From my recent learning it is clear to me that Analog (turn table) gives the best audio quality.
Hum, beg to differ, there is tons of objective data that will show this is not the case. But then, this has become a religous thing, sort of on the order of tubes vs. solid state amplifaction.
Suffice it to say, I retired my LP colletion almost two decades ago.
But it is not clear what would be the best way to get most of digital format (CD, HD audio, SACD etc etc) can I take it for granted that the digital output on my player will give me the best audio quality?
Are there any cases the analog output from my player will give a better audio than the digital one (note I am playing only CD...)
thanks
Venkat
I can possibly help here, as the resident digital-head, I've strived to get the most accurate representations of what's on the discs for a long time (hum, same two decades I think
).
In my quest for the most pristine Digital playback of CD/SACD/DVD-A has led me to the following:
For CD's - the best form of reproduction is to rip them using EAC to a file server as WAV's (or FLAC 16/44.1). Then use as high a quality network playback device as you can get.
For stand-alones, that would be something like the Squeezebox Transporter.
But what goes one better is the new Denon uber-preamp the AVP-A1HD.
In this model, the processor itself does the playback and decoding of the streams, applying input buffering of the streams, and most importantly synchronizing its digital data feed to the same master clocks as the processing and D/A inside for absolutely jitter-free playback.
To handle SACD and DVD-A multichannel, the best answer is a Denon DVD-2930ci linked to the AVP-A1 via DenonLink3, a proprietary digital interconnect that guarantees time synchronization for all audio streams, including a multichannel DSD stream.
The AVP even does native SACD DSD decoding, and has several “pure” modes that knock out all DSP processing to give the most ‘untouched’ yet timing-accurate DSD playback through a pre-pro.
I’ve heard many an SACD / DVD-A player’s analog outs, and nothing comes close to what a DenonLink lashup can do.
BTW- this is from firsthand experience with the above gear.