Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: new CD player and DAC needed

Posted by airheadair (A) on May 24, 2016 at 09:05:49

In Reply to: 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.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Herbie's Audio Lab

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---