Hey All
I have a question, I have a active system at home.
I have a dsp for activ crossover which has a build in dac. But I'm not satisfied with the dac. I'm planning to use my dsp just for activ crossover and room correction and use spdif for output. After I want a Dac thet can handle at least 6 seperate channels for my 3 power amps.
Do a Dac like this exist? Betther will be a 8 channel in 8 channel out dac, maybe every channel at its own dac chip🙃 does something like this exists?
Regards
I have a question, I have a active system at home.
I have a dsp for activ crossover which has a build in dac. But I'm not satisfied with the dac. I'm planning to use my dsp just for activ crossover and room correction and use spdif for output. After I want a Dac thet can handle at least 6 seperate channels for my 3 power amps.
Do a Dac like this exist? Betther will be a 8 channel in 8 channel out dac, maybe every channel at its own dac chip🙃 does something like this exists?
Regards
You could try something like an ES9038PRO evaluation board, but there are no dac chips that support multiple stereo-pair channels of SPDIF. That's because SPDIF is clocked by the source device, in your case it would be your DSP chip's clock, so ASRC would have to be used at the receiving end for each SPDIF connection in order to remove SPDIF jitter and match up with the dac clock. The separate SPDIF signals could not be guaranteed to stay phase synchronous with each other though all that processing. Instead of using SPDIF, you would probably need to use I2S which would mean that the dac chip and the DSP chip need to be pretty close to each other, probably within a few cm unless you go through rather involved high speed digital transmission (possible, but more complicated and costly).
Another problem with DSP processing in a chip is that given today's technology, sound quality will likely be inferior to that which can be had using analog crossovers and one really good stereo dac to drive them. That is all the more so when using software, most often HQplayer, to convert all digital audio to DSD512 or DSD256 before sending it to the dac. Really good dacs I have come across sound better with high sample rate DSD, IME. True for Sabre dacs and AKM's new AK4499 dac chip eval board. That may or may not seem to make sense, but for most people who try it, virtually all of them seem to clearly find DSD sound quality to be superior.
By the way, you are not the first person to come around asking for a multi-channel dac for bi-amping or tri-amping speakers. One such discussion starts at the following post, and is then scattered across the next several pages: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/314935-es9038q2m-board-473.html#post5862089 ...it then skips a few pages at starts again at: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/314935-es9038q2m-board-475.html#post5864244
EDIT: By the way, when we had that discussion I did not think to mention about maintaining phase coherence between SPDF channels. Some people might notice it and some might not. I would expect lack of phase coherence could adversely affect stereo imaging.
Also, the question in that case seemed to be more about how to find the lowest cost solution rather than the best sounding one. Not sure what your ultimate goal is.
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Multi-channel dacs are very common. They are a mainstay of the pro audio and broadcast industries.
Which DSP/DAC are you using?
You may want to look into this: Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
You may want to look into this: Review and Measurements of Okto DAC8 8Ch DAC & Amp | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
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IME, most do not support I2S input from an existing DSP board.
Any you would recommend in particular for use with a DSP board?
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Bingo.
Try a Focusrite Clarett USB 8Pre. You will not be able to do much better than that level of performance. Comes with at least 8 analog inputs and 8 analog outputs...
Why are you convinced that the DAC is to blame for what you do not like about the sound of your system?
They exist, most likely with a dac chip for a pair of channels, but tend to be expensive. The more reasonable end of the market uses USB for the digital I/O and the units with AES/SPDIF or even optical I/O tend to be the more modular units and they are usually expensive. Often very expensive.
I'm Using the Najda DSP Board so I can use I2. I have also Digital Coax outputs.
I think with an external DAC i can have much more quality.
The okto research looks really good. I thougt about getting a minidsp and an okto resarch, instead of my najda dsp, maybe with Dirac Live. MiniDSP has a community, updates and more features..
I think with an external DAC i can have much more quality.
The okto research looks really good. I thougt about getting a minidsp and an okto resarch, instead of my najda dsp, maybe with Dirac Live. MiniDSP has a community, updates and more features..
btw
Price is not the point. I dont have a maximum amount of money to spend. I just want a solution, which is state of the art and delivers highest possible sound Quality. It should not be the expensive setup, but one with best results
As i've told you i'm openminded to change my whole Preamp setup, the Power AMP setup is fixed
I also looked for some Preamps, the NAD C658 looks interesting. atm i'm using a Bluesound Node 2 For Streaming, maybe i will update to the preamp. But im Still trying to get a few different setups i can run, to decide my next steps.
requiermentsfor my new preamp system :
- Active crossover for my 3 way setup (maybe 4 in future)
- Active crossover and DAC should be seperate. So i can update one Part without touching the other.
- Balanced audio connection to my Poweramps. (2x Classé Sigma AMp 2, 1x LD-Systems DP 2400 X)
- Full Digital signal processing to the DAC.
Regards
Price is not the point. I dont have a maximum amount of money to spend. I just want a solution, which is state of the art and delivers highest possible sound Quality. It should not be the expensive setup, but one with best results
As i've told you i'm openminded to change my whole Preamp setup, the Power AMP setup is fixed
I also looked for some Preamps, the NAD C658 looks interesting. atm i'm using a Bluesound Node 2 For Streaming, maybe i will update to the preamp. But im Still trying to get a few different setups i can run, to decide my next steps.
requiermentsfor my new preamp system :
- Active crossover for my 3 way setup (maybe 4 in future)
- Active crossover and DAC should be seperate. So i can update one Part without touching the other.
- Balanced audio connection to my Poweramps. (2x Classé Sigma AMp 2, 1x LD-Systems DP 2400 X)
- Full Digital signal processing to the DAC.
Regards
For Vinyl: Whest Audio Preamp, via rca --> Najda--> Poweramps
For CD/blueray : Oppo UPD 203, via toslink ---> Najda--> Poweramps
For Streaming: BLuesound Node2, via coax----> Najda --> Poweramps
Mostly I stream at the moment.
Lucid 88192 has 8 AES or toslink inputs and 8 analogue outputs. These occasionally come up second hand on eBay.
http://www.symetrix.co/repository/88192_ug.pdf
Or you could use 4x khadas tone boards, coax spdif in and rca analogue out.
Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
http://www.symetrix.co/repository/88192_ug.pdf
Or you could use 4x khadas tone boards, coax spdif in and rca analogue out.
Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
Nice to know, thanks. As far as I can tell the Lucid 88192 has AES digital inputs - do you know how you can input coax (rca) SPDIF into these ? Is it just a case of getting the right pins connected in the wire (RCA>3 pin XLR) or does it need a converter box ?
Apologies for the silly questions but still trying to understand digital signal differences.
You can do either. (I use a Mutec MC1.2 digital bridge) but you can make your own RCA to XLR cables using the following diagram.
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