Listening to Music

[EndersShadow]

With everything seemingly to be dropping analog connections (RCA) in favor of digital ones (HDMI, SPDIF/Optical) I was curious as to what the reasons would be to stick with or go back to analog?

Currently all my gear is connected via HDMI so I have never really experienced the differences.

Not looking to start a massive flame war one way or the other. I do know that if you are using HDMI or Optical to send music from a player to a reciever it doesnt matter too much the quality of the player since its just sending 1 & 0's and the reciever is doing the decoding.

So I guess my question is why then are companies like Oppo still making super high end players if most folks are bypassing the built in features to send the signal to a different piece of equipment?

It could be I am misunderstanding something in the signal path, hence me asking.

[Outfitter03]

I am fairly new but will relay my experience in the 6 months I have had my system. I listened for the first two months with a PS-3 and an hk dvd 47 player feeding hdmi to my Yamaha AVR.

I live in a medium sized 4 plex apartment so wanted a system for TV, home theater and listening to music. After having my system for two months I found that I use it 60% two channel music, 20% TV and 20% home theater.

I had the same question you did and didn't really like running my PS-3 as much as I was for CD playback and the HK DVD 47 was not all that user friendly. I bought a used Denon 2900 on this forum and WOW. I connected it with Audio Quest copperhead interconnects and there is a huge difference in sound. The Denon sends an analog signal to the AVR.

The answer to the why does this sound so much better is that the digital to analog converter in this DVD player is much, much better than in my Yamaha. I play the Yamaha now in pure direct mode and the Denon is in pure direct two channel mode also.

Problem is, now I'm hooked and realize that I am still down on the entry level of the food chain and it only gets better from here. At the same time, here ain't so bad either!

[steveinaz]

So I guess my question is why then are companies like Oppo still making super high end players if most folks are bypassing the built in features to send the signal to a different piece of equipment?

It could be I am misunderstanding something in the signal path, hence me asking.

You can't get SACD via digital connection--that's one reason. Not everyone has external DAC's, etc. Oppo probably assumes most users will connect via analog RCA's, given the extra attention to the higher-end models.

[PrazVT]

I think newer players can send SACD over HDMI (if the receiver supports as well). Or are you referring to optical / coax?