Q: Any old transport + nice used DAC OK?
 

the question isnt really about the quality of the source or
connection (as established elsewhere) within reasonable limits. The
whole point of using an external D-A conversion (and/or codec) is to
allow one to spend money where it really counts - on the best quality
converter available, as opposed to using the 20 pence codec chip that
comes built into the source.

odd that, you'll find the same 20 pence codec in a far east DVD player as
you likely will in an outboard processor.

Differences will be mostly in the analogue stages, PSU, amplifier, filter
etc. Likelihood of finding a cheap philips or crystal part as the DAC is
quite high. YMMV (I've never taken one apart) but it's not the DAC that
costs money, it's things like transformers, caps and low noise transistors.

Q: Any old transport + nice used DAC OK?
 

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 16:24:26 -0000
"Tim S Kemp" wrote:

odd that, you'll find the same 20 pence codec in a far east DVD player as
you likely will in an outboard processor.

Differences will be mostly in the analogue stages, PSU, amplifier, filter
etc. Likelihood of finding a cheap philips or crystal part as the DAC is
quite high. YMMV (I've never taken one apart) but it's not the DAC that
costs money, it's things like transformers, caps and low noise transistors.

You're ruight of course (what was I smoking?).

But the point I was making is still valid.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

Q: Any old transport + nice used DAC OK?
 

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 14:03:23 +0000, Ian Molton wrote:

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 13:26:36 +0000
Nutter wrote:

As for taking your DVD player into an external DAC for DD or DTS, its
going to make no difference in quality.

'scuse me? WHAT? Have you completely lost the plot?

Let me clarify my point here. The use of an external DAC in this case
is unlikely to improve sound quality if using the same amp at the
other end. If we are talking a 5 channel integrated home cinema AMP,
then 99.99% of the times its going to have DD and\DTS decoding. It
makes no sense to take a DVD player into an external DAC (which must
of course have DD and\DTS decoding as well) and then take 5 pre-outs
into the AMP. The weak link here is the AMP, not the DAC. Of course we
could be talking about a pure pre-amp decoder with seperate power
AMP's, but thats another thing althogther.


are you suggesting that a 35ukp DVDP is going to sound the same as you'd get if you piped the data into a high-end AV amp ?

No, but any DVD players outputing a DD stream into the SAME AMP
digitally will sound the same. Again here its the processing and
quality of the AMP that is important, not the source. As stated
previouisly, the only time this may not be true is when the transport
of the DVD player is so bad, that it fails to retrieve the DD or DTS
bitstream correctly. But I'm guessing if this was the case you would
hear it.



the question isnt really about the quality of the source or connection (as established elsewhere) within reasonable limits. The whole point of using an external D-A conversion (and/or codec) is to allow one to spend money where it really counts - on the best quality converter available, as opposed to using the 20 pence codec chip that comes built into the source.

That's a matter of opinion. Like other discussion along the line of
'you should spend a bigger % of budget on the speakers' vs 'bigger %
money on the source'. My personal opinion is that in the DD\DTS realm,
it is more important to have a decent AMP, than an expensive DAC.

For CD music, then obviously a combination of a decent Transport, DAC
AND AMP is of the utmost importance, which is why in an earlier post I
suggest buying a second hand ARCAM CD player, I don't think many on
here would disagree.

What's more important here is the transport of the DVD
player, not the DAC at the other end.

balls.

Not in this particular case and not for DD and DTS its not. The guy is
not talking about changing his AMP, so its likely that he will want to
continue to use the DD\DTS decoding of his AMP.

Given the DVD player is cheap, I don't think adding an external DAC
will be as wise a buying a dedicated CD player. The one thing that
really set's apart the quality of DVD players is when listening to
their ability to reproduce CD music.

In fact when I auditioned DVD players, the only thing I did was to
listen to CD's through them. Wanting a decent sounding DVD AND CD
player was my goal, guessing (at the time) there would be little to no
perceivable difference in video quality. For the record I setteled on
an ARCAM DV88, which blew away the other players I listened to (Denon
& Pioneer) on CD playback.

Q: Any old transport + nice used DAC OK?
 

On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 16:01:13 +0000
Nutter wrote:

No, but any DVD players outputing a DD stream into the SAME AMP
digitally will sound the same.

Of course it will.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.