What decides the tonality of the sound? Transport, DAC, something else?

[Peter Larsen]

Hi,

If I use my Denon DVD-1940's analog stereo out the sound when playing dvd's is not that great. Therefore I tried using the coaxial out of the dvd-player (PCM stereo out) and connect it to my DacMagic, but the sound didn't improve at all. This makes me wonder where the tonality of a player is set. In this case it seems to me that the Denon player has much more to say about the tonality even before its output via the digital out. But how can that be? Isn't the sound supposed to be without any interpretation from the player when its output via digital, and then the tonality and dynamics are set in the DAC? Well, in this case it doesn't seem to be, but then what decides how tight the bottom is, how fluent the treble is, how broad the perspective etc. if not the DAC?

 

[chebby]

I use the optical digital audio output from my Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder via my Beresford TC-7520 DAC for DVD sound and Freeview radio.

It is noticeably superior to using the Panasonic's analogue (RCA phono) output and just this alone justifies the cost of the DAC given how much radio I listen to. (Although I do use the DAC for internet radio, iTunes and BBC iPlayer, Youtube etc. too.)

 

[a91gti]

Peter Larsen:
Hi,

If I use my Denon DVD-1940's analog stereo out the sound when playing dvd's is not that great. Therefore I tried using the coaxial out of the dvd-player (PCM stereo out) and connect it to my DacMagic, but the sound didn't improve at all. This makes me wonder where the tonality of a player is set. In this case it seems to me that the Denon player has much more to say about the tonality even before its output via the digital out. But how can that be? Isn't the sound supposed to be without any interpretation from the player when its output via digital, and then the tonality and dynamics are set in the DAC? Well, in this case it doesn't seem to be, but then what decides how tight the bottom is, how fluent the treble is, how broad the perspective etc. if not the DAC?

Have you tried cds with the Denon via dac or analog? You only mention dvd playback, does the same happen with cd?

 

[Peter Larsen]

Yes, no differnence when playing cd's either.

 

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting point of debate. I have a Russ Andrews DAC1-USB and have tried USB/Coax and Optical inputs. Coax is far superior to my ears and clearly highlights the differences in CD transport sources. Until recently I had been using an Arcam CD 73T and felt that it was clearly superior to the DVD player I had used as a transport when comparing the two. When my Arcam transport went kaput, I bought one of the new Cambridge Audio CD 550 players and have found the new dedicated audio CD servo system on this player to bring out much more detail and it seems much clearer across the frequency range. In fact, I am surprised that a different transport could make such a difference, but the old adage of "source first" seems to ring true here. The ability of a transport being able to read the information accurately seems to be as true for digital sources as for ananlogue. A good digital coax cable also makes a difference here as well. My Acoustic Zen MC2 trounces my old Chord Prodac digital interconnect. Personally, it seems that every part of the chain can make some difference. A bit of experimentation to find the right combo is not only fun but musically rewarding.

 

[Anonymous]

Whilst I agree, all the different parts can have an effect on the sound - changing from the analog out to using the digital out through the DAC should have made a noticeable difference one way or the other. Not being there its difficult obviously, but did you unplug the analog cables from the DVD player when you were using the digital out. In other words, are you positive that the sound was coming from the digital connection as some DVD or CD players will default to one type of connection over the other if the cables are plugged in. The transport can certainly have an effect on the performance, but even assuming the DVD player is awful it should be able to get the digital bits off the CD relatively well and pass the info onto the DAC and I know from personal experience that the DacMagic is pretty good at what it does so while I'm not sure what it is, something just isn't adding up here as you should be able to tell some difference - even if it was worse, but noticable one way or the other. There again, its been said many times that DVD players are not generally very good at CD playback and I can't tell you what mine is like as the movie system is different form my music one that has a CD player (and DAC) and therefor I have never used the DVD player for music.