In article , Wally
wrote:
A mate brought his Arcam CD player (8 or 9, I think) round for a listen
last night, and (as expected) it showed up my cheapie Schneider DVD/CD
wossname. Much better clarity and definition, I thought. The bass
especially was a huge improvement.

Afraid I don't know anything about the DVD/CD player you have, so can't
really comment on it as such...

Then I realised that the Schneider has digital outputs - coax and
optical - and wondered if it's feasible to connect a DAC to these and
maybe approach the sort of sound produced by the Arcam. A quick look in
eBay indicates that there's a fair selection up to about £200.

Is this worth considering, or will the transport in the Schneider have a
deletrious effect in spite of whatever improvements a DAC wold bring?

Depends. :-)

If there is a serious problem with the transport, then it may be losing
data. Having a nicer DAC isn't likely to help with that.

However if the problem is that the DACs and following analogue circuits in
you player are poor, then an external DAC may improve things. Can't say for
sure as I don't know anything about your player.

FWIW I have a cheap DVD/VHS combo. I use this with a Meridian 263 DAC.
The results from the Meridian seem to me to be audibly much better than via
the DVD player's own analogue output. They also measure very differently,
with the Meridian having much lower levels of noise, hum, etc.

Hence you may find that an external DAC improves the sound, but it is hard
to predict this, so you'd have to try it to decide.

FWIW I'd recommend considering Meridian DACs like the 263 and 563. These
sound fine to me, and seem to work very well in my experience with a wide
range of sources. However they are stereo only, so not suitable if you
require multichannel surround sound from DVD's.

Slainte,

Jim

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