Question about bypassing Panasonic DP-UB9000 movie player bypassing dac

[Bear123]

Well in fairness, Op did say his intention was to use the super expensive DAC to "improve sound quality" vs the completely sonically transparent DAC of the Panasonic.........

 

[Solecky]

The Panasonic DP-UB9000 is probably the highest quality Blu-ray player commercially available now. But if you do not feel a pressing need to upgrade from your Ayre to the Panasonic, you could use something similar to the following product with the HDMI output of your Ayre dx5:
avedio links HDMI Switch Audio Extractor
There are many competing products listed on Amazon with slightly differing functionality, so you might do some research and read user reviews on Amazon. I bought the listed model in August of 2019, and used it for many months with no video or audio hitches. However, I was using it inserted into the HDMI link between a 1080p Sony S6700 Blu-ray player and a 10-yr old 1080p Sony Bravia TV, and using the avedio links' TosLink optical output to get 2-ch stereo out to an aptX HD Bluetooth transmitter (I listen using earphones plugged into an ES100 BT receiver clipped to my shirt). I have not used it with my new 4K Blu-ray player and new 4K TV (I now use TosLink output from the TV as input to the BT transmitter). So YMMV with 4K UHD - I have no idea how it performs but have no reason to doubt the avedio links would do its job. Of course, it has the requisite HDCP.

@ZolaIII makes a good point about the limitations of getting 2-ch stereo PCM out via TosLink to the esoteric. Limited to 192kHz/24-bit (not a significant limitation on resolution in my mind) and conversion from Dolby 5.1 to PCM over S/PDIF may have to happen either in the Blu-ray player (via menu selection in Ayre DX5 or Panasonic) or in the avedio links audio extractor. However, the conversion is digital-to-digital with high bit-rate TosLink output, and so the output quality should still be high, and the esoteric would provide high quality digital-to-analog conversion. Many Blu-ray discs also include high-bitrate stereo PCM, and if this option is selected via menu in either Blu-ray player, presumably the stored stereo PCM instead of 5.1 Dolby is included with video in the HDMI signal, so no conversion needed anywhere in this case - the stereo PCM TosLink goes unfettered to esoteric DAC TosLink input from Ayre-DX5+avedio-links or from Panasonic.

J
this is another good option, not sure what avedio to get to allow me to keep the ayre and connect it to the esoteric, any advice?

 

[Solecky]

J
this is another good option, not sure what avedio to get to allow me to keep the ayre and connect it to the esoteric, any advice?

J
forgot to click the link u provided already, thx!

 

[Solecky]

J
one more, is there such a device that I can use to leverage my existing AES/EBU cable I use now and convert that to an input that can used in the esoteric?

 

[JustAnandaDourEyedDude]

J
this is another good option, not sure what avedio to get to allow me to keep the ayre and connect it to the esoteric, any advice?

The make and model I linked to is the one I got over a year ago after quite a bit of research on Amazon, and it served me well with a 1080p system i which the Blu-ray player had only an HDMI output. The avedio links is both a HDMI splitter and an audio extractor, and should work well with a 4K UHD system too. There are a lot of competing products listed by Amazon on that page as "Customers also Viewed" or "Customers also Bought", so you might go through the customer reviews of anything that is rated even higher, if you have the time. Or just search for "HDMI audio extractor" on Amazon, which will bring up a ton of products.

one more, is there such a device that I can use to leverage my existing AES/EBU cable I use now and convert that to an input that can used in the esoteric?

I have never looked into converters for AES/EBU to TosLink, sorry. Search Amazon and see what comes up. You may be able to find such a converter on AliExpress if nothing suitable shows up on Amazon. You would be able to re-use your existing AES/EBU cable only if the converter happens to be a little box with female sockets for AES/EBU and TosLink (you would need to buy a TosLink cable). But a converter could also be a cable itself with a male AES/EBU plug at one end and male TosLink plug at the other, which would replace your existing AES/EBU cable.

Alternatively, if your TV (which seems high quality) has an optical (TosLink) output, you could use that to output audio to the Esoteric DAC to convert to analog. This is what I do now with my new 4K TV and 4K BR player. The TosLink output of the TV should be high-quality and just as good as the avedio links, since any conversion (if needed at all) to PCM 2.0 is just digital-to-digital. Then there is no need for the Panny or even the avedio links. Most newer TVs and BR players have a menu setting which will lag the video or the audio a little bit so that they will be in sync, and you will not experience any lag between hearing characters and seeing their lips move. The advantage of using TosLink output from the TV rather than extracting it from the BR player, is that if you have multiple inputs to the TV such as a cable box or antenna in addition to the BR player, the audio on all of those inputs gets sent to your Esoteric DAC. Instead of just the audio from the BR player. You just need a TosLink cable. Here's the one I bought in Aug 2019, but there are lots of competing products on Amazon:
UNBREAKcable Digital Optical Audio Cable Toslink Cable

 

[ZolaIII]

Well in fairness, Op did say his intention was to use the super expensive DAC to "improve sound quality" vs the completely sonically transparent DAC of the Panasonic.........

And how to spend 30K $ stil quite not get there (which you can for some 700$ including TV and DAC). Well I give a CD player creators credits regarding authending isolation from RF and AC/DC convertors everything else is absolutely unimpressive (expect reckless use of component including thre FPGAs which certainly reflects with the price). Quoting their own numbers it has S to N of 113 dB SACD (DoP) and to start with I don't know why they used SACD in DoP for that as PCM should perform a bit better (at least it should they worked a lot on clock oscillators and cetera) anyway even that much with use of both DAC circuit's true LRX. Is it really good? Probably not, just a bit better than whats usually used the old Burr Brown's or older ESS (which should really stand as a entry acceptable option today, not for their performance but future set [native DSD & 32 bit precision support]). Newer ones eat them alive and run in circle's around but you won't find those in AVR's or other high end gear which does Dolby decoding. So call me crazy but cheap desktop portable headphone amplifier with DAC used as line out beats them all with cheap CS43131 DAC and mesured SINAD of 112 dB.
Seams to me that DAC whose more of an Denon - Onkyo - Martinez group try to develop their own DAC which would have advantage over Burr Brown's they use last ten years & it stayed there (as a try).
Please don't pay much attention to this after all its just my 10¢ on topic.