Can one of you gurus rescue me from my brain

[BigMiIke]

The only job of a DAC is to convert digital to analogue. There is absolutely no point using it if you are going to send digital from the DAC to the AVR. In any case the DX3 doesn't have any digital outputs.

So you connect the analogue outputs of the DAC into an analogue input of the AVR - you can use any, but the CD input would be sensible.

Then you have to set that input to "pure direct" or whatever the equivalent is on the Onkyo. If you don't, then the AVR will convert the analgue back to digital, do whatever DSP it is doing, and then convert it back to analogue using the DAC in the AVR. Which then makes it pointless using the external DAC.

(It is pretty pointless anyway. I very much doubt you'll be able to hear any real difference from the external DAC)

Thank you for that detailed explanation- fantastic.
I fully understand now.

I saw a YouTube video from Darko about accessing the 192 from an iPad - I’m sure he was sending it to an amp then out to speakers not a home theater avr - in any event it caught my eye and I was hoping I could get in on the onkyo.

Thank you again as well as everyone else who has chimed in, it’s been very helpful.

Great forum here

 

[BigMiIke]

 

[Liya]

Did you send the signal to a receiver?/ avr ? If so, what inputs did you go into? And did you use RCA? Thx

Yes, Sent signal from a dac's rca outs to a pair of the receiver rca input.

 

[Roland68]

Thank you for that detailed explanation- fantastic.
I fully understand now.

I saw a YouTube video from Darko about accessing the 192 from an iPad - I’m sure he was sending it to an amp then out to speakers not a home theater avr - in any event it caught my eye and I was hoping I could get in on the onkyo.

Thank you again as well as everyone else who has chimed in, it’s been very helpful.

Great forum here

To be honest, I don't understand the problem. If you want to play 192/24 formats, just use a USB to SPDIF adapter (RCA). Your AVR can use this format on the SPDIF RCA input as well as on HDMI. The built-in DAC chip can even do 384/32. The Onkyo should actually be able to play most formats at 192/24 over Network, but there may be a standard limitation with ALAC.
An external DAC is actually not necessary.