Article: At Long Last! Listen To Your (Physical) SACDs Through an Outboard DAC

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On 3/13/2022 at 2:27 AM, linger63 said:

 

Your Topping should accept DSD via DoP using the right HDMI De embedder.

Please ensure you have a DoP capable model and are hooked up the following way......

Sony set to bitstream DSD via (audio)HDMI out to De embedder.

Then coax out from De embedder to DAC.

 

Coax and optical outputs are DoP and PCM................. not I2S

 

You must also choose the right setting on the De embedder for hi res stereo playback.

 

WRT your Moon 280D.............

According to the User Manual it accepts DSD via it's USB input only..

 

Having just become a new member to this forum because of this thread, first a big thanks to its initiator gmgraves, to hgaggioni, linger63 and all other respondents.

My setup:

Sony UBP-X800M2 blu-ray player HDMI audio-only output   -   HDMI audio extractor   -   optical SPDIF input to RME ADI-2 DAC FS

 

The extractor i'm currently using is a J-Tech Digital JTD18G-H5CH. This extractor is available with many brands (Cable Matters, Monoprice, Orei, Vanco). It is capable of extracting 176.4/24 PCM from SACD and put that out over Toslink optical SPDIF. To that end the EDID selector of the extractor should bet set to 5CH (or bitstream, depending on brand). To my understanding, conversion DSD-PCM takes place inside the Sony player and reverse conversion PCM-DSD by the ESS delta-sigma DAC chip in the RME DAC. It sounds fine.

 

The problem starts when playing 5.1 DVDs on the Sony. The 5CH setting of the extractor causes only the front left & right audio channels to be sent optically to the DAC, so spoken audio is normally absent. I don't want to change the EDID setting for reasons of convenience; the extractor is hidden in the back of the TV furniture.

Question is, does the ChiFi black box that supports DOP64 over SPDIF, act similarly? Or is it fit for both SACD and 5.1 DVD playback with its TV/AMP/DOU selector in one and the same position? Which position is that?

 

Thanks in advance for tips & tricks.

 

 

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Thanks for the fast response.

32 minutes ago, linger63 said:

Your current extractor does not do DSD

[...]

You need a DSD capable extractor so you can set your Sony to output unconverted DSD to it.

I know, that's one of the reasons i'm looking at this ChiFi box.

34 minutes ago, linger63 said:

WRT 5.1...........Why would you want to send a 5.1 audio stream to a 2 channel DAC?

You could just select the 2 channel audio option in the DVD's menu instead.

I don't want to send 5.1 to the DAC. However, when i don't set the extractor's EDID to 5CH, the Sony will not send hi-res SACD audio to the extractor; only 44.1 kHz PCM (no 176.4 kHz). I can't find any DVD menu on my DVDs for switching to 2CH and even when i set the Sony to downmix 5CH to stereo, it won't do that over its HDMI outputs. I contacted Sony Support on this, no luck.

52 minutes ago, linger63 said:

WRT "switch positions"...........You only need to worry about that if you also have an AVR or Pre/Pro in the system and wish to use the converters HDMI out as a 5.1 ch passthrough.

0K thanks. Still, I'd like to know if the switch on the ChiFi box needs a different position when switching from SACD (DSD) to DVD (PCM) playback or vice versa, for 2CH stereo audio output in each case.

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On 5/3/2021 at 7:35 PM, Gerry E. said:

I also purchased a Sony UBP-X800M2 digital player for $299 USD.

 

Hi Gerry E., it's been a year, but did you get your UBP-X800M2 to work with the ChiFi box, in particular DOP64 on the coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs of the extractor?

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18 hours ago, linger63 said:

ChiFi box would NOT need switching changes

 

Thanks again, linger63.

I've been ordering a bunch of extractors before and returned most of them due to incompatibility with the Sony player. Returning seems to be difficult with the box at hand. Hopefully someone on the forum can confirm it to work well with the Sony UBP-X800M2, both on SACD and DVD playback (see above).