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Digital Source Comparison - An audible difference?

I'm trying to compare with my own ears the difference that people hear, or claim to hear, between digital sources. I realize that it's entirely possible that my system isn't quite to the level where difference are audible but it's pretty simple to do a comparison.

Source 1: Pioneer Elite PD-D6-J SACD Player (on Nordost Sort Kones)
Source 2: Integra CDC-3.4 CD Player (multi-disk)

My plan would be to use two Toslink cables since the Integra is already connected using one and it's fairly easy to obtain another one.

Considering the rest of my system includes an Integra 50.1 AVR, Focal Chorus 836v speakers, and DIY Cat5 speaker cables, would you predict that I will hear a difference?

There is a distinct difference between the two CD players using analog connections, but if they are reduced to being transports that rely on the DAC in the AVR will there still be a difference?
mceljo

Showing 1 response by dhl93449

dhl93449
455 posts
 
I presume you are talking about 44.1K/16 bit native output from the players. For that frequency and bit depth I doubt if toslink will show any difference with coax, assuming you use glass fiber toslink and not plastic optical fiber.

If upsampled digital output from the players is used, all bets are off. I did this with a CA 840c (feeding a Bryston BDA-1) and found significant loss in sound quality when using the upsampled outputs (up to 24 bit/192K)of the 840. This was compared to the 840 alone feeding the same pre-amp/amp as the Bryston. At the high frequencies and bit depth the toslink would not allow the Bryston DACs to lock, whereas coax did. When I sent native 16 bit/44.1 KHz from the 840 to the Bryston, sound quality improved significantly.
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