Hi,

I am playing a CD using my Sony DVP-NS975V and I can choose to play it via 7.1 Channel Direct (analogue) or dvd using the optical (digital) connection.

It sounds 150% better when using the analogue connection. It sounds horrible using the digital connection.

Is this normal or is there a misconfiguration?

Thanks,
Danny

I assume when I play it using the digital connection the 990 is using its onboard DAC's to process the signal and when I play it using the analogue connection the dvd player is processing the signal.

I would figure the 990 DAC's would sound much better than my old sony dvd player.

Using the 7.1 Direct input and the 990, the 990's DAC's still come into play unless you have all speakers set to "LARGE" (signal is converted to digital for bass management and then back to analog) - I doubt it's related simply to differences between the Sony's DAC's and the 990's DAC's.

When you are using the optical input, you may be applying some surround processing - doing so can have a huge impact. This is most likely what is creating the disappointing sound. The mode that I use mainly for CD's is Upsample (use the "STEREO" button and press it repeatedly until the 990's front panel says "Upsample"), but you might also try Pro Logic IIx-Music (press the "DOLBY" button repeatedly to get it), NEO:6-Music (press the "DTS" button repeatedly), or 5 Stereo (or 7 Stereo depending on how many speakers are configured, accessible using the "STEREO" button) to see what you think of the most common music modes.