48K, 96K or 192K

First, I do not think you can feed the front L/R directly to the xDs amp since you would not have a volume control for those channels.

Second, if you are using only the analog outs, the settings for S/PDIF (the digital output) are irrelevant.

Third, the best arrangement is to set the S/PDIF output to RAW (that will permit transmission of DD and DTS in addition to PCM output) and connect the digital output to the B&K digital input. Then, connect the front L/R preamp outputs of the B&K to the xDs.

Fourth, an alternative may be possible which is to connect the 6 analog outputs of the player to the B&K.

Kal

DVD is up to 24/48. DVD-A can be anything up to 24/192, at least in 2 channels, and up to 24/96 in 5.1. So, set the output for 192kHz in order not to down-sample and mangle the best discs.

Kal

Tvad wrote: "Perhaps the setting needs to be made on a disc-to-disc basis? My Donald Fagen disc specifically mentions 48khz/24bit. I don't own any other DVD-A discs to compare.
I personally prefer to not upsample."
Who said anything about upsampling? Setting the permissible bandwidth of the digital output is something different from setting upsampling options. If you open the window to 24/192, 24/48 and 24/96 will pass equally well.

Kal

Well, the reason for limiting the output bandwidth is to account for whether or not the device receiving the output can handle it. If you send a 24/192 signal to a DAC or receiver which can only handle 24/48, the extra bits would be truncated producing a nasty sound.

Yes, he did mention that it is an upconverting player but I took his questions all to do with the digital output. Since we do not know exactly which player it is, I cannot be certain but I suspect the upconverting is available from the analog outputs and pertains, primarily, to CD sources.

Kal

Tvad: "OK, I'm bored and determined to help, so I looked through the B&K AVR305 manual which mentions accepting DVD-A up to 24/192 through the 5.1 analog inputs, so I'd say set the player to 24/192 as Kal suggested."

Good idea but makes no sense. If the B&K's input is analog, the sampling rate is irrelevant. Something's still not clear here.

Kal

Thanks for the link. As I said, using the 5.1 DVD-A inputs, which are analog, the sampling rate is irrelevant.

Kal

Jwilt: "I played around with it a bit. When I set the player's SPDIF (whatever the heck that is) to "PCM", I didn't seem to get any surround information, just the fronts. When I switched it to "Raw", the surround info was there."
Of course. As I said above, "Raw" will pass DD/DTS and "PCM" will not.

Kal