connection question for cd listening

[shaikh shoaib]

i have a denon av receiver x2300. I am planning to buy oppo udp 203 for both movie and music. for movies i obviously need to connect through hdmi as tv is 4k. question is what cable connection i need for best cd audio?

 

[TheWarrior]

I have different tastes for bass and equalization in general for music vs movies, so I have Movies on an HDMI connection and CD Music on an optical to the receiver so each can have their own EQ.

 

[shaikh shoaib]

.

I have different tastes for bass and equalization in general for music vs movies, so I have Movies on an HDMI connection and CD Music on an optical to the receiver so each can have their own EQ.

Ok, so optical is preferable over rca?
How av receiver detects to play whether the sound is coming from HDMI or optical?

 

[TheWarrior]

.

Ok, so optical is preferable over rca?
How av receiver detects to play whether the sound is coming from HDMI or optical?

Power on receiver-> select CD or DVD input -> Power on disc player

Somewhat related: the above sequence of Receiver/Preamp being powered on first is essential for ensuring consistent HDMI handshakes. I've occasionally had to turn off everything and restart because HDMI didn't communicate correctly and would have a blurry picture or strange noises.

 

[Verdinut]

Plugging the OPPO into one of your AVR HDMI inputs should work fine. You won't get better sound by using a coaxial or Toslink input.

 

[j_garcia]

Optical is fine, but HDMI will give you pretty much exactly the same thing. I agree with Warrior that a different input with different settings for music can be a benefit and I typically use analog for that rather than optical. I'd try it with HDMI first and see how you like it; it should be fine.

 

[lovinthehd]

If you believe in DAC magic then the Oppo via rca connection, as long as you're only playing 2ch discs. I would simply use the hdmi connection, altho I do like the idea of using two different connectors to setup different eq profiles with the avr. In some avrs' zone usage sometimes the analog connection is an option for more audio options to the zone, too (I have one player/avr setup with both hdmi and analog connections for this purpose).

 

[shaikh shoaib]

Plugging the OPPO into one of your AVR HDMI inputs should work fine. You won't get better sound by using a coaxial or Toslink input.

hmm ok, something to test then. i was never happy with ps3 cd quality. oppo may do.it better

 

[j_garcia]

PS3 had a bunch of convoluted settings for audio IIRC. It was OK for SACD (original CECHA01) and CD, but I would hardly call it a reference audio player.

 

[lovinthehd]

PS3 had a bunch of convoluted settings for audio IIRC. It was OK for SACD (original CECHA01) and CD, but I would hardly call it a reference audio player.

I'd say the PS3 is as close to a reference optical disk player as there is. Yes, some funky setting menu things. My PS3 (slim) doesn't do SACD, tho I wish it did. Can't speak to the analog output, never used it.

 

[shaikh shoaib]

A very noob question, RCA cable that can be plugged in to the CD player - will it be analogue or digital ? Curious to know which DAC (CD PLayer/AV Receiver) will then come into play?
My understanding is, if a HDMI (digital) cable is used then DAC will process in AV receiver.

 

[lovinthehd]

Likewise if you have L/R rca outputs from the player for input into the avr's analog inputs, you're using the dac in the player....if a digital connection from player to avr (toslink/coax/hdmi) then the avr's dac would be utilized. If analog is limited to 2ch (if you have SACD or a bluray/dvd player), then you'd be limiting the other formats altho some players have multi-ch analog output as well but becoming rarer.

 

[Verdinut]

A very noob question, RCA cable that can be plugged in to the CD player - will it be analogue or digital ? Curious to know which DAC (CD PLayer/AV Receiver) will then come into play?
My understanding is, if a HDMI (digital) cable is used then DAC will process in AV receiver.

The CD player has an inboard DAC so it converts the digital signal into analog to connect into an analog input on your receiver, usually the CD input.

 

[shaikh shoaib]

Likewise if you have L/R rca outputs from the player for input into the avr's analog inputs, you're using the dac in the player....if a digital connection from player to avr (toslink/coax/hdmi) then the avr's dac would be utilized. If analog is limited to 2ch (if you have SACD or a bluray/dvd player), then you'd be limiting the other formats altho some players have multi-ch analog output as well but becoming rarer.

As I have mentioned in my original post, my player will be able to play most discs types- so my intention is to play CD, bluray/UHD Disks primarily. So I want bluray/UHD sound through HDMI and CD through RCA/Optical (however if HDMI sounds good I can ditch RCA/Optical).
As someone mentioned above, AV receveivers input will come into play - CD input for CD player, bluray input for movies I guess.
This setup raises one question though- will the disc player send audio signal to both RCA and HDMI (for CD/movies) at the same time?

 

[shaikh shoaib]

The CD player has an inboard DAC so it converts the digital signal into analog to connect into an analog input on your receiver, usually the CD input.

yup that's what I think too, thanks. I guess then I need to test both with HDMI and RCA/Optical and choose which one seems better to me.

 

[lovinthehd]

As I have mentioned in my original post, my player will be able to play most discs types- so my intention is to play CD, bluray/UHD Disks primarily. So I want bluray/UHD sound through HDMI and CD through RCA/Optical (however if HDMI sounds good I can ditch RCA/Optical).
As someone mentioned above, AV receveivers input will come into play - CD input for CD player, bluray input for movies I guess.
This setup raises one question though- will the disc player send audio signal to both RCA and HDMI (for CD/movies) at the same time?

I'd still just use the hdmi connection on one input for maximum usefulness/simplicity. If you can determine an audio quality preference using the digital/analog connections to other inputs, go for it. Your avr can probably pick out an active input on a given source selection, but it wouldn't matter if you send input to different source inputs as you generally can't listen to both simultaneously (except for zone use or something...).

 

[TheWarrior]

I'd still just use the hdmi connection on one input for maximum usefulness/simplicity. If you can determine an audio quality preference using the digital/analog connections to other inputs, go for it. Your avr can probably pick out an active input on a given source selection, but it wouldn't matter if you send input to different source inputs as you generally can't listen to both simultaneously (except for zone use or something...).

My issue was listening to Rush and cranking the bass and then putting movies on with heavy LFE and fearing for my life.... So I made two connections!

 

[PENG]

hmm ok, something to test then. i was never happy with ps3 cd quality. oppo may do.it better

You meant rca? If you were using hdmi bitstream, then the ps3 should be just passing on the digital information for the AVR to finish the job.

 

[PENG]

yup that's what I think too, thanks. I guess then I need to test both with HDMI and RCA/Optical and choose which one seems better to me.

If you plug in the oppo's analog output to the Denon's analog input labelled CD (input 4 by default) it should work. if not, select "input assign" on the menu to find out which input.

 

[j_garcia]

I'd say the PS3 is as close to a reference optical disk player as there is. Yes, some funky setting menu things. My PS3 (slim) doesn't do SACD, tho I wish it did. Can't speak to the analog output, never used it.

It wasn't the player itself, it was the whacked out settings. I still have one of my CECHA01s and a Slim. Since they have no analog out and I have always owned Oppos, I only used it once in a while for CDs after they added all those options for CD playback. Oppo still sounded better via analog, so there was also no reason to use the PS3, plus it didn't support DVD-A.