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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.

elmer444
wturkey's avatar
wturkey
868 posts
 

Play the cd on the Blu-ray player and see how it compares to the CD player. It may surprise you. 

motown-l
340 posts
 

I’m using an older Rotel CD player with a newer Cambridge Audio CXA-81 amp which has an onboard DAC. The newer DAC in the amp generally sounds better than the 25 year old DAC in the CD player. But I have the CD player hooked up via its analog out and the digital optical (no coax on CD player). I will do an A/B between the two and on some recordings I prefer the 25 year old DAC’s sound. Maybe try that on your system.

dynacohum
833 posts
 

The DAC in your amp has one optical and one coaxial. Your BluRay has only coaxial, your CD player has both digitals and analog. 
My suggestion is that you connect the BluRay to your TV with HDMI, and use the optical output of the TV in to your amp’s optical input.  Then connect the coaxial and analog outputs to your amp.  Don’t forget to configure your TV to send PCM stereo to its digital output. 

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