Re: External DAC in B&O Systems

Electrified — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:21:27 GMT

Hi Rookie,

I know I responded to other thread, but thought I'd respond here as well to clear up a few more things.

Rookie:

Hello,

i was thinking about a way to improve the sound of my B&O-System that you can see in my profile.

It is espacially the Beolab 5, which i would like to exploit better.

My current setting is, that all speakers and the Ouverture are connected with the Beovision 8-40 and its' DDS-Module. A Sonos ZP 90 is connected to the BV8-40 using an SpDif ... tuned in and sound leveled by V-Aux via Beo4 ... controlled via a special iphone-Application for the Sonos. I like the sonos system a lot, because i can use the napster flatrate AND it can access all my sound libraries on my NAS ... it can even grab my itunes stuff directly.

Leveling the audio level with a remote is, well, not matching levels. Even something as little as 0.5DB is hearable, although people tend to claim that the louder one is "clearer" and thus "better", but it's an increase in volume they react to.

When i connected my Sonos ZP90 Netplayer directly to the BL5 using their digital-in, the sound was better, than the result i got using the Ouverture CD-Drive connected to the Beovisions (8-40) DDS-Module via Powerlink/Masterlink.

Yes, because masterlink is analogue, and digital in is, well, digital.

Next step was trying a Linn DSI netplayer ... again directly connected to the BL5 using digital-in ... amazing sound !!!

If it's the same source material as you played through the ZP90 which was also connected digitally, there will be no difference. Well, perhaps a slight increase or decrease in volume, but I can't tell from where I'm at.

You could hear things you did not realize ever before ... and i listened to well known titles in my library ... and we were not talking about high-resolution material ... Napster provides 192 kbit/s.

No you couldnt' and certainly not on 192kbit lossy files.

It got even better, when playing high-res material from the NAS.

Yes, higher res material has a higher resolution.

The bad thing about this "digital config", that i have to change the Setup of the BL5 to option "0" (?), where you can controll the BL directly via the Beo4 ...

Yes, that's because you only use those external thingies to feed the D/A-converter in the speakers a digital audio stream. You're not using the nas, the ZP90, nor the Uniti for anything than something with a digital output (S/PDIF as it were, as AES/EBU is a no-go). You could just as well connect a laptop with S/PDIF (coaxial) out, an oldschool cd-player or whatever, it doesn't matter.

going back to TV-HD and DVD, Apple-TV etc.pp always means to reset to "analogue" config "1" ... and so far there was nothing serious available on the market, that could provide more than 4 digital-ins' to hook up my other stuff (DVD-Blueray, Apple-TV, HD-TV set-top,etc.) AND a digital-out to connect directly to the BL5.

The easy way would be to get hold of an electronic switch. Some can be remote controlled. Easy and cheap.

But now there is NAIM coming up with a product called "unitiqute". This little thing alone has a decent DAC inside which should be superior to the Sonos etc.pp. And if that is not enough, you can plug in NAIM's award winning standalone DAC.

As taken out of Naim's sales litterature ...

You shouldn't care about any DAC in any thing you own if you feed the speakers a digital signal. If you feed them an analogue signal, well, that's a different kettle of fish.

And it has all the connectivity.

Yes, but that is a rather expensive piece of kit if your intention is to use it as no more than an electronic switch.

External DAC in B&O Systems

Rookie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:42:17 GMT

Hello,

i was thinking about a way to improve the sound of my B&O-System that you can see in my profile.

It is espacially the Beolab 5, which i would like to exploit better.

My current setting is, that all speakers and the Ouverture are connected with the Beovision 8-40 and its' DDS-Module. A Sonos ZP 90 is connected to the BV8-40 using an SpDif ... tuned in and sound leveled by V-Aux via Beo4 ... controlled via a special iphone-Application for the Sonos. I like the sonos system a lot, because i can use the napster flatrate AND it can access all my sound libraries on my NAS ... it can even grab my itunes stuff directly.

When i connected my Sonos ZP90 Netplayer directly to the BL5 using their digital-in, the sound was better, than the result i got using the Ouverture CD-Drive connected to the Beovisions (8-40) DDS-Module via Powerlink/Masterlink.

Next step was trying a Linn DSI netplayer ... again directly connected to the BL5 using digital-in ... amazing sound !!! You could hear things you did not realize ever before ... and i listened to well known titles in my library ... and we were not talking about high-resolution material ... Napster provides 192 kbit/s. It got even better, when playing high-res material from the NAS.

The bad thing about this "digital config", that i have to change the Setup of the BL5 to option "0" (?), where you can controll the BL directly via the Beo4 ... going back to TV-HD and DVD, Apple-TV etc.pp always means to reset to "analogue" config "1" ... and so far there was nothing serious available on the market, that could provide more than 4 digital-ins' to hook up my other stuff (DVD-Blueray, Apple-TV, HD-TV set-top,etc.) AND a digital-out to connect directly to the BL5.

But now there is NAIM coming up with a product called "unitiqute". This little thing alone has a decent DAC inside which should be superior to the Sonos etc.pp. And if that is not enough, you can plug in NAIM's award winning standalone DAC. And it has all the connectivity.

So ... my question to the board would be: Is there any chance to integrate this NAIM unitiqute in my B&O world in order to elevate all my other audio/video components to a higher sound level ??? I don't want to switch configurations all the time ... and plug-unplug cables from my BL5.

It would be great if the experts here could try to think about it.

Would a Beosystem 3 help to manage the deal?

Best regards from Berlin, Germany

Tim

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Re: External DAC in B&O Systems

External DAC in B&O Systems