Denon 5805

[Starmax]

Does anyone know if the firewire audio connection sounds better, worse or the same as D-Link 3?

 

[Knight]

D-link sounds the best but only work with a denon DVD player. If you can connect that way then you should. The firewire connection to me sounded the worst with CD conpared to regular coax digital but then again I was using a crappy little wire for the firewire and an Audioquest cable for the coax. I finally settled on D-Link, it allows you to pass SACD and DVD-Audio and if you get the upgrade when it is avaliable it will (rumor has it) be allowed to pass the HD audio formats which is good for me since I'm not the biggest fan of using HDMI to pass audio.

 

[Starmax]

Thanks. I have the Denon 3910, which connects via D-Link 3, and I'm happy with it. I just wondered how the firewire sounded in comparison, since it also is able to play DVD-A & SACD. I just didn't want to blow $50 or so for the cable if there was no benefit. I'm glad to hear about D-Link's HD audio upgrade, whenever it's available...didn't know that.

 

[jcPanny]

D-link audio

Using D-link for HD audio formats would require Denon to come out with a new HD video player and likely update the firmware on the receiver.

It looks like HDMI is becomming the standard for sending PCM or raw HD audio streams to the receiver.

 

[Knight]

The problem I found with the next denon link upgrade is that it won't hit until Denon makes an HD player which have yet to make on but Denon told me that at some point they will allow for an upgrade to accept HD via HDMI. jcPanny is correct though that HDMI is get to the standard level. Not sure what I think about it since I still feel DVI is a better strict video connection. If your gonna dump money on a wire that you won't need to upgrade go for HDMI. I just don't see the sound advantage of firewire over HDMI (except for passing SACD and DVD-A). But if it makes you feel better, I have the same Receiver and DVD player that you have and I tried all the connection type and it came down to firewire and D-Link because of the SACD and DVD-A and I thought the D-Link was the best.

 

[Starmax]

Thank you Knight. That's what I was looking for, someone who has listened to both types of connections and could tell me if one was significantly better sounding than the other.

 

[DavidA]

I've just had the LAN/HDMI upgrade carried out on my European version 5805 (largely a disappointment, but see separate thread).

I previously used D-link/component video to link the amp to my 3910 DVD player, but decided to try to use the HDMI connection with D-Link.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to work. I can have audio, or video, but not both. If I use Firewire and HDMI, that works ok (with HDMI and Firewire showing up on the displays).

Am I trying to do something that is not possible?

 

[MDS]

If Firewire sounds better than HDMI or vice versa then one or the other is broken. They both transmit data and it doesn't sound like anything until it is processed, converted to analog, and amplified for your ears to hear.

 

[edmcanuck]

D-link sounds the best but only work with a denon DVD player. If you can connect that way then you should. The firewire connection to me sounded the worst with CD conpared to regular coax digital

How exactly did the same, identical digital signal manage to sound qualitatively different? Even if there were a transmission error because one system was broken, that would cause the audio to stutter or stop... not take on different subjective sound qualities. I don't think you understand digital all that well because you're treating it like analog.

 

[DavidA]

Cracked it...I had to tell the amp to pass sound on HDMI from the DVD player straight through to the tv, and then keep the volume on the tv to 0.

Seem the amp was getting confused between receiving sound input from both D-link and HDMI.

After years of diving, my ears can't really tell much difference between D-link and firewire anyway.