Connecting NAS and DAC using SPDIF

[abhi8569]

Reminder, don't actually look in a fiber optic cable. Point the end towards a dark wall.

Thanks I was actually looking right at it. Tomorrow I'll try to open the SPDIF door manually and see if there is any light emitted from the port.

 

[abhi8569]

Strange, have you contacted Asustor?

I am going to drop them an email now.

 

[abhi8569]

Update: I tried HDMI splitter which split HDMI input to HDMI out and a SPDIF out. This is my setup: NAS HDMI -> HDMI splitter -> SPDIF -> DAC. This works but DSD or FLAC playback is really noisy with constant hissing noise. In this case the DAC was detected as ALSA device in Hi-Res Player.

 

[staticV3]

But in that case how will NAS even know which DAC is connected to it?

Via Toslink, it does not and can not know which DAC is connected to it.

always shows no player when connected using SPDIF. But it shows the DAC when I connect using USB.

That is the expected behavior.

 

[restorer-john]

Reminder, don't actually look in a fiber optic cable. Point the end towards a dark wall.

Dude, it's a red LED. Nothing dangerous.

 

[abhi8569]

Thank you everyone for your response, really appreciate it.

I contacted Asustor and It turns out I needed to install X.org package in order to utilize S/PDIF port. It's all working now.

 

[Nutul]

But in that case how will NAS even know which DAC is connected to it? It always shows no player when connected using SPDIF. But it shows the DAC when I connect using USB.

This is the culprit: you cannot know WHAT DAC is connected to either an optical, or a coaxial SPDIF, as there is no "data" exchanged between the source and the destination (for data here I mean other than audio-data, of course). That's exactly the opposite of USB, through which device type/brand/model/specs data is travelling from destination (the DAC) to the source (the NAS).
The optical SPDIF should not even bother whether there is, or not, something connected on the other end of it: it will just throw optical pulses at it, and if something can get and decode them, well... good. This is basically what an RCA analog connection is between, say, a cassette deck and your pre-amp: neither of them knows the other is there..., b ut one plays audio, and the other eventually captures and routes it to the AMP.

 

[doremo]

I was wondering why you don't transcode through the network using DLNA. DLNA is a standard that allows devices to share media over a network, and it can 100% guarantee that the audio signal is lossless. I'm planning to get a Flashstor 6 to set up as my media server/DLNA server, so I can play lossless music using my network streamer.