That is correct, Killingbeans. When I first connected the 991 to the E30 bearing a 2104 manufacturing date and heard, well, hash, with snippets of music occasionally mixed in, I recalled something about the E30 SPDIF receiver in more recent models not playing nice with the coax output from older CD players, and assumed that was the problem. Just by chance I had an earlier purchased E30 which worked (and as I write is working) just fine with the Rotel output. But both older and newer E30's also worked fine with the cheap Sony DVD player (I cannot tell if it is actually an S3700 or some related model [S370, S3750] because it actually has no model number on it; I suppose I could look it up by S/N or mac address but have not taken the time to do so). The E30 says it is receiving a PCM signal, and I'm not sufficiently well versed to know if that stream contains the control signals to which Toku refers, but it seems to be properly interpreting whatever it is receiving.
As long as I'm here, I have another question, and if it's in the wrong thread please feel free to say so. In the abstract the question is this: over short distances (< 1m), should one in general expect to encounter audible differences between DAC -Amp/Preamp connections using balanced and single-ended outputs from the same device? I ask because the Rotel 991 was bought to replace a (still functioning) RCD-971, and before I introduced the DAC into the system the latter had been connected to the amplifier (Krell KAV 300r) using RCA leads. Because both the 991 and the Krell also have XLR connectors, and the Krell has multiple single-ended inputs, I was able to keep the 971 connected, and then to connect the 991 using *both* single ended and balanced leads. Since both Rotel units used the same remote, I made two copies of a CD, loaded them into the two Rotel CD players, and started the same disc in both units simultaneously. The Krell remote then let me switch among the same source material coming from the 971 with singled ended leads and the 991 using both single ended and balanced connections. Subjectively I was unable to distinguish between the signals coming from the single ended connections from either deck, but the XLR connections produced sound that initially struck me as richer and more detailed. But it was also the case that the volume through the balanced connection was higher, and so I could not really make a fair comparison since I could not switch from unbalanced to XLR while instantaneously compensating for the difference in volume.
It occurs to me that all I may be hearing is the result of a difference between the output levels from the 991's single-ended and XLR outputs, and not due to some qualitative difference in the nature of the signal when transmitted through single-ended and balanced connections. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks.
As long as I'm here, I have another question, and if it's in the wrong thread please feel free to say so. In the abstract the question is this: over short distances (< 1m), should one in general expect to encounter audible differences between DAC -Amp/Preamp connections using balanced and single-ended outputs from the same device? I ask because the Rotel 991 was bought to replace a (still functioning) RCD-971, and before I introduced the DAC into the system the latter had been connected to the amplifier (Krell KAV 300r) using RCA leads. Because both the 991 and the Krell also have XLR connectors, and the Krell has multiple single-ended inputs, I was able to keep the 971 connected, and then to connect the 991 using *both* single ended and balanced leads. Since both Rotel units used the same remote, I made two copies of a CD, loaded them into the two Rotel CD players, and started the same disc in both units simultaneously. The Krell remote then let me switch among the same source material coming from the 971 with singled ended leads and the 991 using both single ended and balanced connections. Subjectively I was unable to distinguish between the signals coming from the single ended connections from either deck, but the XLR connections produced sound that initially struck me as richer and more detailed. But it was also the case that the volume through the balanced connection was higher, and so I could not really make a fair comparison since I could not switch from unbalanced to XLR while instantaneously compensating for the difference in volume.
It occurs to me that all I may be hearing is the result of a difference between the output levels from the 991's single-ended and XLR outputs, and not due to some qualitative difference in the nature of the signal when transmitted through single-ended and balanced connections. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks.
