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Seeking info on a DAC with HDMI that can decode DSD from a Blu-ray player

C

Chito Limson

New Member
As the title suggests, I’m looking for your recommendations for an entry level (in price) DAC that has an HDMI IN port and RCA audio out.

My plan is this:

1. Play SACD on my Sony X6700 that’s capable of outputting native DSD.
2. I don’t have an AVR in my audio-only system thus I need a DAC that can handle this DSD output from the Blu-ray player.
3. I’ll output the DSD material from the DAC to the analog (RCA) input of my stereo amplifier.
 
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I've never heard of a Sony X6700. If it's a player that can play SACD, its internal DAC should be able to process DSD on its own. Just connect the player's analog outputs to your integrated amp, preamp or receiver.
 
The Luxsin X9 Smart Stereo DAC & Preamp has an HDMI ARC input. You might take a look at that one.

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jayvis said:
I've never heard of a Sony X6700. If it's a player that can play SACD, its internal DAC should be able to process DSD on its own. Just connect the player's analog outputs to your integrated amp, preamp or receiver.
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The complete model name is Sony BDP-S6700. It has only two outputs, one HDMI and one coax. It has no analog outputs at all. If I connect the coax to my integrated amp, the Sony will downsample the DSD file to PCM.

If I use an HDMI to RCA converter and plug directly to the integrated amplifier, the DSD will also be downsampled to PCM.
 
BmWr75 said:
The Luxsin X9 Smart Stereo DAC & Preamp has an HDMI ARC input. You might take a look at that one.

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Click to expand...
Thanks. On its website, the Luxsin does seem to have all the features I need. I shall research it further. Glad to know that it's HDMI Arc so the connection will be bi-drectional. The fact that Luxsin is related to Eversolo gives me confidence that it's gonna be well made. Also the 2 AKM DAC chips and OPA1612 opamp sort of round up the package.

Another product I discovered is SMSL D0100 Pro that I shall be researching. The price is more modest compared to the Luxsin, but I won't be surprised if there are tradeoffs.
 
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Chito Limson said:
As the title suggests, I’m looking for your recommendations for an entry level (in price) DAC that has an HDMI IN port and RCA audio out.

My plan is this:

1. Play SACD on my Sony X6700 that’s capable of outputting native DSD.
2. I don’t have an AVR in my audio-only system thus I need a DAC that can handle this DSD output from the Blu-ray player.
3. I’ll output the DSD material from the DAC to the analog (RCA) input of my stereo amplifier.
Click to expand...
I use a Fosi ZD3 DAC and it sounds very good. Especially at its $150 price point when it is on sale. It has HDMI ARC, USB, optical, Bluetooth and coax inputs along with RCA and XLR outputs. It has a remote control and volume control that can be bypassed via a defeat switch. It has user swappable op-amps, too. Below is a thread I started that contains a lot of good information on it.

Edit:
I believe he ZD3 will play SACDs ripped to a DSD file and played via the USB connection from a computer. Through the USB connection it supports native DSD playback up to a 22.5792 MHz sample rate (i.e. DSD512). Ripping the SACD to a DSD file would require an optical drive that can read the DSD layer and a supporting software program the play the DSD file.

Fosi ZD3
 
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Be careful, there are three different forms of HDMI connection which can be found on a DAC:
1. true HDMI, usually labelled "HDMI ARC", adhering to the conventional HDMI specification. This may carry PCM audio, multi-channel PCM audio, encoded multi-channel audio, and video, but not DSD.
1a. true HDMI with the addition of "DSD-over-HDMI" compatibility.
2. I2S, which utililises an HDMI connector, but is completely unrelated to the HDMI specification. This may carry PCM or DSD audio data, but devices which offer I2S output are scarce.

Chito Limson you need 1a on my list, and I understand that the only standalone DAC's which offer this feature are high end models, such as the Bryston BDA-3 - which forum member @crouse owns.
 
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Any DAC which offers DSD-over-HDMI is likely to be high-end and expensive.
The cheapest way to get DSD data from optical disc to DAC is via a specific model of HDMI de-embedder device (approx US$100) -
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/diy-...-hdmi-mhl-to-i2s-coaxial-optical-p-13419.html
into a DAC which accepts I2S input - I think the cheapest such DAC would be the SMSL DO200mkII (not "Pro", approx US$400) -
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009194072076.html

Otherwise the sensible way to get DSD data to a DAC is to first rip your SACD's to hard drive and use computer-based playback. Then you can use any DSD-compatible DAC - the $99 Topping E30II-lite would be fine.
 
Chito Limson said:
My plan is this:
1. Play SACD on my Sony X6700 that’s capable of outputting native DSD.
<snip>
3. I’ll output the DSD material from the DAC to the analog (RCA) input of my stereo amplifier.
Click to expand...
It's worth noting that this same question has been asked, and answered, on this forum at least six times before;
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...er-w-benchmark-dac1-hdr.960799/#post-14812211
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-play-sacd-into-a-dac.969841/#post-15022391
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/i2s-adapter-throw-my-dac.1008194/#post-15906248
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...s-there-a-way-now-to-get-sacd-to-dac.1043159/
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...uray-audio-vs-dsd-sacd.1010801/#post-17844618
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...k-on-vintage-equipment.1090018/#post-17881941
 
 
As already mentioned your best bet is a deembedder. Skip the ones with I2S and get one that can output to SPDIF/DoP, this will give you compatibility with most DACs out there and is technically better than I2S.
 
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