Good upsampling DAC w. HDMI

I, too, do not know of any HDMI DAC at the moment. However, it would not have to be a multichannel DAC as HDMI can handle stereo and the sending device will autosense that.

Kal

Berkley Audio's Alpha DAC has BADA encrypted input which does allow for future support of HDMI (whatever that means). I think it may be a bit above your price point though.

I have the Classe SSP 800 and it imputes Fios HDMI quite well.

When HDMI connections are made, there is a handshaking procedure that involves the exchange of EDIDs in which each device identifies itself and its capabilities. It is used for many things like copy-protection but also to insure that the video and audio formats are acceptable to the receiver. That includes the number of channels. As an example, if you connect a player that can output DSD (from an SACD) to a receiver or processor that cannot decode DSD, the player will decode it and send as PCM. Pretty neat.

Kal

PS Audio has been showing their new Ultra DAC in conjunction with their PerfectWave Transport connected via HDMI. In this instance, it is sending I2S data only. I don't know if the input is capable of accepting other formats, but its worth an inquiry. I've heard the DAC at a couple of shows and it is a killer sounding unit right about your price range.

Shazam,

How does the new PS Audio stack compare to high end players like an Esoteric X03 or something in that range?