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Post by zulugone on Dec 9, 2016 17:50:04 GMT
This is a question at the intersection of the consumer and pro worlds. I use Crown amps (XLS 2500 or MA-5000i) in my home stereo systems. The source is an Oppo disc player/DAC connected directly to the amps using XLR.
I know nothing about the pro world. I was looking at a Crown I-Tech 5000HD manual and noticed that it has an AES digital input with a mixer shown as the input. From what I could Google I found that consumer S/PDIF and pro AES/EBU are similar protocols with some caveats about older S/PDIF variants and cable ohms. I found some S/PDIF to AES/EBU adapters in pro stores.
So I wondered if I could connect my Oppo digital output direct to the I-Tech 5000HD's (or Lab.Gruppen's) digital input bypassing the Oppo's DAC and if so if that can be done without sound degradation. The I-Tech 5000HD already converts analog input to digital and back to analog. I'm up for spending a few bucks on a test but I don't want to destroy equipment.
Thanks for you help. |
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Post by Ethan Winer on Dec 10, 2016 21:47:05 GMT
There may be a way to connect your Oppo using a digital connection, but I'm not sure why that would have an advantage. The conversion from D to A has to occur somewhere, and I imagine either D/A is good enough to not color the sound. It's probably not worth obsessing too much over "DAC" quality, when there are so many other factors that degrade sound much more.
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Post by zulugone on Dec 10, 2016 22:08:04 GMT
Thanks.
Currently my Oppo does a D to A then the Crown does an A to D and then another D to A. What got me started was looking at a miniDsp that would go between the Oppo and multiple amps but that involved three conversions in a row which I read is bad mojo. After looking at the DSP in a Lab.Gruppen that looked like it could replace the miniDsp functionality I was curious if I could simplify one step further.
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Post by Ethan Winer on Dec 10, 2016 22:49:13 GMT
Why does the Crown power amp do A/D/A conversion? Does it have built-in DSP? But sure, any way to reduce the number of conversions is useful.
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Post by arnyk on Dec 12, 2016 3:27:28 GMT
There may be a way to connect your Oppo using a digital connection, but I'm not sure why that would have an advantage. The conversion from D to A has to occur somewhere, and I imagine either D/A is good enough to not color the sound. It's probably not worth obsessing too much over "DAC" quality, when there are so many other factors that degrade sound much more. The SP/DIF to AES/EBU adaptors that I used in the past worked, keeping everything in the digital domain. The digital data for SP/DIF and AES/EBU are generally compatible or even identically the same. The most common differences relate to signal level and the unbalanced SP/DIF versus the balanced AES/EBU so the stage is set for a relatively simple conversion. It is likely that there will be no actual sound quality difference that you can hear if you make this change, as the quality of the circuitry you would be bypassing is already very high and generally sonically transparent. There will likely be some inaudible improvements in measured performance. According to the user manuals for these Crown amps that I downloaded from the Crown web site, neither has any digital inputs. Checkmate. |
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Post by zulugone on Dec 12, 2016 22:46:40 GMT
Thanks...I own the 2 Crown amps in paragraph one and I already know they have no AES inputs. The amps in paragraph two do have AES inputs per the manuals. Those are ones I might buy if I can connect my Oppo. I'm ok with buying a cable to experiment but no so much with buying an expensive amp just to try a cable.
I have already found adapter, cables and converters but they are all described relative to connecting pro equipment not a consumer player. Some refer to settings that don't exist on consumer gear like clock setting.
I also found articles that say one or more of the following:
1. It won't work
2. It will work
3. It may work but will have problems
The 'not' and 'may' opinions refer to impedance, clock settings and metadata. The adapters I mention above appear to address only the impedance differences.
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