Adcom GDA-700 HDCD/20bit D/A Processor

[EdwardGein]

Just got this in an online auction for around $250 It retails for around $1,000 new Anyone have any thoughts on this in regards to whether I'll notice improvement in regular CD sound when hooked up with either a Pioneer PD-59 CD player or a Harmon Kardon 31 DVD player? It got generally excellent reviews. It features HDCD, 2 Burr-Brown 1702 (20 Bits), 2 transformers, very high quality components, inputs : AES/EBU, Optical, 2 Coax ; outputs : RCA and XLR
If anyone is interested in this if I don't notice any significant improvement in my present set up, please email me

[N. Abstentia]

As long as you DON'T use the optical output it should be an improvement assuming you have upgraded your speakers.

If you keep using the optical output it won't sound any different.

[EdwardGein]

In all seriousness, they said that one would notice in improvement in optical sound, honestly.
Whether this is true, remains to be heard till it arrives. One thing you might be interested in is, out of curiosity, I connected my Harmon Kardon 31 DVD player as an experment to my Denon receiver using 2 good analog cables I had bought from Paul PCI & listened to a CD via headphones & also compared the same CD via my optical connection. I did not use my speakers, as I figured the sound from the headphones would be a less biased flatter type sound. For terms of expediency, I used the VCR input on my Denon receiver to hear via analog & the DVD input to hear via Optic cable. If those inputs affect the sound quality in any way, someone please let me know because maybe then the outcome was affected. I'm assuming all inputs are the same but obviously need to be set for either digital or analog connections. Anyway, the sound from my optical cable was much stronger & better then my analog connection for this particular DVD player connected to the Denon Receiver.

[anamorphic96]

This means the Denon probably has the better DAC's. Since this is what you where listening to when connected with the optical connection. Denon uses better than average DAC's in there equipment so this does not surprise me.

[shokhead]

Yep. Dac's in the player when going analog connections and Dac's in the receiver when going digital connection.

[N. Abstentia]

Also don't forget they need to be level matched. A lot of people think louder = better. If one output has a higher output than the other then the test is skewed.