Actually, there is another issue that has not been discussed yet. Most A/V receivers are basically digital devices so analog signals are first converted to digital (via a ADC) for processing through the receiver and then converted to analogue (via a DAC) for output to the speakers.
Option 1: Use Digital Output from CD Player
The outputs the digital signal to the A/V Receiver which processes the signal and then uses it's DAC to convert to analogue. A total of one conversion between Analog and Digital
Option 2: Use Analogue Output from CD Player
The CD player uses it's DAC to convert to analogue. The A/V receiver then uses its ADC to convert the input back to digital, processes the digital signal (volume, dolby or any other effects), runs it through it's DAC and outputs an analogue signal to the speakers. A total of three conversions between Analog and Digital.
Consequently, with an A/V receiver, it usually doesn't matter what quality of DAC you have in your CD player since there you are almost always stuck using the DAC in the A/V receiver. You might as well minimize the conversions and just feed the digital signal directly to the A/V receiver.
The exception to this is where the A/V receiver has a pure direct (or equivalent) mode; this mode will usually handle 2 channel analog signals as analog signals and you should not have the extra conversions so you may be better off with the CD players DAC.
For further information on this subject refer to the following link:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?AVReceivers
Option 1: Use Digital Output from CD Player
The outputs the digital signal to the A/V Receiver which processes the signal and then uses it's DAC to convert to analogue. A total of one conversion between Analog and Digital
Option 2: Use Analogue Output from CD Player
The CD player uses it's DAC to convert to analogue. The A/V receiver then uses its ADC to convert the input back to digital, processes the digital signal (volume, dolby or any other effects), runs it through it's DAC and outputs an analogue signal to the speakers. A total of three conversions between Analog and Digital.
Consequently, with an A/V receiver, it usually doesn't matter what quality of DAC you have in your CD player since there you are almost always stuck using the DAC in the A/V receiver. You might as well minimize the conversions and just feed the digital signal directly to the A/V receiver.
The exception to this is where the A/V receiver has a pure direct (or equivalent) mode; this mode will usually handle 2 channel analog signals as analog signals and you should not have the extra conversions so you may be better off with the CD players DAC.
For further information on this subject refer to the following link:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?AVReceivers