noob DAC question

Only when you use the CD players digital output are you BYPASSING the internal DAC. If you connect via the analog outs you are listening to the internal DAC of the CD player.

A CD player has a built in DAC. Otherwise it wouldn't be a CD player. A good way to look at it is digital is optional, but analog is not. We can't hear in digital, so in order for you to be able to listen to music when using a digital source, is to convert it to analog first. (DAC - Digital to Analog Converter).

In your case, the CD player converts the signal to analog before it goes to the amp. Since the Anthem doesn't have a DAC, you have no choice but to use the built in DAC on your CD player if you want to listen to music.

Thanks to you both. Makes perfect sense, but leads to questions that further cement noobness.

Why mention built-in DAC at all? Seems implied. In fact, some descriptions lead one to believe that built-in DAC is an attractive feature. Deduction causes me to think that perhaps the answer is when built-in DAC is referenced what it means is the player also is equipped with a digital output?

As Zd542 said, a CD player is understood to have a built-in DAC, as opposed to a CD transport which provides digital output but not analog output and necessitates having an external device to do the digital to analog conversion.

I can understand your confusion, though, because sometimes when people describe their CD player as having a built-in DAC what they're really trying to describe is that it has digital input in addition to the digital and analog outputs. That allows the player to be used with input from a different digital source, such as a cable TV box, do the digital to analog conversion and output the analog signal to the rest of the system.

You didn't mention which CD player you're referring to but I suspect that, in this case, they may be referring to the player's ability to act as a standalone DAC. Meaning that it also has digital inputs and can accept digital signals from things like computers (usually USB), ipods/ipads, SqueezeBox, etc. In this case you would be using the CD player's DAC to convert the digital signal to analog. The premise being that the DAC in the player is superior to the one in the source device (may or may not be the case).