I need help on sound application...

[LVJEEPERS-07]

I have a 5.1 HTR using a Denon receiver, Denon DVD Player, Toshiba Blu-ray, and Polk Audio Speakers. My Question is this; each time I try to play music from my Sony Mp3 player into my receiver I have to turn up the volume on the receiver until I get static to get any sound from the Mp3. I am thinking of adding a ""Tube Dac" amp/Pre amp/ headphone amp to the lineup hoping to get better sound from the Mp3 and maybe the Denon dvd ( I use it for CD's). The product I am looking at is the Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-11 that comes out in Oct. 2011 for $275. Will this help my sound quality? or is this overkill? I do plan to replace the Denon Dvd player with a Quality Marantz or NAD cd player when $ is better. Please help, I do not want to spend my $$ foollishly, I do whant the best product(s) for the $$ and would like to get better sound. I do use quality cables, HDMI, OPTICAL, RCA, and custom speaker cables 14awg. w/ gold lockable banana plugs on all ends.

 

[GranteedEV]

The product I am looking at is the Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-11 that comes out in Oct. 2011 for $275. Will this help my sound quality? or is this overkill?

It'll flush any SQ you had right down the drain

What you need is simple. An MP3 player with a more powerful line out. That's all there is to it. I had a sony MP3 player with a really weak headphone out, and as soon as I switched to my S.Flo the signal was that much louder with full headroom. Not that the sony sounded bad, but it definitely required more amplifier gain, even with its volume set to max (which I hope you're doing... max out the sony's volume first).

I do plan to replace the Denon Dvd player with a Quality Marantz or NAD cd player when $ is better.

Why, pray tell, would you do something silly like that? I hope you're not expecting a change in what you hear... these are electronics here.

Please help, I do not want to spend my $$ foollishly, I do whant the best product(s) for the $$ and would like to get better sound.

Look at your speakers. That's the #1 place to spend money. The rest is all a waste. They are your number one bottleneck. Your number two bottleneck is the room. Having more line out voltage on your PMP will help reduce the noise floor, but most headphone amps are sketchy to say the least, and a grant fidelity tube amp will do God-knows-what to the signal as it passes through.

Just use a source that has high voltage from the start.

 

[cpp]

question, when you play music from your DVD player is everything OK , YES/ NO

 

[markw]

How do you have your MP3 player connected to your receiver?

Are you using a simple cable plugged into it's earphone jack or a dedicated dock that provides a proper line-level output?

Big difference...

 

[highfigh]

I have a 5.1 HTR using a Denon receiver, Denon DVD Player, Toshiba Blu-ray, and Polk Audio Speakers. My Question is this; each time I try to play music from my Sony Mp3 player into my receiver I have to turn up the volume on the receiver until I get static to get any sound from the Mp3. I am thinking of adding a ""Tube Dac" amp/Pre amp/ headphone amp to the lineup hoping to get better sound from the Mp3 and maybe the Denon dvd ( I use it for CD's). The product I am looking at is the Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-11 that comes out in Oct. 2011 for $275. Will this help my sound quality? or is this overkill? I do plan to replace the Denon Dvd player with a Quality Marantz or NAD cd player when $ is better. Please help, I do not want to spend my $$ foollishly, I do whant the best product(s) for the $$ and would like to get better sound. I do use quality cables, HDMI, OPTICAL, RCA, and custom speaker cables 14awg. w/ gold lockable banana plugs on all ends.

Some MP3 players don't play as loudly when plugged into a receiver- the iPhone is one of them. However, if you hear distortion, you're hearing the distortion from the MP3 file/player, not the receiver. If a receiver is turned up and the signal is insufficient to produce full volume, it won't distort from clipping.

You should look in the manual for your receiver- in the Manual setup, you can increase/decrease the audio level for each source. Also, you can use the Restorer to improve the sound when using an MP3 player. That DAC will do nothing to improve the sound- crap in=crap out.

 

[bikemig]

Three things you can think about in getting good quality sound from your mp3 player:

(1) Have good quality MP3 files (at least 256 kbps, which is pretty much standard now on Itunes and Amazon).

(2) Use the line out, not the headphone out.

(3) The MP3 player has a dac but at least in the ipod world there are docks that extract a pure digital signal and rely on an external dac. I'm thinking of getting this as it runs $100 which is not much more than many ipod docks (and less than some), http://www.pure.com/us/products/product.asp?Product=VL-61429&Category=.

(1) and (2) are pretty straightforward and this may be all you need. The Grant tube dac 11 won't help you with (3). I've never been super happy with the SQ from an MP3 player.

If you have your music ripped on your hard disc, you may want to think about simply streaming it to your AV receiver. This way you can eliminate the MP3 player and you won't need a (new) CD player either. The SB Touch runs around $260, it will let you stream Pandora and other internet radio stations, and you will be able to stream anything you have ripped on a hard disc. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-930-000090-Squeezebox-Touch/dp/B002LARRDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312902464&sr=8-1. I use one instead of a CD player with my home theater set-up and the SQ is terrific.

 

[LVJEEPERS-07]

The sound is better through the Blu-ray than the Denon DVD, but other than that it is great. I have the blu-ray hooked up with HDMI and Toslink (ver. 1.3a) Denon receiver. The denon dvd is used for playing cd's and I have that hooked up with RCA's nothing special.

 

[LVJEEPERS-07]

I have it hooked up using the headphone jack out to rca's to the aux. input in back of the receiver. This is the only way to hook it up. I think I will purchase a new mp3 player, I will do research pior to purchase though.

 

[GranteedEV]

I have it hooked up using the headphone jack out to rca's to the aux. input in back of the receiver. This is the only way to hook it up. I think I will purchase a new mp3 player, I will do research pior to purchase though.

The Nationite S:Flo2, for all its "chinese" flaws, has an extremely powerful line out. This ensures the lowest level details are preserved and not lost in the noise floor of the next electronic in the line. I run this thing into the aux of my car and the signal is never degraded, and it allowed me to turn the "aux gain" on the head unit off.

That, or just get an ipod and the ipod dock for your receiver. They all have 'em these days. Ipods "sound" great, I'm just irrationally biased against apple products.

My advice to you is not to do the following research:

1) Go to headfi
2) ask them what is the "best sounding PMP"
3) expect anything less than B.S.

The sound is better through the Blu-ray than the Denon DVD

Not "better", the word you're looking for is probably "louder".