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Question about DAC in Onkyo C-7030

5K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  FMW 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

I am putting together my first stereo system, and the bare bones of it all should be delivered some time next week. I was looking into some other sources to add on, and the Onkyo C-7030 seems like a solid addition with my budget. It will be going into my Yamaha R-S300 receiver, but I'm a little confused about something. How does this 192/24 Wolfson DAC work inside of the CD player? If CDs are 44.1/16 audio, what benefit is there to having a 192/24 DAC inside of a player? And if I plug this up to my receiver, is the receiver's processing going to screw with the signal and degrade the sound quality? The receiver has a "Pure Direct" mode, but I read somewhere else that if you are using a subwoofer (which I am) then this is not ideal. I'd appreciate any help y'all can give me!

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
How does this 192/24 Wolfson DAC work inside of the CD player? If CDs are 44.1/16 audio, what benefit is there to having a 192/24 DAC inside of a player?
Like many specs, this one is a maximum. The DAC can handle anything up to 196/24.

And if I plug this up to my receiver, is the receiver's processing going to screw with the signal and degrade the sound quality?
No, the receiver is not going to screw anything up. It typically converts any analog signal to digital, does whatever digital processing is called for, and then reconverts to analog. The conversions are transparent. But if the CD player has a digital out, you should generally use it.

The receiver has a "Pure Direct" mode, but I read somewhere else that if you are using a subwoofer (which I am) then this is not ideal.
Yes, bass management is one of the things you can lose in something like Pure Direct mode.
 
#3 ·
mcnarus - If I'm not mistaken, the Yamaha RS-300 is an old-school analog-only stereo receiver, meaning it has no digital inputs and it does not convert any incoming analog signals to digital for processing. The little bit of bass-management is has, my guess, is a simple analog lowpass filter to the subwoofer output.

To answer the OP's questions, the Onkyo will work fine. The "pure direct" on your receiver likely only bypasses the bass and treble tone controls. It shouldn't matter whether you have "pure direct" on or off.

If you read not to use pure direct with a subwoofer, that was probably directed at people with AVR (audio video receivers, like the Yamaha RX-V series), not stereo receivers like yours.
 
#4 ·
The home theater crowd is weeded to the concept that you shouldn't employ a sub without bass management. Those of us who predate the home theater world know that it is perfectly possible to integrate a sub without it. Just choose a subwoofer that has speaker level inputs. Those and the controls on the sub are all you need. If you want the installation ease of bass management, then the sub will certainly handle that as well.
 
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