Any knowledgeable hi-fi enthusiats?

mcj78

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on the best way to connect a DAC (an old Arcam Delta) to my CD player (an old Cambridge CD6) - the CD6 has connections thusly:



and the DAC has these sticking out it's rear end:



I have no idea whatsoever on how best to hook these up - i've been told the balanced XLR outputs on the CD6 are the best thing to use, but the DAC doesn't have inputs for those, or should (can I?) I go from the digital output on the CD6 to the optical input on the DAC? :?

My mate gave me the DAC as he no longer has space for it & thought I might be able to use it, is it even compatible with my CD6 at all?

Cheers!

Most helpful answer wins the recipe for my awesome apple, walnut & dark chocolate loaf, seeing as this is the cake stop

brucey72

If you don't have any luck on this forum give the following a go:

www.avforums.com

I used it for advice when building up my home cinema and there are some very helpful and knowledgable guys on there.

mcj78

brucey72 wrote:

If you don't have any luck on this forum give the following a go:

www.avforums.com

I used it for advice when building up my home cinema and there are some very helpful and knowledgable guys on there.

Cool, i'll bear that in mind if i'm stumped - cheers! I thought i'd give it a bash on here anyway before I go trawling through specialist AV forums & invariably see something shiny & un-necessary I want but really don't need!

J

hulla the hulla

Wouldn't connection options also be effected / driven by the amp you are connecting it to ? How are you currently attaching your CD player to the amp ?

john_kline

You might find this of some assistance...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxQqWSnsHoA

mcj78

hulla the hulla wrote:

Wouldn't connection options also be effected / driven by the amp you are connecting it to ? How are you currently attaching your CD player to the amp ?

Hi, the CD is currently connected to the amp via the standard phono cables, I figured the connection from the DAC to the amp would be the same?

I think I may be the guy from that sketch :oops: *bag on head*

nicklouse

the CD to DAC is a Digital connection, so the SPDIF out on the CDP to a Digital in on the DAC (cant see what there is in the pic) also which delta as there was a few? but the connection will need to be a Coax as that is what the CDP only has.

jairaj

You use a digital coaxial cable from the CD player to the DAC and then phono cables from the DAC to the Amplifer.

Does your amplifier accept balanced XLR inputs? If so I would experiment with which is better XLR or normal phono but via the DAC.

XLR is supposed to be the best for analogue.

But the seperate DAC might do a better job of converting the digital data on the CD to analogue than the built in DAC inside the CD player.

have a play and see which sounds better.

hulla the hulla

nicklouse wrote:

the CD to DAC is a Digital connection, so the SPDIF out on the CDP to a Digital in on the DAC (cant see what there is in the pic) also which delta as there was a few? but the connection will need to be a Coax as that is what the CDP only has.

That is what I was thinking but as you point out, the pictures aren't clear so not sure what the digital in on the DAC or the Digital out on the CD is ?

The reason I asked about the amp is that if it a more modern one, possibly with digital in, if the CD has digital out then the DAC could be superfluous. That said, if the processing is better on the DAC compared to the amp, assuming it has it of course, then it may be worth it.

This leads back to my question about what amp is being used.

nicklouse

looking at it a bit more and being at "home"

it looks like the CDP has a BNC connector

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC_connector

and the DAC a RCA

mcj78

Cheers for the replies all - slowly making sense!

Firstly - the amp unfortunately doesn't have balanced XLR inputs, or even a new-fangled optical input so it will always need to be phonos for the amp/dac connection - the amp's pretty old but sounds good (to me) & this exercise is simply me trying to squeeze every last ounce of potential out of a relatively cheap system with the inclusion of a free DAC

Now - what Nick & Hulla are saying is beginning to make sense, the digital SPDIF output on the CD is a BNC (the push & twist one) & the digital input on the DAC is a standard co-ax phono, I know it isn't very clear from the photos as I pilfered them off the 'tinternet, this one's a bit clearer:



Soooooooooooo, it sounds like I need a decent BNC-Phono cable to hook the CD-DAC up & use the phono leads I already have to connect the DAC to the amp?

Cheers for the help guys!

gasman_dave

I don't know where you will get a BNC-phono lead, though if you go to Maplins, you can get a BNC to phono adapter. Phono to phono leads are easy to get hold of.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/bnc-plug-to-phono-socketadaptor-1593

If you want a BNC-phono made up, try The Missing Link. They supplied XLR to phono leads for my Linn amp and Arcam CD transport. Fabulous sound. Great service too.

http://www.the-missing-link.net/

mcj78

gasman_dave wrote:

I don't know where you will get a BNC-phono lead, though if you go to Maplins, you can get a BNC to phono adapter. Phono to phono leads are easy to get hold of.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/bnc-plug-to-phono-socketadaptor-1593

If you want a BNC-phono made up, try The Missing Link. They supplied XLR to phono leads for my Linn amp and Arcam CD transport. Fabulous sound. Great service too.

http://www.the-missing-link.net/

Had a quick look on ebay & there's a company who supply all kinds of stuff for recording studios etc. selling them for around £15, i'll probably take a punt on one of those to get it up & running to see if it makes a big difference - if so I could have some nice missing link ones made up at a later date to try & improve further.

Cheers for the help guys!
John

blinddrew

Sorry, bit late into the discussion on this one. Used to work in the hi-fi business.
Basically the CD6 does have a very nice output stage and DAC but it won't compete with an external DAC (especially if you can't use the XLR outputs).
So you need, as you've concluded, a bnc - phono digital lead. Digital co-ax cables are 75Ohm rather than phono cables which are 100Ohm so you might want to make sure you're getting the right thing (though an audio cable will work).
Richer Sounds used to do a digital co-ax for £20 available in bnc - phono.
I wouldn't spend more than that on a digital lead though as (unlike analogue leads) you hit the diminishing-returns limit much sooner because it's an on/off waveform.
Hope that makes sense?

Kerguelen

mcj78 wrote:

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on the best way to connect a DAC (an old Arcam Delta) to my CD player (an old Cambridge CD6) - the CD6 has connections thusly:



and the DAC has these sticking out it's rear end:



I have no idea whatsoever on how best to hook these up - i've been told the balanced XLR outputs on the CD6 are the best thing to use, but the DAC doesn't have inputs for those, or should (can I?) I go from the digital output on the CD6 to the optical input on the DAC? :?

My mate gave me the DAC as he no longer has space for it & thought I might be able to use it, is it even compatible with my CD6 at all?

Cheers!

Most helpful answer wins the recipe for my awesome apple, walnut & dark chocolate loaf, seeing as this is the cake stop

Hi mate, also late to the game!

Something like this will go between the CD player and the DAC:

http://www.studiospares.com/leads-phono ... vt/593080/

Any good-quality stereo phono cable should do you fine connecting the DAC to your amp.

mcj78

Cheers guys - this is the one I found on ebay - just checked & it is 75ohm, didn't even think there would be a disparity in the ohms between different applications of the same leads *bag on head again*

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380196161065? ... 1423.l2649

A quick google shows their stuff seems to be well regarded for the money so i'll take a pop with this & see how it goes!

Cheers again!
John

timmyturbo

go to maplins by the bits for about £8 , solder them up , or take the components to a TV repair shop and pay them £5 to make the lead . I have even done this to re-chip a car ecu after finding the diagram and list of components . For £2.50p at maplins and £5 to the TV shop a made a 175BHP saab 900 get to 200BHP . happy days

cheers