[Tony1]

I have my Pioneer Dv79 hooked up to the SP1.7 via digital coax.  Wondering if I use analog interconnect will it sound better? I used the cheap analog cables that come with dvd player sounds the same as the coax. Wondering if anyone has compared the two connection methods and if it's worth getting good quality analog interconnects instead of using coax

[avahifi]

For a simple digital out to digital in connection, I would suggest a simple coax cable connection.

To execute the optical connection, there must be a circuit in the player that converts the internal digital signal into a mode that can drive the light sending source to the optical cable.  They there also must be another circuit in the receiver (DAC or whatever) that accepts that optical signal and then converts it back into an electrical digital signal the rest of the circuit can use.  This two additional circuit process seem to me to be a lot of monkey motion.

Or, nobody ever invented an audio circuit that can actually make the sound better, the best they can do is not make the sound worse.  Sure you can make the sound different in ways that you like, but any difference at all between input and output is called distortion, and some distortion is pleasing, but it is certainly not high fidelity.

Optical connections are very useful sending signals from large units where the difference in ground potential between them might corrupt the information (mainframe to mainframe for example), but for consumer goods, I don't understand any value.

Our goal, "don't screw up the source material"   

Frank Van Alstine

[bgewaudio]

Experiences that I have had in terms of analog interconnects vs. digital coax interconnects are possibly due to the type of DSP engine and the line stage in my processor, but I have found that digital coax seems to exert a higher voltage across the load than analog interconnects, So with coax I seemed to get a higher output vs. the latter.  In terms of optical interconnect I too find them useless, I would think that optical would be Superior to coax only in terms of speed, not fidelity.  I terms of hi/fi I would recommend coax because it's more reliable in terms of transmission and not so susceptible to outside interference.

Regards.

[Tony1]

Thanks for the reply.  I agree with both of you but wish that the 2 or 5.1 channel bypass on the SP1.7 can be hooked up via coax.  Seems that the bypass cahnnels will give you a better sound but can only be used via analog interconnects.

[jethro]

Thanks for the reply.  I agree with both of you but wish that the 2 or 5.1 channel bypass on the SP1.7 can be hooked up via coax.  Seems that the bypass cahnnels will give you a better sound but can only be used via analog interconnects.

The purpose of the bypasses on the SP-1.7 is to take its internal DACs out of the audio chain and
allow the DAC's in the source to be used instead. I'm not familiar with your DVD player but if you
prefer the sound of its DACS then connect to it using analog interconnects and hit the bypass switch
on the SP-1.7. If you want to use the SP-1.7 DACS then use a digital interconnect and de-select
the bypass switch. I rarely use
my SP-1.7 in bypass mode so my analog interconnects are usually only between the SP-1.7 and
my amps. I think I've noticed some differences between the interconnects that come with consumer
DVD players and moderately priced interconnects such as Bryston's. It appears that the bass and high
frequencies seem to be clipped with the cheaper interconnects.

The SP-1.7 bypass modes will never connect to a digital signal (coax) because that would imply the SP-1.7s
DACs would be used, which defeats the purpose.

HTH.

[ec]

Depends what you are listening to.  If movies eg DVD - then digital coax as you can manipulate the signal to sound "better" eg THX processing and matrix the sound to 7.1.  If listening to DVD-A or SACD then analog connections as this is the only way to get Multi Channel high res audio with the DV-79 / SP 1.7 combo.