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In Reply to: RE: new CD player and DAC needed posted by airheadair on May 19, 2016 at 08:22:52
It turns out that a dealer very near my house (whom I don't like so much) carries the Arcam, but not the Marantz. (The other dealer I mentioned who carries both is not so nearby.) Their Arcam turned out to be broken, and the salesman tried to feed me nonsense about how it was just the remote but they sent it back to the factory anyway. The only other CD player they had on hand was the dCS Rossini, at $28,000. End of that visit.
Here is a really dumb question. I may want to use the optical digital input of the Marantz unit, if I get that one. But it says in the manual:
"Do not input signals other than linear PCM signals, such as Dolby digital, DTS, AAC etc. into this device. Doing so may cause noise, which may cause damage to the speakers.
Do not input non-PCM signals, such as Dolby Digital, and DTS. This causes noise and could damage the speakers."
I thought AAC was a kind of PCM. Is that wrong?
Looking at my ITunes, I see that I have many files in the following formats:
AAC, AIFF, ALAC, MPEG.
Does this mean I won't be able to play anything except AIFF and ALAC files, and could even
accidentally damage my speakers if I don't check the format before I choose to play something?
On the other hand, the Arcam will not play ALAC files or DSD files. (The Marantz 14S1 will.)
Life is too complicated.
None of the dealers, except the online Music Direct, will allow me to take anything home to experiment with....but I suppose I could bring in a laptop.
Anyway, can someone clarify specifically whether AAC and MPEG files are PCM files, and can be used via the optical input?
Thanks again.
Follow Ups:
Here are some preliminary observations concerning my search for an improved digital source.
Recall my goal was to find a single box that would serve as a CD/SACD player and a DAC to which I could connect our Macintosh network. My hope is to eventually get to the point where digital sources rival my vinyl setup.
I decided to try the Marantz SA 14S1. It arrived three days ago, and I've spent a couple of hours a day since then listening. Everything works, including the optical and USB inputs, fed from a Macintosh (no driver issues). The controls are not as nice as those of my older Onkyo (the twist dials on the latter are more convenient for searching through tracks, than the pushbutton on the Marantz, for example.) The sound seems better, but I'm not yet sure how much. CD's sound good, SACD's excellent, and the DAC (through the optical link) does seem better than the DAC in the Airport Express I had been using. Some details, and a question, follow:
1. Key session: Lorin Maazel's recording of Ravel's l"Enfant et les Sortileges (DG):
This sounds wonderful on LP, with a tremendous sense of space, separation of the different voices and instruments, and beautiful soprano solos. My old CD player sounded okay but lacked the depth and excitement of the LP. Here the Marantz seemed to do very well: the separation and space were there, and the voices sounded beautiful, especially with Filter 2 place.
2. Key session: Patricia Barber SACD's:
I listened to Modern Cool, Distortion of Love, and some of Smash and Cafe Blue The first two were very impressive on SACD, especially Distortion of Love. Probably these rival the LP recordings I have, and the Distortion of Love SACD may be even better. Smash, perhaps was a bit dry. Cafe Blue is "unmastered" so an unfair comparison.
So far, my thoughts were that the Marantz is a worthwhile upgrade.
3. Key session: Kind of Blue, CD.
A disappointment. I have several LP pressings of this, and they sound simply fantastic on my system, with stunning focus, presence, and musical detail that grabs every bit of your attention. The CD sounded okay but not nearly as good as the LP. I have ordered an SACD version of this disk to see if it matches my vinyl experience.
So here is my question. Can people with good digital and vinyl equipment comment on
the sound of Kind of Blue in CD vs LP (and maybe vs SACD as well)? Am i wrong to expect
the similar kind of involvement from digital sources as I get from vinyl? My current view is that it depends on the disc(s), so I especially interested in specific comparisons about these discs in particular.
Some people are recommending that I send back the Marantz and get an Oppo and external DAC for the same price. But I would prefer a single box, at least for now, if possible.
> Some people are recommending that I send back the Marantz and get an Oppo and external DAC for the same price.
> But I would prefer a single box, at least for now, if possible.
The Oppo is a single box universal digital player with an excellent DAC built-in. I use an Oppo BDP-105D for all my digital playback requirements. Most of my digital music is on USB hard drives and flash drives, which connect to the Oppo's three USB "A" ports. It has an additional USB "B" port for streaming digital from a computer to its internal ESS Saber 32 DAC, which sounds very good to me. It also has a number of apps built-in for connecting to internet music sources like Tidal, Pandora, Rhapsody, etc.
As someone explained to me when I was getting started:
Think of your computer as an equivalent of a CD transport. A transport reads the CD and sends digital data to the external DAC
Instead of a CD disc, you use computer files translated into an appropriate signal by your computer. You need a program like JRiver or Foobar to make that translation (from whatever format) into the signal sent to the DAC. So as long as the program you have can use the formats you have, you should be good to go
* Some frustrating setup may be required
Bean wrote:
Instead of a CD disc, you use computer files translated into an appropriate signal by your computer. You need a program like JRiver or Foobar to make that translation (from whatever format) into the signal sent to the DAC. So as long as the program you have can use the formats you have, you should be good to go
Thanks. Will iTunes do this job safely for the files it can handle (eg. those on my list, but not FLAC, DSD, for example)?
It should work just fine. Lots of people use it.
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