Which DAC would be better to play my cds through?
My cd player is a Denon DCM-390, and my integrated amp is a Denon pma-600ne. I was wondering which one's dac would be better for playing my cds through. The cd player has rca connections and digital outs. So would i be better off using the rca cables plugged into the "cd" ports on my amp, or using the optical audio cable to use the amps dac.
Use the optical cable. The DAC inside your PMA‑600NE is noticeably better than the DAC inside your DCM‑390 CD changer. The PMA‑600NE’s DAC Wins because it uses a newer 24‑bit / 192 kHz DAC chip, has cleaner noise floor, better jitter control and is designed for modern digital inputs (optical/coax).
Hope this helps. |
It is likely that the PMA-600NE wins as @patrickalston points out. However, I would think the coaxial digital output might sound better... or maybe you will not be able to tell. In budget components optical are off the shelf very inexpensive optical - electrical converters... so they are often the poorest sounding option. I’d start with the Coax. The only way to know for sure will be to try both. |
+1 @ghdprentice In addition to the optical connection likely being the lowest quality you’re doing additional optical conversions and resolution may be limited to 24/96 as well depending on the implementation of your components. Go with coax. |
@ghdprentice @soix Im already using the coaxial port on my amp with my 4k Blu-ray player, so its either optical or rca. |
