RE: OT: Optical and coaxial digital outputs for PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS and MPEG

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Kenneth Watt wrote:

"The DTS and DD bitstream are outputted together to both analogue and
digital interconnects on any player I have ever come across. Personally,
I prefer the analogue ones but it's just a preference not a necessity, I
think that the analogue signal is not as "harsh" as a digital
one, but
that could just be down to my hearing. This is borne from using a
Micromega CD3, =A32500 CD player with both analogue and digital out, I
just preferred the analogue on that and I stuck with it."


Kenneth - actually the fact that you prefer the analogue outputs from
your Micromega makes a lot of sense!=20

Bear in mind that everything I'm about to say is about your CD player
compared to others AT THE SAME PRICE level - so compared to a =A3900
Rotel, everything about yours is good ;-)

Micromega are generally regarded as having put their effort into a great
DAC and analogue output stage and a poorer transport. As such, if you're
listening to it through a good quality set of analogue amps, it will
really sing.

If however, you're bypassing the DAC and analogue stages, and therefore
using someone else's, then you're only using the poorer part of your CD
player.

As such, your comment about preferring the analogue outputs is, I
believe, more a comment about the strengths and weaknesses of your
system, rather than a generally provable statement about different types
of hi-fi connectivity.

I'm in the opposite situation - I've got a good transport, but a much
better DAC in my processor than in my DVD player. As such, I prefer the
sound of the digital outputs, even for PCM material ;-)

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher