[Zorglub1]

Hello,

I'm working on creating a nice stereo HIFI / Home Cinema environnement. I want to avoid buying a 1000 € DAC with all features able to decode 7.1 with 36 chips on it : I only need a very good stereo DAC.

Every DAC seams able to decode FLAC and MP3, but not DTS (and not always AC3).

Which DAC can you suggest me ? I haven't find any stereo DAC able to decode DTS.

(I'm searching a high quality dac with the best chip as possible U Sabre, Wolfson WM8740... something with asynchronous clock, high rate and 24 or 32 bits).


Thank you !

Z.

[noggin]

Hello,

I'm working on creating a nice stereo HIFI / Home Cinema environnement. I want to avoid buying a 1000 € DAC with all features able to decode 7.1 with 36 chips on it : I only need a very good stereo DAC.

Every DAC seams able to decode FLAC and MP3, but not DTS (and not always AC3).

Which DAC can you suggest me ? I haven't find any stereo DAC able to decode DTS.

(I'm searching a high quality dac with the best chip as possible U Sabre, Wolfson WM8740... something with asynchronous clock, high rate and 24 or 32 bits).


Thank you !

Z.

Why not let the Pi 2 decode the DTS/AC3 to PCM 2.0? It can do that without breaking a sweat. (It will also losslessly decode DTS HD-MA and Dolby True HD, and down mix them to stereo I think)

[Zorglub1]

Hello Noggin, thank you for your answer.

Does I need to activate some options, or it will works out of the box ?

So which nice standard stereo DAC will you recommand please ? I've notice this one : SMSL Sanskrit 6th it has a WM8740 chipset, the same as the audio cambridge DAC Magic. I guess it sound almost the same...? (I'm new to HIFI / Home Cinema).

And by the way, usually in movies the explosion sound are too loud, and the voice not enough. Is it possible with kodi (or any other software inside) to set the sound level of each channel, even it's send to a stereo system ?

Thank you !

Z.

[noggin]

Hello Noggin, thank you for your answer.

Does I need to activate some options, or it will works out of the box ?

Nothing to activate for AC3/DTS decode - just make sure pass-through is disabled (which it is by default I think) and that you have the default speaker setting of 2.0.

You will probably need to enable HD Audio decoding for DTS-HD MA/Dolby True HD decoding.

So which nice standard stereo DAC will you recommand please ? I've notice this one : SMSL Sanskrit 6th it has a WM8740 chipset, the same as the audio cambridge DAC Magic. I guess it sound almost the same...? (I'm new to HIFI / Home Cinema).

And by the way, usually in movies the explosion sound are too loud, and the voice not enough. Is it possible with kodi (or any other software inside) to set the sound level of each channel, even it's send to a stereo system ?

Thank you !

Z.

Can't comment on DACs I'm afraid as i use an Onkyo AVR. However how would you feed them - are you planning on using an HDMI audio extractor to get a Toslink/Coax SPDIF output to feed your DAC? Remember the Pi and Pi 2 don't have Toslink/Coax SPDIF outputs.

[Zorglub1]

Hello,

I haven't choosen yet, that why I'm searching informations here before buying anything. It's a raspberry 2 yes. So my choices are :

- USB (2)
- GPIO
- or HDMI

What's the best quality option ?

(By the way thank you for the "HDMI audio extractor", I was not aware this kind of device was existing !)


Thank you,

Z.

[noggin]

HDMI audio extractors will work with all software - whereas USB and I2S (which connect to the GPIO header) solutions require that they are supported separately. AIUI only HDMI works properly with the OMX bits of Kodi on the Pi / Pi 2?

HDMI audio extractors are a device with an HDMI input and output, which will split off the audio and output it via both RCA Phono or 3.5mm jack AND Toslink or Coax SPDIF output. Some only do PCM 2.0 (which would be fine for the OP) others will also allow DD/DTS to be bitstreamed over the Coax/Toslink SPDIF outputs. Not all of them work perfectly - but if you want a digital PCM 2.0 output from a Pi / Pi 2 - they are potentially a very good solution.

I use an AVR so don't need them - but know others have had good results.

Example device : http://www.amazon.co.uk/electronics-Extr...+extractor

[Moodyone]

If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, one of these USB DAC will do the job. This needs no power supply, it is powered by the USB socket. There are many others that do the same job varying greatly in price. Once plugged into a USB port on the pi, Kodi recognises it and offers more audio out options. I used one for a while on my old Revo and it worked very well.

Edit: It worked flawlessly with OpenElec on the Revo. I have just tried it on the Shield TV, Kodi doesn't recognise it, I expect it will when the pass through options are available. The Shield recognises it though, it sends PCM to the USB, and it works fine with Kodi.

[noggin]

If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, one of these USB DAC will do the job. This needs no power supply, it is powered by the USB socket. There are many others that do the same job varying greatly in price. Once plugged into a USB port on the pi, Kodi recognises it and offers more audio out options. I used one for a while on my old Revo and it worked very well.

Edit: It worked flawlessly with OpenElec on the Revo. I have just tried it on the Shield TV, Kodi doesn't recognise it, I expect it will when the pass through options are available. The Shield recognises it though, it sends PCM to the USB, and it works fine with Kodi.

There are some issues with USB DACs (or digital audio output sound devices that output Toslink/Coax SPDIF without analogue conversion) on ARM SoCs in some situations. They are fine for music players (Moode, Rune, Volumio etc.) and often work OK with Kodi for music replay. However you may sometimes find you have difficult getting to use them with the audio for video replay, as some ARM SoCs hand off both audio and video to other bits of the SoC and keeping these in sync with USB audio, or getting them to work at all, isn't a given.

For instance, I think on the Raspberry Pi 2, you can only use USB Audio with the MMAL player and not the OMX Player (the latter hands off audio to the SoC and it gets piped straight to the HDMI output) The same is true, I think, in some cases, with Android. (Similarly OS level support for pass through may not be present for all USB digital audio output devices)

x86 devices (like a Revo) work significantly differently under Linux, and in those cases they usually just work as the HDMI audio output device works in the same way at an OS level, as the USB audio output device. The same isn't always true on ARM boxes.

That's why I suggested an HDMI Audio extractor - as this will work in the same way as far as the OS/Kodi is concerned as if the device were connected to an HDMI TV or Amp.

[Zorglub1]

Ok, thank you for all your explanation.

The audio and video sync is one of my concern too. So if I use an HDMI extractor, it will be sync ?

By the way, I will use the HDMI output for the audio, ok, but I will use the composite output (for now) for providing it to my video projector. I will update with a new one with HDMI in full HD but for now, I will had to use the composite output (the yellow one).

I hope I can still choose the composite output for the video AND hdmi audio extractor for audio. Is it still possible ?

[noggin]

Ok, thank you for all your explanation.

The audio and video sync is one of my concern too. So if I use an HDMI extractor, it will be sync ?

Should be relatively OK - certainly no frame delays (40ms in PAL-land) should be introduced.

By the way, I will use the HDMI output for the audio, ok, but I will use the composite output (for now) for providing it to my video projector. I will update with a new one with HDMI in full HD but for now, I will had to use the composite output (the yellow one).

I hope I can still choose the composite output for the video AND hdmi audio extractor for audio. Is it still possible ?

Not sure - I'm not clear what happens when you run in an SD mode for composite output. HDMI needs to run with a double or quadruple pixel clock in SD mode (i.e. 1440x576i or 2880x576i) depending on the audio required (1440x576i doesn't allow HD Audio ISTR) - but would expect 1440x576i modes would be OK for DTS/DD/PCM 2.0. However I'm not sure what happens in this situation.

You might be better off with an HDMI -> S-VIdeo/RGB SCART converter if you can find one - composite analogue PAL is pretty horrific. (RGB SD would be a lot nicer)

[Zorglub1]

I'm on amazon, i'm searching some devices.

Maybe I can do HDMI -> HDMI audio extractor -> HDMI to VGA ?

Because my video projector have a VGA input. It's the input i'm using right now. I just hope it won't be too much devices and it will still works.

[noggin]

I'm on amazon, i'm searching some devices.

Maybe I can do HDMI -> HDMI audio extractor -> HDMI to VGA ?

Because my video projector have a VGA input. It's the input i'm using right now. I just hope it won't be too much devices and it will still works.

If you're in Europe - avoid VGA. It doesn't normally support 50Hz - which is what European TV and DVDs are originated at (as well as stuff like iPlayer)

[Zorglub1]

Ok thank you. Yes I'm in Europe.

It's quite hard to choose an easy configuration with my devices...

The only way I see for now for using my devices is to keep my old laptop (9 years old) with kodi on it. Buy an usb DAC plugged on an amplificator, and switch to my raspberry pi later when I will buy a new full HD video projector.

But the question is : will my audio and video be synchronised with an usb DAC ?