Stereo PCM vs DVD-A Analog?

When listening to music on a plain CD, I have the choice of listening
using my Stereo PCM line or the 5.1 Analog line used for DVD-A.
(I understand that it would still be 2.1 Stereo in lieu of the 5.1).

Can anyone help me to understand which should give the most desired
result? Which option should deliver the most the CD has to offer?

I know it depends on the source material and quality of the recording as far
as which way sounds better, but I am curious to learn all I can on this one.:confused:

What you're really asking is what equipment should do the D/A conversion and signal processing/bass management - your player or your receiver. If you have consumer quality gear (competent but nothing especially advanced), you should probably run a digital signal (optical, coaxial or HDMI) from the player to the receiver and let the receiver do the conversion. It probably has at least as good DAC's as the player and will most likely have better bass management. If on the other hand you have a high quality transport, then you should let its DAC's do the job and also perform the bass management, connect to your receiver using analog cables and limit the receiver's involvement to volume control and amplification.

What player and receiver do you have?

Hello Blue Dude,

Thanks for your lucid explanation. I have the Arcam AVR300 Receiver with the
Arcam DV79 DVD Player. Fortunately both units have comprehensive bass management controls. I have them both set to 80Hz. The player is connected with a Digital Coax A/R cable (recommended in the Arcam manual over the optical as having slighter better performance) and also the analog cables. Previously I was using the optical which sounded the same as the Coax, but now I use the optical for the HD DVD.

During playback of a CD I will A/B the sound. Usually the analog connection has a much more robust bottom end, sometimes too much. Sometimes there is almost no difference. If the Coax gives me nice bass I will listen that way.
But over all it seams like the sound is a little more open and airy with the analog.

I was wondering how can I limit the receiver's involvement to volume control and amplification. Maybe this is where I can make the right adjustment.

Also, I remember a setting on the receiver for DVD-A playback which allows for compensation for subwoofer level gain from the DVD-A player.
The two choices to set this is "normal" which has no gain compensation,
and +10DB which increases the sub level output. Since I am pairing the two Arcam units the manual recommends to set it to '+10Db'. Maybe this is making the bottom end to loud.

Anyways thanks for taking you time to help me. You are a great help.


CMT-340 SE L/C/R
CBM-170 SE Surrounds
HTM-200 Rears
HSU VTF-3 MK2 Sub
Arcam AVR300 Receiver
Arcam DV79 DVD Player
Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD
Sony Bravia KLV-V40A10 40" LCD

Ooh, now you've done it: opened the bass management can of worms. There's a good reason that analog sounds like the bass is too loud: it is. There are funny things going on with respect to redirected bass and LFE and sometimes the balance gets thrown out of whack. Go here for a better explanation. There are workarounds, but probably the easiest thing to do is send everything to the receiver digitally and let it sort it all out. You have high enough quality equipment that any possible differences in the decoding or D/A conversion stages are going to be undetectable except to lab equipment. So just hook it up and let it fly. At least, that's what I would do. Good luck!