I remember seeing some information at AVS Forum that almost all receiver / pre/pro volume controls are digital because they are digital encoders rather than variable resistors. AFAIK the only pre/pro that has a proper analog volume control is the Bryston SP 1.7, making it a true analog bypass. Far more audiophile preamps have analog volume controls, mostly because they are strictly analog devices.
Consumer-level receivers like yours, Cephid (and mine, a Marantz SR-8400) almost surely do not have true analog bypasses if this is the case. I tend to believe my volume control is an encoder because it has no end-stop, it just rotates endlessly. I'm not 100% sure but I believe all variable resistors have a stop. Since Dolby Pro-Logic IIx is a digital matrix decoder implemented in the DSP, using it guarantees an A-D-A conversion chain. If the information regarding the volume control is accurate, you also have that extra A-D conversion even in "direct" mode. My results were identical to yours. I found the analog outputs from the SB to my receiver sounded muddy. At first I thought it was just overly warm, but no, it was downright muddy in the treble and the vocals. The digital output from the SB sounds much better. Like you, this was a head-scratcher. My receiver's DACs, Crystal Logic CS4382, are a bit worse but possibly comparable to the SB's DAC. Still, the difference should not have been that large. I listened to the headphone output over headphones which was very warm but without much of the muddiness, which led me to believe that the muddiness was introduced by playing an analog signal in the receiver. It's not a true comparison as I was using the low-cost SB headphone amp though, but it was a bit enlightening. -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22635 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
