Need help finding a reasonable AV DAC

Posted by: TimCox on 27 June 2010

Hope you guys can help out, i've been looking around for a while but failed.

I have a NAC 102, flatcap, NAC 102 & NAPSC, NAP140 & SBL setup. Plus CD3.5, Headline & Grado SR2 & Dennon radio receiver blar blar!!

I have two optical AV sources that I want; PS3 for movies & games (ah!) and a HD sat receiver. Both do AC3, Dolby Digital etc... I want to feed into the front left & right into my NAC 102 and sw in separate sub.

Currently I have to suffer the audio being feed through my Sony LCD over HDMI cables and then out again into the NAC 102.

I've been looking for a a box to take minimum, two optical audio inputs and send out FR FL, SW, and I need to be able to lock it into 2.1 output.

I've seen a few boxes out there, but they:

1. Don't auto switch between inputs (thats the wife for for you)
2. They all auto detect the input, we do not want rear speakers so I want to lock it into 2.1 for feeding LF & FR into the NAC 102 and the SW into a Sub.
3. They are huge boxes with flashing lights, LCDs (me) and the need to press a button to swap sources (the wife).

The kit I have tested has problems, when I pause the PS3, and play again the DAC re-detects the audio feed and selects 5.1, argh! Which does not go with a 2.1 setup. Also the sound improves 200% when removing the Sony LCD from the chain.

I want to box I can drop behind the cabinet and forget about.

Any suggestions?
Posted on: 28 June 2010 by Eloise
quote:
Originally posted by TimCox:
1. Don't auto switch between inputs (thats the wife for for you)
2. They all auto detect the input, we do not want rear speakers so I want to lock it into 2.1 for feeding LF & FR into the NAC 102 and the SW into a Sub.
3. They are huge boxes with flashing lights, LCDs (me) and the need to press a button to swap sources (the wife).

It's difficult to meet all your requirements ...

If you want subwoofer output, then you're looking at some form of AV processor - what about an old Audiolab or TAG processor second hand (off eBay or similar). Not too big (though needs a rack space) and won't auto switch.

Could get a small DAC such as Firestone Audio or the Aune, but you are usually limited to 1 input (or 1 optical 1 co-ax) - does the TV have digital output? - or you'll need to manually switch in the case of something like the Cambridge Audio DAC magic. You could add a separate 2 in 1 out optical switch but starts getting complicated. Another alternative would be to use a HDMI + Optical switch and route all your video sources through this. With this setup you're not going to be able to connect a subwoofer except at the pre-amp.

Eloise
Posted on: 28 June 2010 by tyk263
quote:
Originally posted by TimCox:
Hope you guys can help out, i've been looking around for a while but failed.

I have a NAC 102, flatcap, NAC 102 & NAPSC, NAP140 & SBL setup. Plus CD3.5, Headline & Grado SR2 & Dennon radio receiver blar blar!!

I have two optical AV sources that I want; PS3 for movies & games (ah!) and a HD sat receiver. Both do AC3, Dolby Digital etc... I want to feed into the front left & right into my NAC 102 and sw in separate sub.

Currently I have to suffer the audio being feed through my Sony LCD over HDMI cables and then out again into the NAC 102.

I've been looking for a a box to take minimum, two optical audio inputs and send out FR FL, SW, and I need to be able to lock it into 2.1 output.

I've seen a few boxes out there, but they:

1. Don't auto switch between inputs (thats the wife for for you)
2. They all auto detect the input, we do not want rear speakers so I want to lock it into 2.1 for feeding LF & FR into the NAC 102 and the SW into a Sub.
3. They are huge boxes with flashing lights, LCDs (me) and the need to press a button to swap sources (the wife).

The kit I have tested has problems, when I pause the PS3, and play again the DAC re-detects the audio feed and selects 5.1, argh! Which does not go with a 2.1 setup. Also the sound improves 200% when removing the Sony LCD from the chain.

I want to box I can drop behind the cabinet and forget about.

Any suggestions?


Hi,
Hope this helps. I use a pre (a very old Audible Illusion Mod3 model) with 2 pre-out, 1 for the power amp and the other for the subwoofer. I would also recommend that you get the nDAC and hook up your sources using the optical ports. The ndaC analogue output is fed into the pre. I have my multimedia server, Bluray player and TV settop all hooked to the DAC. This is an excellent sounding setup and I have since disconnected the sub. The bass is more than sufficient even with movies. It actually sounded worse with the sub on.

P.S. Make sure you set your sources to downmix to pcm stereo.
Posted on: 28 June 2010 by Andy S
quote:
Originally posted by tyk263:
P.S. Make sure you set your sources to downmix to pcm stereo.
That's the approach I'd look at - can you do that for the PS3 and HD sat receiver (which one is it BTW)?
Posted on: 28 June 2010 by tyk263
quote:
Originally posted by Andy S:
quote:
Originally posted by tyk263:
P.S. Make sure you set your sources to downmix to pcm stereo.
That's the approach I'd look at - can you do that for the PS3 and HD sat receiver (which one is it BTW)?


Neither. I am using a Sony BDP-S1E bluray player. My IPTV settop is from the local (Malaysian) broadband provider. Look into the PS3/Sat receiver setup menu esp. the Audio setup. You should be able to set it to stereo. Make sure you set the Dolby and DTS to downmix to PCM. In my Sony BD player there is a further setup option to downmix to digital stereo.
Posted on: 29 June 2010 by Occean
Sounds like you need a Supernait
Posted on: 30 June 2010 by Stuart M
Are all your outputs available over HDMI ?

If so you could buy a HDMI switch that offers optical output of the HDMI digital (Not full Higher rate sources but standard 48k, dolby digital or DTS) - many of these auto switch to the live source. You then only need one input to a DAC or amp. Octava have a range of reasonably priced boxes that offer this. They have some that decode to analogue but no idea of the quality, on price I would say OK but not high end. I have one of these and after some issues with HDMI HDCP sync (Mine has 2 outputs) it works great and I never need to touch the box, solving your wife's problem.

So long as you then connect it to a DAC that will down mix to 2.1 (or set up all your sources to down mix to 2.1) then this may work for you.

To that you could add a DAC, since it would only have one input it