DAC with HDMI?

T

Ted_E_Boy

Active Member
Is there a DAC with HDMI in and out that will extract HDMI audio yet pass the video to the TV.

I would go from my NVIDIA Shield Pro for audio extraction to RCA stereo out (to my vintage stereo system) and also passthrough for the video signal to the television.

In this scenario would I be able to control the volume with the Shield remote?

As of now I use my DAC remote and I'm using USB for audio but I'm looking to simplify.
 
Register to hide this ad
There are a lot of HDMI audio extractors that will do what you describe. These devices typically extract to RCA, optical and coax outputs. They have a built in DAC in order to support the RCA output which is in all likelihood good enough for your use case. Plus, you can change the sound to your liking via your vintage stereo system.
 
On several forums, the HDMI cable system is a convenience thing, everything wrapped up in one nice bundle. The trouble is Dac's require good wire with the correct attributes to pass the signal along the chain. Yes you my be able to buy good selected HMDI cable at a huge cost though. Where as a Dac phono needs only one with which makes it much easier for selection & manufacture. Likewise optical is even easier. I run my TV from HDMI cable & use a separate dedicated wire to my DAC.

Cheers
 
tabarddn51 said:
The trouble is Dac's require good wire with the correct attributes to pass the signal along the chain.
Click to expand...
It's digital; it gets there, or it doesn't. A properly designed DAC, provided the digital signal is received without error, should isolate any electrical or temporal noise carried over the digital interface from the DAC analogue output.

SPDIF is a flawed interface, since clock is embedded in the data signal, and has to be recovered. This is in contrast to a CD player, or a destination-clocked protocol (I2S or 'asynchronous' USB), where the DAC clock is the timing master, local to the DAC, and data is pulled from the source.

HDMI is intended for video sources, and is a source-clocked protocol (because it evolved from broadcast video). Sample timing therefore has to be recovered. That is the reason why I might not prefer HDMI.

Also worth noting that a number of manufacturers have used HDMI connectors & cables to support I2S between source and DAC. This is not HDMI digital audio; it is just using a handy physical interface for an electrical interface (I2S) originally designed to connect chips within a single piece of equipment (e.g. a CD player). There is no standard pinout or electrical interface, and some use source clocking, some destination clocking.
 
Hi, The quality of the wire counts, but if worried go optical.

I am not a big fan of expensive cables, however there is a difference in S/Q between cables.

Cheers
 
tabarddn51 said:
Hi, The quality of the wire counts, but if worried go optical
Click to expand...
Optical transmission isn't a panacea. It can be compromised by slow transmitter, slow receiver & lossy/smeary fibre (e.g. cheap polymer). All of those will result in edge jitter on the biphase signal, which will stress the clock recovery circuit; this can only improve timing jitter by a given degree.

Optical fibres eliminate electrical noise coupling from source to destination, but electrical noise at the source can still cause timing jitter in the transmitted signal.
 
Well that's easy to fix, listen to optical & then the Cable, if you hear any difference, change the connector that is inferior.

Cheers
 
cpt_paranoia said:
It's digital; it gets there, or it doesn't. A properly designed DAC, provided the digital signal is received without error, should isolate any electrical or temporal noise carried over the digital interface from the DAC analogue output.

SPDIF is a flawed interface, since clock is embedded in the data signal, and has to be recovered. This is in contrast to a CD player, or a destination-clocked protocol (I2S or 'asynchronous' USB), where the DAC clock is the timing master, local to the DAC, and data is pulled from the source.

HDMI is intended for video sources, and is a source-clocked protocol (because it evolved from broadcast video). Sample timing therefore has to be recovered. That is the reason why I might not prefer HDMI.

Also worth noting that a number of manufacturers have used HDMI connectors & cables to support I2S between source and DAC. This is not HDMI digital audio; it is just using a handy physical interface for an electrical interface (I2S) originally designed to connect chips within a single piece of equipment (e.g. a CD player). There is no standard pinout or electrical interface, and some use source clocking, some destination clocking.
Click to expand...

This limitation of SPDIF (the necessity of recovering clocking) is one reason, why external master word clocks can make a difference in sound quality in some cases.

With proper cabling (to make sure that the delay between the clock, and all downstream users of the time signal-streamer/renderer units, transports and DACs- are the same, and that the clock waveform is preserved properly to insure proper leading-edge detection, when applicable), these, plus proper usage of buffering, can result in a reduction of any of the proverbial "smearing" arising from jitter, interpolation to replace missing data, and other timing-induced errors, that sometimes can be an issue with digital audio.

This does assume that the DAC in question can actually use the external master clock signal, to properly re-clock signals from SPDIF- some units do this more effectively than others...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
JoeESP9 said:
Emotiva just released the XDA-3 @ $695. It has an HDMI input as well as the usual ones.
Click to expand...
Bought one a week ago, very nice sound quality. The HDMI ARC input is useless to me however, I don't want the tv turning on my system, so the optical is good enough.
 
I’ve found these to be excellent products. They will extract the audio from HDMI input and allow the original HDMI signal to pass through. Both boxes will output the audio signal using SPDIF or i2s. I like the fact these do not have analog (RCA) out because those type of products typically have poor internal DACs. Sending the audio signal out using digital output to your choice of DAC is a much better solution.

There are two versions of this box, one with DOP output and one without. One of the hidden secrets of these boxes is you can extract DSD files from SACDs if your SACD player has HDMI output. They both extract DSD using the I2s output over HDMI assuming your DAC has i2s over HDMI input (pinouts must be correct to work). The DOP version will also extract DSD64 with SPDIF output using DOP to a DAC that can accept DOP input. A DOP DAC will recognize this input as DSD64.

www.ebay.com

HDMI/MHL Interface Audio I2S/DSD/Optical/Coaxial HDMI To I2S IIS for DOP Board | eBay

Support coaxial DOP board. When DSD input, I2S port outputs DSD, coaxial output DOP64, it is used with a decoder supporting DOP. HDMI/MHL Digital Interface Audio I2S/DSD/Optical/Coaxial HDMI To I2S IIS Support Coaxial DOP Board.
www.ebay.com

www.ebay.com

HDMI/MHL To I2S IIS HDMI IIS I2S Dual-Mode Digital Audio I2S/DSD/Coaxial/Optical | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HDMI/MHL To I2S IIS HDMI IIS I2S Dual-Mode Digital Audio I2S/DSD/Coaxial/Optical at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
Last edited:
Ted_E_Boy said:
Is there a DAC with HDMI in and out that will extract HDMI audio yet pass the video to the TV.

I would go from my NVIDIA Shield Pro for audio extraction to RCA stereo out (to my vintage stereo system) and also passthrough for the video signal to the television.

In this scenario would I be able to control the volume with the Shield remote?

As of now I use my DAC remote and I'm using USB for audio but I'm looking to simplify.
Click to expand...
There's a few older Alienware top end gaming laptops which do HDMI in/out. The tablets have a harder time doing this.
 
GChief said:
Says the people that can't hear subtle differences ;)
Click to expand...

With all respect both neuroscience and basic measurements are a significantly better guide than our own ears.

BTW, believing what you see is similarly flawed. Few realize this.

Peace brother
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom