Onkyo C-7030 CD Player as a Transport

[Darth Bubba]

I recently bought an Onkyo C-7030 CD player to replace an ancient Philips "discman" portable CD player as the CD source in my home audio system. The Onkyo is a vast improvement, to say the least - bet ya didn't see that coming, right? My question is: is there any advantage to using the coax or optical outputs to send the signal to an external DAC, and then into the system preamp? The C-7030 has no USB output, so that's not an option, just coaxial wire or optical cable. I'm just trying to wring a little more sound out of the C-7030, although it's pretty nice as it is. The C-7030 has Wolfson DACs, which I don't see reviewed here at ASR.

Opinions, please!

 

[Alexanderc]

I recently bought an Onkyo C-7030 CD player to replace an ancient Philips "discman" portable CD player as the CD source in my home audio system. The Onkyo is a vast improvement, to say the least - bet ya didn't see that coming, right? My question is: is there any advantage to using the coax or optical outputs to send the signal to an external DAC, and then into the system preamp? The C-7030 has no USB output, so that's not an option, just coaxial wire or optical cable. I'm just trying to wring a little more sound out of the C-7030, although it's pretty nice as it is. The C-7030 has Wolfson DACs, which I don't see reviewed here at ASR.

Opinions, please!

I own one of these. I’m pretty sure they no longer use Wolfson DACs (since 2017). https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/onkyo-c-7030-recent-change-in-internal-dac.795446/

I’ve opened mine up and it uses an AKM DAC chip. What difference does that make? Probably none at all since the implementation of the chip is as important as the actual chip (I’m told).

I’m using mine as you describe (coax SPDIF out to a receiver) and it works fine. I’ve used the analog out as well at times and if there’s a difference, I can’t hear it. I would use whichever is most convenient

 

[Darth Bubba]

I own one of these. I’m pretty sure they no longer use Wolfson DACs (since 2017). https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/onkyo-c-7030-recent-change-in-internal-dac.795446/

I’ve opened mine up and it uses an AKM DAC chip. What difference does that make? Probably none at all since the implementation of the chip is as important as the actual chip (I’m told).

I’m using mine as you describe (coax SPDIF out to a receiver) and it works fine. I’ve used the analog out as well at times and if there’s a difference, I can’t hear it. I would use whichever is most convenient

<Sigh> Where did I put my screwdrivers? The manual says Wolfson, but it's printed separately and there's always that disclaimer about making changes without prior notice. Time for a personal inspection - like I needed an excuse

 

[somebodyelse]

Without seeing it measured we can't say for sure. Spec has THD -90dB at 1kHz which gives you ~15 bits of distortion free range, and noise significantly lower. If it meets that, and doesn't mess up in other areas, then it's not too bad. An external DAC like the E30 can certainly improve on the numbers, but whether it's audible is another matter. Will it be the weak link, or would you be better improving another part of the system?

 

[AnalogSteph]

I looked it up, and the AK4482 is almost an exact match for the WM8718 originally used, both being rated at DR = 111 dB(A) and THD+N = -100 dB (neither of which is reached by the actual player but 0.0029% of THD should still be fine). The digital filter on the AKM seems rather better though in both passband ripple and ultimate rejection. Not sure about handling of intersample-overs, but I have no reason to believe that AKM would substantially differ from the behavior of something Cirrus Logic here.

So I would assume that it'll sound perfectly fine, as most HiFi CD players have been for a long time. Should be similar to an ODAC or something, about $99 standalone DAC class. A dynamic range of 107 dB is more than enough for a CD player, you would need heavily noise-shaped source material for this to become a bottleneck and that's about as common as the proverbial hen's teeth (usually you'll see flat dither 90 to 93 dB down at best). Either way, the best acoustic recordings top out at around 90 dB.

Applications for higher-performance DACs exist but a fixed line-level source like a CD player isn't really one of them. A preamp replacement application would be a good bit more demanding.

 

[Darth Bubba]

I looked it up, and the AK4482 is almost an exact match for the WM8718 originally used, both being rated at DR = 111 dB(A) and THD+N = -100 dB (neither of which is reached by the actual player but 0.0029% of THD should still be fine). The digital filter on the AKM seems rather better though in both passband ripple and ultimate rejection. Not sure about handling of intersample-overs, but I have no reason to believe that AKM would substantially differ from the behavior of something Cirrus Logic here.

I looked further, the manual was printed in 2011 - says Wolfson DAC; the C-7030 was manufactured in November of 2014. That's a long time for the deck's internal bits-n-pieces to stay exactly the same, economics of scale being at work here.

Now I'm getting really curious as to the deck's internal parts. I've changed op-amps in other equipment before, soooo.... (Yes Amir, replacing 741 op-amps with 351 op-amps made a huge difference back in the 70s and 80s, the 5534 was a godsend, but not a perfect pin-for-pin drop-in replacement)

 

[Gringoaudio1]

There are many cases of the laser assembly on this Onkyo C-7030 CD player failing. Mine never worked well but I left it too long to return it. Simple footfalls would cause it to skip. Cleaning the laser as suggested in forums sort of helped but it is completely unusable. Skips and halts and eventually stops within. Seconds or a few minutes. I found this laser assembly on Alibaba and will give it a try.