RCA XLR or Digital out?

[Harleywood]

Looking into upgrading my CD player. Which of those connections to the amp would provide the best sound? Not all of the cdp's I'm looking at have a XLR option but all have RCA and digital outs. I'm looking at Rotels to match my amp. The DAC Rotel uses on their cdp is the same DAC I have onboard my amp. It's a Wolfson 192/24. So I guess the big question is would the XLR out offer an improvement over the digital out since both DAC's are the same? 

[Wolfbane]

XLR outs are generally superior sounding, in my experience, to Optical outs, unless you are referring to Optical AT&T.

 

Wb

[Chris A]

I recommend HDMI outputs on the player if your preamp has HDMI inputs. There are no suppressed-clock issues (i.e., bus jitter) with HDMI since the receiving device buffers the data on the output side, but there are issues with USB with regard to bus jitter. 

 

I never recommend using analog RCA outputs from a player unless you really, really like the DACs in the player (but then you've got common mode noise from your player to your preamp to deal with unless using XLR-XLR balanced connections, which no one does because of the higher costs).  I've found, however, that player DACs may not be high performance. 

 

There are also digital RCA ports (AES/EBU) of the unbalanced ("coaxial") type, but these seem to be rarer nowadays.  If you've got an RCA AES/EBU port on your preamp, then that would work well on a player as an output. 

 

Chris

[Harleywood]

Hi Chris and thanks for the info. I'm running a strictly two channel system with a Rotel RA 1570 providing the power. HDMI is not an option for me but i understand how much better it is. I'm leaning more toward a Rotel RCD 1572 that offers a XLR connection over the standard RCA. I'm not that familiar with SPDIF except for knowing it requires an outboard DAC to process the signal. I'm really impressed with the Wolfson DAC in my amp and how it handles my MP3 files and the cdp I'm looking at offers the same DAC onboard the player. From your info I gather that XLR would be a better choice over the SPDIF and I'd be willing to pay a little extra for that if it offers a substantial improvement in soundstage. Thanks! 

[Chris A]

XLR is typically analog (unless AES/EBU digital, which I actually haven't seen):

 

 

 

S/PDIF (the electrical version is also called based on AES/EBU, or digital coaxial). If optical S/PDIF it is also called TOSLINK because of the connector name, as shown in the top-left connector, below:

 

RCA can be digital (AES/EBU or "coaxial digital") or analog, as in the picture above, the orange connector is AES/EBU (coaxial) digital, and the red/white RCA connectors are analog.

 

If you have a DAC in your "amplifier" then you've got an integrated amplifier (with preamp)...not a standalone power amplifier. If you're running MP3 lossy files that were commercially downloaded, or streamed, then it doesn't really matter what you do, these files will dominate the perceived sound quality. If, however, you're talking about CDs, DVD-As, SACDs or Blu-Ray music discs, then the type of bus or analog connection does make a difference in sound, however small. 

 

In any case, I really don't recommend USB (digital) ports for sound quality reasons.

 

Chris

[Schu]

I use digital coax to external dac for 2.1 and HDMI to processor for 5.1... those two configurations were the best solution and produced the best audible results for me... by ear.

[Harleywood]

My amp is integrated. I've always had separates in the past but decided to go integrated with the Rotel based on the good reviews it received. I'm very happy with it. I swore years ago I'd never buy an integrated but here I am. Lol

Once I get the new cdp I'll try the digital coaxial first since I have that cable on hand to make that connection. If not satisfied then I'll purchase a set of XLR cables. I guess basically it's going to boil down to which cable will offer the best signal transfer since the DAC on the cdp and the DAC on my amp are identical. 

[pzannucci]

17 hours ago, Chris A said:

I recommend HDMI outputs on the player if your preamp has HDMI inputs. There are no suppressed-clock issues (i.e., bus jitter) with HDMI since the receiving device buffers the data on the output side, but there are issues with USB with regard to bus jitter. 

 

I never recommend using analog RCA outputs from a player unless you really, really like the DACs in the player (but then you've got common mode noise from your player to your preamp to deal with unless using XLR-XLR balanced connections, which no one does because of the higher costs).  I've found, however, that player DACs may not be high performance. 

 

There are also digital RCA ports (AES/EBU) of the unbalanced ("coaxial") type, but these seem to be rarer nowadays.  If you've got an RCA AES/EBU port on your preamp, then that would work well on a player as an output. 

 

Chris

100% agree if you are lucky enough to find a player with HDMI.  When doing this, you can get yourself an inexpensive dvd player and HDACC on the cheap.  Will likely sound a lot better than most cdp's unless you are spending big bucks.

[jjptkd]

Nothing wrong with Toslink for 2 channel stereo

[Edgar]

To be pedantic ...

 

XLR digital is almost always AES/EBU, which is intended for professional applications.

Coaxial digital is almost always S/PDIF, which is intended for consumer applications.

Optical digital (TOSLINK) is almost always S/PDIF.

 

AES/EBU and S/PDIF bitstreams are similar but not identical. But the commercially available integrated circuits that receive the signals are almost always able to decode both.

 

AES/EBU and S/PDIF electrical signals are not quite compatible. AES/EBU is a differential signal while S/PDIF is single-ended. They expect different load impedances. And they use different voltage levels.

 
It is possible to create an adapter so that an AES/EBU device can receive coaxial S/PDIF signals: https://www.electrovoice.com/downloadfile.php?id=971604 I don't know of an adapter that goes the other direction, but it should be possible.

 

Long ago TOSLINK had bandwidth problems, so coaxial S/PDIF was clearly superior to optical S/PDIF. That problem has probably been solved by now, with superior electronics and local buffering and clock conditioning.

 

- Greg

[glens]

Having a DAC with which you're already satisfied, I' d be inclined to opt for an optical transport of some kind which only  provides digital output.  There'd be no need, in my mind, to get a full-on "player" which merely duplicates something already downstream.  Sounds like it would be needless expenditure at any rate.