miniDSP DAC & I2S

[JamesBarr]

Hello, new user here

I've been looking into building a pre-amp around the miniDSP 2x8 and basically I'm not sure about the quality of the internal DAC. In my current setup I use a DacMagic to feed my pre-amp. I've been googling over and over again and can't seem to find an answer, so now I figured I'd try and ask here

Does anyone know how the internal DAC of the miniDSP 2x8 compares to a Cambridge DacMagic? If the internal DAC is inferior to the DacMagic, how big of a hassle would it be to extract the I2S of the miniDSP and feed it to the DacMagic?

 

[qusp]

if extracting i2s, get the miniSHARC, it has no dac, just DSP and i2s out. Do remember the dacmagic is only 2 channel, so not much point feeding a miniDSP to that

 

[JamesBarr]

I know. I figured I'd get the 2x8 and use the Wolfson DAC's from the DacMagic for my fronts and the internal DAC for my subwoofer.

It's also easy to extract the I2S, the hard part (for me at least) is figuring out how to feed the DM an I2S signal But of course, this would be wasted time and money if the internal DAC compares to the Wolfson DAC's. If anyone have listened to both I would be very interested to hear their opinion

 

[hochopeper]

In that case, minidsp 2x8 and digi-fp will let you use on board DAC for non-critical channels and SPDIF out to DM.

 

[JamesBarr]

I've thought of using SPDIF, but wont that introduce timing issues and unnecessary I2S-SPDIF-I2S conversion? Besides, I'd like to build it all into a single box and I dont mind taking the DM apart. Hence why Im looking to feed it the I2S signal.

 

[JamesBarr]

So I found this:

http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/documents/uploads/data_sheets/en/WM8740.pdf

I am thinking of simply extracting the I2S lines from the miniDSP and connecting each line in its respective place on the Wolfson chip, leaving the output part of the DM intact as it is just fine. Is this a viable solution? Anything I am missing / should be aware of? Any input is appreciated..

 

[trento]

Hi everyone!
My first post here, nice!

I'm interested in JamesBarr (great) idea!
Do you complete the project? Have found something usefull??

Thanks.