Simple audio question

[admin_exported]

This may be a simple question but....

Which connection provides the better surround sound for DVD and SACD?

The digital connections (coaxial/optical) or the multi-channel RCA or HDMI

 

[Andrew Everard]

Depends entirely on what's on each end of the cable. In general terms electrical digital is more than adequate for DVD audio (and usually sounds better than optical), but you can use HDMI between a suitable player and receiver for convenience. Linear PCM for SACD is usually very good if the receiver can handle this and has high-quality decoding - not all 'universal' players have great analogue output stages, which can make multichannel analogue connections a bit hit and miss.

 

[mjs]

You cannot use digital connections for SACD.You must use six analogue cables.
Co-ax claimed to be better than optical,but a lot depends on cable quality-and length.
Keep it simple use HDMI if you can for the DVD,and analogue for the SACD/DVD(A)?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Actually, you can use digital connections for SACD, just not standard S/PDIF ones.

Some players will now output Linear PCM from SACD over HDMI, giving multichannel hi-rez sound into a suitable receiver, while it can also be done on, for example, Firewire/IIEEE1394 or Denon's proprietary DenonLink connection.

 

[Anonymous]

And I thought this was a simple question with a simple answer!?!?!?!

Thanks anyway

Just to clarify one of the points.... Are you saying that digital (optical/coaxil) is better than HDMI for DVD

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, I'm saying that if your DVD player can output digital audio via HDMI, and your receiver can process it, it's just as good as optical/electical S?PDIF.