** Optical Digtal w/ CD's ONLY!?

[PurpleDiesel 10+ year member]

Running a headunit with Digital Optical Output into a External Processor

 

I read somewhere that I only get digital signal with CD's and not ipod/radio/etc.

How is this possible if the optical cable is the only thing sending signal. Do I have to now use CD's only in order to enjoy the high quality sound

JVC KD AVX11

JVC KD-AVX11 DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com

PS8

Click to read more...

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Usually the limitation with a digital output is your analog sources won't be routed through that output. This would include AM/FM radio and anything else the head unit does not process digitally. An analog Aux input or audio routed in through rear RCA inputs would be excluded as well. It would require an extra conversion to change analog to digital.

I'm not an expert on i-device audio connectivity, but I believe if you want digital out for the external processor you're going to have to use a dock that extracts digital audio. The standard iPod cables all supply analog audio output.

 

[PurpleDiesel 10+ year member]

Usually the limitation with a digital output is your analog sources won't be routed through that output. This would include AM/FM radio and anything else the head unit does not process digitally. An analog Aux input or audio routed in through rear RCA inputs would be excluded as well. It would require an extra conversion to change analog to digital.
I'm not an expert on i-device audio connectivity, but I believe if you want digital out for the external processor you're going to have to use a dock that extracts digital audio. The standard iPod cables all supply analog audio output.

interesting.

99% of the time i'll be listening to my ipod via the ipod adapter for this head unit

All in all I "should" have a cleaner sound regardless by going optical vs rca direct swap correct?

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

interesting.
99% of the time i'll be listening to my ipod via the ipod adapter for this head unit

All in all I "should" have a cleaner sound regardless by going optical vs rca direct swap correct?

With good quality shielded RCAs you're still going to be bottlenecked by the analog iPod adapter. I'm not a believer in all digital inputs myself but I haven't tried it. Use whatever you can to give you the best quality digital music and make sure your link between the head unit and amplifiers isn't adding noise. You don't need high dollar RCAs to achieve this, and you don't need digital to have a noise-free system. Some people are very happy with their digital audio into their processor, so whatever makes you happy.

 

[PurpleDiesel 10+ year member]

With good quality shielded RCAs you're still going to be bottlenecked by the analog iPod adapter. I'm not a believer in all digital inputs myself but I haven't tried it. Use whatever you can to give you the best quality digital music and make sure your link between the head unit and amplifiers isn't adding noise. You don't need high dollar RCAs to achieve this, and you don't need digital to have a noise-free system. Some people are very happy with their digital audio into their processor, so whatever makes you happy.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to give it a go and hope for some improvements