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Rec. vs. DVD: who should be responsible for DAC?

I am in the process of putting together a system. I currently own a Rotel RSX-972 receiver. I am now in the market for a DVD player. Specifically, I am looking at either a Panasonic DVD RP-56 or a Rotel RDV-995. Though not directly compared by my own ears, I am going under the assumption that the Rotel will produce a better audio output (I assume that implies analog). I have two questions:

1) Is there a distinct advantage of sending, from the DVD player to the receiver, an analog or digital signal? (i.e. using DAC of the receiver or the player)

2) If the DAC of the receiver is to be used, does it really matter which player is purchased to provide a digital output? (Most players in this range use similar drives anyway)

Note that the Panasonic is considerably less expensive and probably has superior video quality. Though I currently do not have a hidef TV, I may upgrade someday. At this point, however, the audio quality is my main concern.

Thanks
agrumet

Showing 2 responses by agrumet

agrumet OP
2 posts
 
Thanks for your responses. Apparently, the Rotel receiver can accept BOTH digital and analog inputs. So I would assume that implies that it does have "analog passthrough" capability. Regarding the Panasonic, apparently the digital connection is through an optical cable, rather than a coaxial. Even though the Rotel receiver can accept both connections, from what I understand, the sound degredation is considerable in the optical. This seems to be quite a deal breaker! I too was excited about the Faroudja chip.

In any event, I still need to determine whether the DAC should be used on the receiver or the DVD. I know that this is something to be decided by ones ears. I would just like to know if others have experience with this very question.

Thanks
agrumet OP
2 posts
 
Tim,

I just got a response from Rotel. They said that their input analog stereo signals ARE converted to digital for processing and reconverted back to analog. If this is the case, does this imply that it really doesn't matter which DVD player I use since the DAC on the Rotel receiver is going to be used anyway? Would this also imply that I should always use the digital signal from the DVD player since that would be one less conversion (actually two conversions) to worry about?

Thanks
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