Any good recievers with USB input?

[Lakitu]

Ok, well my stereo(Philips FW-C577) has a USB input that I can use for all my computer audio, instead of using the motherboard's soundcard, and it plays through the stereo speakers. I can also use the stereo in conjunction with my DVD player and video game systems, and it has radio and a 5 CD changer and all that as well. However, the thing itself kinda sucks, and I was thinking of getting a nice Reciever to replace it, along with some better speakers. Does anyone even make recievers that accept USB input? If so, what brands should I be looking at?

 

[jpmkm]

Unless you have really shitty onboard audio, there's probably not a lot of difference in quality between the USB connection and a regular analog audio connection. All it is is just a builtin USB soundcard, so if you really want to use USB then you could always just get a USB sound card and hook that up to whatever new receiver you get. Though I really wouldn't recommend actually doing that. If your onboard audio does really suck then you'd probably just be better off buying a decent sound card. With that being said, though, there are some receivers out there that have USB connectivity. The Pioneer VSX-74TXVi does(damn nice looking receiver. part of their elite line). Also the JVC RX-D401S has USB. I haven't used either of those receivers so I can't make any claims about their quality. But there definitely are receivers out there that have USB connectivity.

 

[GotNoRice]

That is interesting about the USB. What you could also do is just get any cheap soundcard (your onboard might even have it) that has digital output. Then just run a coax or optical cable (depending on the kind of digital port your soundcard has) into the digital input on the receiver.

If you ran analog audio from your soundcard to the receiver, it would be using the DAC in the soundcard, sending analog data to the receiver, which would then re-process that back into digital, send it through the DSP, then back out of the receiver’s DAC. That is 3 conversions, DAC-ADC-DAC. With the USB you are bypassing that first DAC-ADC conversion, which is the same thing you do with a digital connection, since all it does is send the digital stream to the receiver for decoding.

Essentially, using a digital connection should give you the same results as you got from USB, because in both cases you are simply delivering a digital signal to the receiver for processing.

 

[Chastity]

If you ran analog audio from your soundcard to the receiver, it would be using the DAC in the soundcard, sending analog data to the receiver, which would then re-process that back into digital, send it through the DSP, then back out of the receiver’s DAC. That is 3 conversions, DAC-ADC-DAC.

Only true for receivers that do Bass Management for DVD-A/SACD discrete input. It will redigitize the analog feed so it can do its post-processing.

Most receivers will pass-thru an analog signal.