All-In-One Options

@dodgealum 

Please forgive me, I’ll stop now.

My friend and I were shocked how good that Technics I posted above sounded, a whole room full of people were listening to the speakers being demo’d, I was the one that asked the source, what a surprise. But, it plays CDs, not SACDs

@audphile1

That’s not what I was saying, but the confusion may be my fault, dashing off messages quickly late at night. I suggest checking out the lengthy 2001-ish piece I wrote on the topic of optical-disc standards, published in one of the Ziff-Davis magazines, maybe PC Mag?. If you don’t see it, I can look for the manuscript in my personal archives.

Here are the key points relevant to our current discussion.  Hope this is helpful:

- I’d deliberately mentioned sending "digital data" over HDMI, not DoP, which AFAIK, is legally constrained to connections like USB, not S/PDIF or HDMI.

- My transport docs aren’t 100% clear, but I assume that it internally converts DSD to PCM before transmission over HDMI. This is not DSD encapsulated in PCM packets, but a true, standard LPCM stream. The T+A DAC then decodes the PCM stream normally through its dedicated PCM signal path.

- DoP, unless it’s been updated in the last 20 years, is limited to DSD64. My transport’s conversion to LPCM, however, can handle much higher data rates. DoP is also relatively susceptible to jitter, with clock data is embedded in the stream itself, while HDMI’s video-ready sync is, all things equal, more robust.

So it’s not hard to argue that, despite an internal format conversion that negates the benefits of the T+A DAC’s dedicated end-to-end DSD signal path, this method is superior to a DoP transfer in some ways.  E.g., it offers:

- much higher bandwidth, including the ability to transfer hirez multichannel data.  This may be moot, since DoP’s DSD64 limit is the highest data rate defined by the Scarlet Book.

- more robust (although still far from perfect) HDMI clocking

- wider deployment, since pretty much every HDMI-equipped audio sink natively decodes LPCM streams

- compliance with all Scarlet Book and DMCA constraints -- IOW, legal over any digital connection, unlike DoP, which is considered infringement over HDMI or copper/fiber S/PDIF.  This is because HDMI has its own end-to-end encryption/content-protection algorithm, called HDCP.

- no need for external boxes & cabling, a la D.BOB.

The downside in my particular setup is that sending PCM to the T+A DAC negates the benefit of the DAC’s end-to-end pure-DSD signal path. However, most DACs, even some of the highest-end models, do the same kind of DSD-to-PCM conversion when decoding any DSD content. It’s not clear how much this compromises SQ in my case – this isn’t a multikilobuck transport – but this is the best solution I’ve found at this price point.  And the T+A DAC’s dedicated PCM signal path seems to do a good job with the LPCM stream.

Oh yeah, there’s also a third option for transmitting encapsulated DSD over HDMI, I forget the name now, something like HDMI-DSD or DSDOver HDMI.  It’s rarely implemented widely, so I haven’t paid attention.

Bottom line (and this was the only point I was trying to make, so long ago!) is that T+A’s gear can accept hirez digital data from an SACD transport via HDMI without requiring a third-party box, and that the quality of that signal is even superior in some ways to that of a DoP transfer. When looking for a terrific DAC that offers outstanding SQ & connectivity for the price, one should add T+A to the short list of Aurender, Bricasti, etc. candidates.

audphile1 and cundare2

  This is a bit of rambling diversion from the Op's post but,  

1.  The T+A 2005 specs, being 2ch, looks like it would allow an outboard SACD "Player" to be set to output the 2ch DSD layer of a standard SACD disk, via HDMI to the T+A;   that is a 1bit stream (native) and the dedicated T+A "streaming" DSD DAC will do the decoding to analogue and put it out to the amp section and speakers.  I'm doing similar with an OPPO 83...but the 1bit output goes to a Pontus II with a 1bit SACD DAC inside...via I2s/HDMI thru a $60 breakout box.  It was all plug and play!...usually Best sound! (depending on the recording/mixing).

2.  Cundare2,  Understand ur frustrations with wanting best DAC performance on multi-ch HT as well as front channels...  but the main issue to me is completely different file types;    Adobe and other movie codecs are not analogue (PCM/PoP, 16/24/36bit-96/192/ etc.) nor DSD 1bit.  So they require dedicate digital converters, in a "Player" or AV receiver.  There are expensive outboard multi-ch decoders also but in all cases the sound and video are packaged together to create a cohesive atmosphere...  except for the occasional Dolby Atmos audio disks.  So any AVS decoding needs all input channels to be treated equally (eg. volume and delays, LFE, room correction, etc).

3.  Though DSD has inherently greater sonic possibilities,  I find many times Redbook 16/44.1 CDs sound as good or better than SACD versions...manage expectations and just groove with the Music!

@dodgealum if you want the cd player find a burmester 069 or 089