[apchf]

I'm sort of new to this so apologies in advance if this question is insane.
 
Traditionally I've had a fairly cheap receiver but wanting to play around a bit with digital hifi I purchased a Schiit Bifrost and ran audio to it directly from my computer via an optical cable. I recently came into a Denon 2311ci receiver and I'm wondering if it has a better/comparable DAC as I'd love to remove some wires from the system. Short of just repeated listening (which I admit isn't the absolute worst) is there an obvious way to compare the two?
 
Thanks

 

[PurpleAngel]

I'm sure the Bifrost is a fair better DAC then whatever DAC is built into the Denon, but it's good for headphone or 2.0 & 2.1 speaker (computer to Bifrost to Denon).
 
If your looking for 5.1 or 7.1 speaker surround sound (Blu-ray) audio with the computer/ Denon, then run HDMI from the computer's graphics card to the Denon.
Optical straight from Computer to Denon will give you 5.1 speaker (6-channel), DVD movie audio quality.
I doubt the Denon offers any headphone surround sound (headphone surround sound would have to be pre-processed from the computer).

 

[apchf]

Thanks for the help - but I'm afraid I'm missing something (or haven't given full information.)
 
Currently I'm going computer-->Bifrost-->Headphone Amp-->Headphones and changing it all out in the - somewhat rare - event I want to listen to music on my speakers. Are you suggesting I could run the bifrost-->receiver-->headphone amp/speakers without any quality loss? I've always sort of assumed that there would be some sort of degradation but being able to use both would be fantastic.
 
Thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Thanks for the help - but I'm afraid I'm missing something (or haven't given full information.)
Currently I'm going computer-->Bifrost-->Headphone Amp-->Headphones and changing it all out in the - somewhat rare - event I want to listen to music on my speakers. Are you suggesting I could run the bifrost-->receiver-->headphone amp/speakers without any quality loss? I've always sort of assumed that there would be some sort of degradation but being able to use both would be fantastic.

You did not list that you had a headphone amplifier?
So I thought you could use the Denon's headphone output.
Or what headphones you use?
 
Headphones that are around 250-Ohm to 300-Ohm seems to me to be fine for use with a receiver's headphone output.

 

[apchf]

Ah sorry. I'm the worst at this. I'm actually using HD650s which are within that range but I really like the headphone amp that's running them and would like to keep it in the chain. 
 
My goal would be to have this all linked to the receiver so I could switch from headphones to speakers without changing cords but if running audio through a dac to the receiver would corrupt the sound I wouldn't want to do it. Conceptually I can't imagine it would? As it's all digital? But a lot of this is a mystery to me and I always prefer to ask first

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Ah sorry. I'm the worst at this. I'm actually using HD650s which are within that range but I really like the headphone amp that's running them and would like to keep it in the chain. 
 
My goal would be to have this all linked to the receiver so I could switch from headphones to speakers without changing cords but if running audio through a dac to the receiver would corrupt the sound I wouldn't want to do it. Conceptually I can't imagine it would? As it's all digital? But a lot of this is a mystery to me and I always prefer to ask first

I would assume that running optical from the computer to the Bifrost, then RCA cable from the Bifrost to the Denon (speakers connected to Denon).
And just plug the HD650s into the receiver when you wan to use them.
This way both the speakers and headphones can take advantage of the Bifrost DAC.
 
You could try connecting the external headphone amplifier to the RCA outputs on the Denon.
 
Or just run optical from the computer to the Bifrost, then to the headphone amplifier.
and just run HDMI from the computer's graphics card to the Denon.

 

[apchf]

That helps. Thanks a lot. Will try running from computer-->dac-->receiver the RCA out to headphone amp. I'm a bit confused about the "direct"/"pure direct" settings but it seems those don't actually process the signal so it should end up sounding exactly as it does directly from the dac.
 
Thanks for the help