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Topic: M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (Read 4664 times) previous topic - next topic
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M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Hi All,

Just ordered the Audiophile 2496, it should arrive next week.

The 2496 has optical output and output through RCA.
I will connect the 2496 to  my Marantz SR7300 receiver.

As far as I understand that if I connect the 2496 with RCA the DAC of the 2496 is used.
I I connect with an optical cable the receivers DAC is used.

So my question is which cable to use?
Buy a nice RCA cable or an optical cable?
I need at least 5 meter, so buying both and testing is quit expensive.

Thanks for the input.

Marcel
M-Audio Audipphile 2496 -> ProGold coaxial cable -> marantz SR7300 -> concreat speakers (70kg) Scanspeak 17cm 8544 woofer, tweater D2010

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #1 –
Optical, are you sure? I have the pci audipphile and that one has a coaxial i/o. And as far as i have seen on the website all the audiophiles have coaxial i/o. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Anyways, if i had to connect to a receiver 5 mtrs away i would go for the digital version. That way you will rule out any signal loss you might encounter and any interference from other sources.
 

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #2 –
Quote
Optical, are you sure? I have the pci audipphile and that one has a coaxial i/o. And as far as i have seen on the website all the audiophiles have coaxial i/o. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Anyways, if i had to connect to a receiver 5 mtrs away i would go for the digital version. That way you will rule out any signal loss you might encounter and any interference from other sources.


I assumed it had an optical output, but only output throug coax optical. 

Then the question still remains, use coaxial output and let the DAC of the receiver do the work or use RCA out and use the DAC of the 2496.
Or am I wrong at this point?


TIA.
M-Audio Audipphile 2496 -> ProGold coaxial cable -> marantz SR7300 -> concreat speakers (70kg) Scanspeak 17cm 8544 woofer, tweater D2010

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #3 –
It looks like you're confusing things.

If a soundcard has a digital input/output there are two different connections used, Optical or coaxial. The optical connects to any other source with a fiber optic cable, the coaxial connects with a coax cable. The audiophile has a coaxial connector, so you can only use a coax cable.

If you connect the audiophile with a coaxial cable to your receiver the signal will stay digital until it reaches your receiver, that way you'll rule out signal loss you *might* lose and any interference you *might* pick up.

If you connect your audiophile through the rca jacks to your receiver, the signal is converted to analog by the audiophile and the signal might suffer from signal loss, because of the length of the cable, or you might pick up some interference from any other cable (maybe some power line) that crosses your signal cable.

Since you already spend the bucks to have a receiver with a digital input and soon a soundcard with a digital output i would choose for the digital (coaxial) connection for the reasons mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

p.s. with type(s) of digital input does your receiver have?

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #4 –
Quote
It looks like you're confusing things.

If a soundcard has a digital input/output there are two different connections used, Optical or coaxial. The optical connects to any other source with a fiber optic cable, the coaxial connects with a coax cable. The audiophile has a coaxial connector, so you can only use a coax cable.

If you connect the audiophile with a coaxial cable to your receiver the signal will stay digital until it reaches your receiver, that way you'll rule out signal loss you *might* lose and any interference you *might* pick up.

If you connect your audiophile through the rca jacks to your receiver, the signal is converted to analog by the audiophile and the signal might suffer from signal loss, because of the length of the cable, or you might pick up some interference from any other cable (maybe some power line) that crosses your signal cable.

Since you already spend the bucks to have a receiver with a digital input and soon a soundcard with a digital output i would choose for the digital (coaxial) connection for the reasons mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

p.s. with type(s) of digital input does your receiver have?





My receiver has 3 optical and 3 coax input.
So I should buy a high quality coax cable, or maybe build one myself?

One thing I still don't understand.

If I use the RCA connectors, the DAC of the 2496 will convert it to analog signal and when the reciever gets the input it will not be handled by the DAc of the receiver.

If I use the coax cable the signal remains digital and when it reaches the receiver the signal must be converted to analog by the DAC of the receiver.
So which DAC to use?


