First a caveat that I don't really understand much of the nuances among receivers, speakers, and cd players, etc.

I have some speakers coming in and I was curious what the best way to play my cds would be. I have a progressive scan DVD player that I have hooked up via standard audio left/right cables to my Onkyo 805. I also have a PS3 hooked via HDMI.

What would sound better? Playing audio cds straight from the DVD player or playing high quality 320 mp3s from the PS3? (How about if the PS3 used some lossless format?)

I THINK the way it works is that the DVD player would convert the digital to analog (DAC?) then output it to the receiver, while in the PS3 case, the receiver would do the conversion as it outputs the audio digitally? Wouldn't this make a lossless or high quality mp3 better with the PS3 as the Onkyo would be doing the digital to analog conversion rather than the DVD player?

If anybody has a link with primers for this sort of stuff that would be great :)

Thanks for the help!
Matthew

I would say the issue is how you would like to access your music. Disk or pushing buttons on the PS3.

If the quality of the MP3 is high enough (bitrate and algorithm) then it will be "as good" as the CD.

I know the PS3 does some weird things when playing a CD ( 2 channel encoded in high bitrate PCM5.1) over hdmi I would check and see what it does playing MP3.

I am a simple guy, I just put the cd into the DVD and call it good.

Have Fun!

I THINK the way it works is that the DVD player would convert the digital to analog (DAC?) then output it to the receiver, while in the PS3 case, the receiver would do the conversion as it outputs the audio digitally? Wouldn't this make a lossless or high quality mp3 better with the PS3 as the Onkyo would be doing the digital to analog conversion rather than the DVD player?
The first part of your question is right. The second part assumes that the DAC in the receiver is better than the DAC in the DVD player. This is highly questionable.

There are lots of people who believe they can hear differences between DACS. There is no one who has demonstrated to a neutral party that they can do this, however. In all likelihood, there won't be any audible difference between the two.

There are lots of people who believe they can hear differences between DACS

Really...the Onkyo 805 listed as having this: "Top line of Burr-Brown DACs for clean sound" and I had read lots of folks praising it for having just that. So most people can't even tell the difference? I honestly had thought besides the speakers and room that this would be the most important part of the chain.

Really...the Onkyo 805 listed as having this: "Top line of Burr-Brown DACs for clean sound" and I had read lots of folks praising it for having just that.
Well, Onkyo would like you to believe that, now wouldn't they? And there are lots of people out there who think they can hear a difference between DACs. But when you control for a few obvious variables, like output level differences and what we call psychoacoustic biases, they can't do it.

I honestly had thought besides the speakers and room that this would be the most important part of the chain.
There's an old joke that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location. Well, the three most important things in audio are speakers/room, speakers/room, speakers/room.

Really...the Onkyo 805 listed as having this: "Top line of Burr-Brown DACs for clean sound" and I had read lots of folks praising it for having just that. So most people can't even tell the difference? I honestly had thought besides the speakers and room that this would be the most important part of the chain.

There are alot of things that affect sound quality out of an AVR. The DAC is one small piece. As long as the DAC is not broken it will not be the weak part of an AVR. A dacs is a cheap piece that turns 0's and 1's into into up and down electrical waves, there is alot more that happens in an AVR that that.

Have Fun!

There are alot of things that affect sound quality out of an AVR. The DAC is one small piece. As long as the DAC is not broken it will not be the weak part of an AVR. A dacs is a cheap piece that turns 0's and 1's into into up and down electrical waves, there is alot more that happens in an AVR that that.

Have Fun!

The major thing that affects the sound of an AVR is the setup and EQ program.