External DAC with SuperUniti

Posted by: love_leeloo on 19 March 2013

Hi,

one of my friend wants to make this system :

 

Synology NAS -> (RJ45) -> SuperUniti -> (SPDIF) -> External DAC -> (RCA) -> SuperUniti -> SBL

 

is it possible ?

 

how does he have to put the SU for this system

 

thanks for your answer

 

kind regards

 

LeeLoO

Posted on: 19 March 2013 by jobseeker
The SU digital output reflects the input, so I don't see how it could work in that sequence. The analogue from the external DAC is the input which would have to be selected, so there would be no access to control of, or sound from the streamer. Or have I got mixed up ?
Posted on: 20 March 2013 by love_leeloo

thanks for your answer

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by Goon525

I suppose there's no point in my asking why anyone would want to do this? The DAC in the SU is of high quality, and fully up to the standard of the rest of the device.

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by Jan-Erik Nordoen
Originally Posted by jobseeker:
The SU digital output reflects the input, so I don't see how it could work in that sequence. The analogue from the external DAC is the input which would have to be selected, so there would be no access to control of, or sound from the streamer. Or have I got mixed up ?

The SU digital output reflects the active digital input, but not the analogue inputs, so an external DAC can be connected to the SU digital output and its (the external DAC) analog output routed back into one of the analog inputs on the SU.

 

The SU digital output is taken before the volume and balance controls, so use of these will not affect the signal. Also, the FM signal is digitised by the SU, so that can also be routed to an external DAC. Neat!

 

Jan

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by Tog

Possible but like bathing in jelly - why would you?

 

The SuperUniti has a perfectly good dac - any sound improvement would be very small if any. If you still feel the need to improve the sound I think you should look elsewhere to far more expensive equipment.

 

Tog

 

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by Jan-Erik Nordoen
Originally Posted by Tog:

Possible but like bathing in jelly - why would you?

For more buoyancy ?

 

Agreed that the DAC in the SU is perfectly good, but sometimes it's interesting to try other flavours. Anyway, the question was « can it be done ? ». Come to think of it the NDS has a digital output too... but that would be like bathing in caviar.

 

Jan

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by jobseeker
Originally Posted by Jan-Erik Nordoen:
Originally Posted by jobseeker:
The SU digital output reflects the input, so I don't see how it could work in that sequence. The analogue from the external DAC is the input which would have to be selected, so there would be no access to control of, or sound from the streamer. Or have I got mixed up ?

The SU digital output reflects the active digital input, but not the analogue inputs, so an external DAC can be connected to the SU digital output and its (the external DAC) analog output routed back into one of the analog inputs on the SU.

 

The SU digital output is taken before the volume and balance controls, so use of these will not affect the signal. Also, the FM signal is digitised by the SU, so that can also be routed to an external DAC. Neat!

 

Jan

I still don't see how the streaming can be controlled once the analogue input from the DAC has been selected as the SU's chosen input, either by the SU remote or NStream. Am I being stupid ?

Posted on: 20 March 2013 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

Sh*t... I hadn't thought it through properly... You're correct. For it to work, you would need to be able to simultaneously engage two inputs on the SU, and that would result in a real mess.

 

Apologies 

 

Jan

Posted on: 21 March 2013 by love_leeloo

so to anwser to the question "why do u want to do that"

I would say : "just for fun"

 

my friend have a TOTALDAC D1 and he has on loaning a SU for a WE

so he just wants to test a little

Posted on: 21 March 2013 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

Interesting device. The 'Total' name is appropriate, as the DAC also includes a digital preamp and a digital crossover, providing what looks like a similar function to the DEQX devices. Judging by the designer's biographical sketch, he certainly seems to have the technical abilities and background required, and to top it off, trained by John Westlake.

 

Assuming that your friend has a separate amplifier to take the output of the Total DAC, then you can compare with the SU, in a number of ways, but not - as Jobseeker correctly noted - DAC to DAC.

 

Have fun and report back.

 

Jan

Posted on: 21 March 2013 by love_leeloo

yes I will ask him to test this configuration