It's a line level analog signal when sent to your amp (unless it's a digital amp, or has the DAC built in like the Wadia PowerDAC). A CD has nothing to do with 24/96, unless there is upsampling before the DAC (many feel that a 24/96 DAC in general is best for playing non-upsampled CD's, BUT THEY ARE ACTUALLY NO BETTER THAN A DUAL DIFFERENTIAL 20 BIT DAC DESIGN). DAC stands for Digital to Analog Converter. When we refer to a DVD player or transport outputting 24/96, we are speaking of a digital signal through a digital ouptut connector like toslink optical, or RCA 75 ohm coaxial. Both of those are called "S/PDIF", for Sony/Philips Digital Interface. A balanced 110 ohm line level digital connection is called AES/EBU, for Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcast Union. It uses a 3 pin XLR connection. It usually has less induced word clock jitter than the S/PDIF. The best connection is called I2S plus, but few manufacturers use it. There's also AT&T glass fiber optical, which has similar performance to AES/EBU. You might want to peruse "The Complete Guide to Highend Audio" sometime. Read some back issues of Stereophile, and consider subscribing. Happy listening!