Thanks.
M-Audio Audipphile 2496 -> ProGold coaxial cable -> marantz SR7300 -> concreat speakers (70kg) Scanspeak 17cm 8544 woofer, tweater D2010

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #5 –
Just regarding your comment on expense, you can by a 5 metre length of rg-59 sheilded co-ax and two rg-59 to rca connectors at Radio Shack or such.

This reduces the chance of interference and cuts the price ++.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #6 –
5m of good rca cable would be quite expensive, but if the DAC is better in the audiophile - I don't know - I think it would sound better even with average cable.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #7 –
It really depends on which sounds better to you. The DAC on the card or the DAC in the receiver.

With decent shielded RCA cables I very much doubt you will be able to tell if there is any electrical interference or not when listening.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #8 –
Oh, and make sure you don't have any high interference machines running along the route of your coaxial--my brother had an average coaxial spdif running from his Audiophile to his Denon, but on the other side of the wall, there was an old washer and dryer set. Every time they clicked on, there was a loud Pop! in the audio. Even with well-shielded coax, you don't want to have to put up with that. If you're going to make your own cable, make sure you do a good job of sealing it well, or obviously, no matter how good the shielding, it won't do any good. Generally, if you've got the choice, use the digital connection because in the end it's the most cost-effective solution (price-to-quality), but if you're willing to get all that cable (assuming you've got a surround set), you probably want to go through the direct analogue plugs to skip any ADC your receiver has. That wouldn't allow you to use and Dolby Pro-Logic or anything though, of course. But the quality would be minutely (by my standards) better.

So yeah, go with a decent length of coaxial sp/dif. It cuts down on cable clutter and you only have to buy one cable, so you might as well spend a couple of bucks more to get a decently shielded one.

Edit: This is all assuming you prize neutrality over anything else. This is also assuming that your receiver isn't the only thing sitting around (ie. there are televisions, DVD players, etc. around causing small amounts of electical interference). If it's just your computer on one end, your audio setup on the other, no other machines nearby, I doubt interference will ever ben an issue.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #9 –
WCS, since your Marantz is a pretty good machine I assume that one day you will eventually drift into high-resolution audio?

I connected my AR4300 via both optical and coaxial digital. Next day I disconnected the optical and put it in a drawer, as this connection  sounded so flat and lifeless. My experience is in line with what I have learned from Hifi magazines. Toslink is regarded as not handling dynamic range as weel as coaxials do. (Would recommend to find out if 5 meter distance is of importance, though).

I use 1 meter Profigold digital RCA interconnect, at about 20 Euros, which I can recommend. Homemade blind test against Supra RCA Dual on 48KHz/24 bit material showed small differences. The 80 Euros spent on 2 analogue cables gave a less "digital" sound (for instance smoother vocals). But otherwise music came out pretty much the same both ways.

Player is Pioneer DV565A, so in theory analogue out should been much better, because it's DAC (i.e D/A converter) scheme is superior: 192/24 in stereo against receiver's 96/24. But I would say my cheap-o Marantz is pretty good even for 96/24 material, so there doesn't seem to be any benefit of oversampling by player.

Lastly, Marantz receievers have darn good bass management and speaker distance settings. This is a strong argument for feeding it digitally for Home Cinema and all audio except SACD and DVD-A, which are out of scope for S/PDIF.

Cheers
FA

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #10 –
Quote
I connected my AR4300 via both optical and coaxial digital. Next day I disconnected the optical and put it in a drawer, as this connection  sounded so flat and lifeless. My experience is in line with what I have learned from Hifi magazines. Toslink is regarded as not handling dynamic range as weel as coaxials do. (Would recommend to find out if 5 meter distance is of importance, though).


:-)

M-Audio Audiophile 2496

Reply #11 –
BTW, the link to Cobalt Cables presently on top of this page is of certain interest for topic. But I do not agree with their conclusion that Toslink and Coaxial are equivalent, regardless similarities between protocols.

Before and after the blips' journey through optical cable, there is a conversion from/to electrical impulses. Since Murphy's law seems to be imperative for electronical components, wouldn't be surprised at all if there is some strange phenomenon affecting these steps.

This is though a mere hypothesis presented by a layman. Somebody out there with a grip of the scientific explaination to why my toslink sound so bad? (Placebo theory out of the question, I swear)

Tha in advance
FA