are going to have to give you the details, but the main issue is "which one has the better DACs -- CD player or receiver ?". In my case I have a good receiver and a cheap CD player so using a digital link (which uses the DACs in the receiver) seems to give me slightly better sound.

In your case you have a great CD player so there probably isn't much difference. If I had to guess I would say you're better off staying with the analog RCA hookup you have today but I don't know for sure.

The one with better DACs is definitely the one to go with, but these days, from what I understand, the DACs are all pretty darn good at turning the 1s and 0s into music.

I can't hear much difference when I use RCA as opposed to coax or optical for my CD sound reproduction, but others may have better ears than I to pick up on some of the subtlety...

On the other hand, if your receiver is doing any processing, which it may or may not do in your 2 channel set-up, consider keeping it in the digital domain for as long as possible. After all, when your receiver futzes with the sound using DSPs, it has to convert the sound back to digital and then use its DACs to send the sound out to the speakers.

So, you might be decoding, re-encoding, processing and then re-decoding - compared to just processing and decoding. Those two extra steps might lead to some compression of the sound or other decoding errors (fuzz, hum, pops, etc.)

Try both and ese which you like better. As another poster likes to say "trust your ears"

It's already been said but yes you can use coax but I would use the DAC's in the 2910 and run RCA's.

Thanxs guys......rca hook-ups it is.

Tom

Tom, since any processing that your 2805 will do(bass management, DPLII etc.) has to take place in the digital realm, it's simpler(and possibly cleaner for the reasons Adrien mentioned)to just use the single coaxial digital connection from the player. Take one of your two analog connecting cables and use it for the digital connection.

Good point... I always forget that. Unless you are running in "Stereo Direct" or whatever Denon calls "no digital processing, no bass mgmt etc..." the receiver is gonna re-digitize whatever comes in on the RCAs anyways...

In reply to:

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Take one of your two analog connecting cables and use it for the digital connection.

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I'll actually suggest the other side of this. This is one place where using a 75ohm "video" cable is probably better than a straight analog audio. I'd suggest for the extra buck or two using a composite video cable. Will you notice a difference? Who knows, but this is a good place to spend a buck or two.

Bren R.

I would do as JohnK suggest and use the regular interconnect.I have it set up that and it works just fine.I don't think there would be any benifit to use a 75 ohm video cable in your application.

Again, if we're talking best practice... S/PDIF specs 75 ohm coaxial cable (that's why it's called coaxial digital!) are you going to be able to tell a difference? Maybe, maybe not... but from audiophiles who are worried about what direction their electrons are trained to face - this is one REAL specification that is cheap and easy enough to adhere to. 75 ohm coaxial with shield continuity, pretty much the exact same standard as composite video. Signal level is 0.5..1V over 75 ohm conductors - why save a buck or two and mess with that?!?

In a professional situation for AES/EBU, we use twisted pair 110 ohm cable for a specification.

Bren R.