2. digital
  3. 138270-19774

Bypass built-in CD player DAC

Quick question: if the digital output of a CD player is used to connect to an external DAC, is the CD player’s DAC bypassed or is the signal processed by the player’s DAC and then processed again by the external DAC? My old CD player has a bypass mode but the new one I am just testing doesn’t.
I compared the CD player and external DAC setup to CD Player without external DAC  setup via RCA connections and it sounded very similar, which makes me think that the CD player’s DAC is used. Bypass mode on my old CD player with external DAC sounds completely different.

Thanks!
stereonista

Showing 2 responses by stereonista

stereonista OP
4 posts
 
That makes sense as the internal DAC converts to analog and that can’t go into the external DAC. Still strange that both setups sounded similar although different DACs were used.
stereonista OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for all the responses. It could well be the jitter. Set up was Rega Apollo with Berkeley Alpha DAC. My old CD player in pass-through mode with the Alpha DAC sounds much better. I am looking to replace the old CD player with a a more reliable one, ideally a transport only, but wanted to see if the Rega could be an option.
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