Hey all,
I've been browsing around these forums and decided to register here since frankly, you guys don't seem like you're crazy and run around "breaking in" optical cables. I hope you might have some insight into my current problem.
I listen to music all day at home. I used to run analog from my computer to my receiver (Denon DRA-685). It sounded fine, but I just moved, and the new arrangement is a bit of a long distance for analog. But that receiver has no digital inputs. So I'm running a 50' length of digital coax from the soundcard to a little GefenTV DAC, and then 1m of interconnect to the receiver.
The problem is the sound is pretty, well, flat? If I do A/B testing of a CD from my CD-player (Denon DCM 370) compared to an uncompressed audio file played from the computer, the CD sounds MUCH better. So, now I'm trying to figure out why. Everything is digital up to that Gefen DAC, so I'm wondering if it's the DAC.
The next DAC out there seems to be the Musical Fidelity V-DAC, but that's $300, and I don't know if it's even the issue. The distance (probably 40' of cable run) is a bit much for USB, so items like the Music Streamer line are probably not suitable.
So, I'd really appreciate your advice. $300 is certainly doable, but at that price, I'm wondering if I should consider other solutions entirely, such as maybe a Squeezebox Duet (same price, more functionality?), or a different reciever with digital input (probably more than $300, but provides additional functionality and future-proofing)? Stereo sound is really the priority here, I don't care much about additional channels.
Thanks in advance!
