5.1 configuration with an external dac, is it possible?
Cambridge audio advertises the use of bluray players and game consoles with its dacmagic .
assuming most of the content uses a sub , how can you get multi channel without the receiver converting analouge back to digital and hence defeating the purpose of the dac (assuming you use the receiver for low passfilters or the receiver equaliser etc...)
I would have thought that they are referring to the ability of the DAC to take the digital output from the blu-ray/games console (when playing a CD for instance) and sending it onto an stereo amp - thus giving much better sound quality than the output direct from the bluray.
Has anybody tried the new dacmagic plus , the review here on whathifi said that theres a hint brighness compared to the orignal dacmagic , which one should i go for ? The orignal or the plus?
The first company that puts out a serious dts-hd and ma decoder without all that video switching stuff (i.e. a multichannel dac) has my business.
Sorry for resurrecting an older thread, but I figured that's better than starting a very similar new one.
Right now, I have my music (Apple lossless rips) on a PC with a decent Asus sound card, and the quality is close enough to what I get from my CD player to make using iTunes preferable to spinning the CDs. I want to ditch the PC in favor of a laptop, and stream the music to the AppleTV I currently use only for online movies. Both are hooked up to a good, but dated, Receiver/Amp with a 5.1 system. But when I gave ATV music a try, I found the quality coming from the ATV really and truly sucked. It's unacceptable. So I started looking at external DACs, figuring I'd pump the ATV through one of those, so music is played using better hardware. Seems like a great solution, until I started reading manuals, and found that most DACs with digital outputs won't recognize a 5.1 stream, so you give up the 5.1 coming from the ATV. I like the Cambridge DacMagic Plus, but it clearly states it won't work. Seems the same for the Audiolab M-DAC, and every other DAC I've looked at EXCEPT for the Bryston BDA1, which says it passes the digital signal through without modification. Seems that should work, but that's a $2K component. Overkill for someone like me - a budget buster.
Is there any other solution? Maybe a way to split the ATV signal, sending it to both the DAC (for music) and straight to the receiver (for movies)?
Thanks in advance, and I hope this hasn't been thoroughly covered. I searched hard before posting.
I am fairly sure something like the Audinst HUD-MX1 will passthrough 5.1 to a S/PDIF but now I look I can't find it listed. Might be a bit below your standards too. My iBasso D7 also has a digital output but not sure if that will carry a 5.1 either.
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You can not. The DacMagic is a Stereo DAC.
Not a HiFi Nut. Just has a pile of Nads.