Clint,

You are starting to FRIGHTEN the crap out of me. Great post and link...many thanks as I continue to read and enjoy it thoroughly.

Dutch

You asked for it, Dutch.

Now seriously, you'll be stunned by the 6000 OSE performance. Imo the 6000 series were the last cdps Ken Ishiwata, Marantz' design guru made inside the Philips group.
Many of us don't know but now Marantz Japan Inc. are part of the D&M Holdings which also include MacIntosh, Boston Acoustics and Denon.

We discussed my Onkyo DX-C380 6 player awhile back because of the smoothness not having the tinny sound.

Shazam! No doubt the Boston Acoustics connection is a sign of good things to come

Did I mention I'm a big fan of there's...err, do I ever mention anything else

Well, the CD player showed up next day UPS. I'm listening at reference levels to Ultimate Santana using the RCA connects.

Lordy' I surely do get it...please understand if I step out for the next week or so.

Signed,
Honey, I need to step out for a few.
Dutch

Ok Dutch, see you next week.

I'm back...is it strange that musically the Marantz sounds better using RCA in lieu of the optical capability? By using the RCA output that means the Marantz is doing the analog conversion...right?

If I use optical does that mean there is no conversion to analog? Sorry, but perhaps I'm missing something basic. Somewhere along the way does the signal always have to be converted from digital to analog in order to reproduce sound?

Dutch

the RCA analog output from the player utilizes the units internal dac, so yes, the Marantz is doing the conversion to analog. if you use the digital out from the Marantz, the conversion to analog is done with either an external dac, or in your case, your Yamaha HTR.

Dingus says it all, i just add this:
The Marantz dacs are far better than the Yamaha's, that's the reason it sounds better using rca's outputs.