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Question about bypassing Panasonic DP-UB9000 movie player bypassing dac

Solecky

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I ordered a esoteric k01xd dac/transport, if I also buy a Panasonic DP-UB9000 for playing movies can I bypass the Panasonic dac and play the movie audio through k01xd (for improved sound quality) when watching movies via the Panasonic? I see the Esoteric has 2 digital inputs RCA and optical. The Panasonic has an optical and coaxial output. Therefore what I want to do is feed video to my TV via HDMI from Panasonic but feed audio from Panasonic to esoteric via one of the connections previously mentioned so I can listen to movies via my 2 channel system through the esoteric dac and not the Panasonic dac.

Currently I have an Ayre dx5 Blu-ray player for movies via hdmi but movie audio plays through an Ayre QX5 via AES/EBU CABLE. it works great but the esoteric does not have AES/EBU input and the dx5 does not have any other digital outputs so I cannot get it to play movie audio through esoteric which is why I am looking to buy the Panasonic
 

ZolaIII

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You can only fead K01XD with a stereo PCM up to 192000 Hz/24 trough optical in (including DoP DSD1), Panasonic outputs bit stream on default on Dolby's he can process and does a pass through on PCM so either the source must be a stereo PCM on you still have to do part of the job on Panasonic (PCM conversion).
Out of the curiosity but which TV & what's the BR player (picture processing or BR media reproduction) in for?
 

JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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I ordered a esoteric k01xd dac/transport, if I also buy a Panasonic DP-UB9000 for playing movies can I bypass the Panasonic dac and play the movie audio through k01xd (for improved sound quality) when watching movies via the Panasonic? I see the Esoteric has 2 digital inputs RCA and optical. The Panasonic has an optical and coaxial output. Therefore what I want to do is feed video to my TV via HDMI from Panasonic but feed audio from Panasonic to esoteric via one of the connections previously mentioned so I can listen to movies via my 2 channel system through the esoteric dac and not the Panasonic dac.

Currently I have an Ayre dx5 Blu-ray player for movies via hdmi but movie audio plays through an Ayre QX5 via AES/EBU CABLE. it works great but the esoteric does not have AES/EBU input and the dx5 does not have any other digital outputs so I cannot get it to play movie audio through esoteric which is why I am looking to buy the Panasonic
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.
 

Chrise36

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I ordered a esoteric k01xd dac/transport, if I also buy a Panasonic DP-UB9000 for playing movies can I bypass the Panasonic dac and play the movie audio through k01xd (for improved sound quality) when watching movies via the Panasonic? I see the Esoteric has 2 digital inputs RCA and optical. The Panasonic has an optical and coaxial output. Therefore what I want to do is feed video to my TV via HDMI from Panasonic but feed audio from Panasonic to esoteric via one of the connections previously mentioned so I can listen to movies via my 2 channel system through the esoteric dac and not the Panasonic dac.

Currently I have an Ayre dx5 Blu-ray player for movies via hdmi but movie audio plays through an Ayre QX5 via AES/EBU CABLE. it works great but the esoteric does not have AES/EBU input and the dx5 does not have any other digital outputs so I cannot get it to play movie audio through esoteric which is why I am looking to buy the Panasonic
There is a strong chance you are actually downgrading because the specs on the esoteric are 16bit output only? Try the Panasonic before upgrading it is an excellent measuring unit have you looked at the review here on ASR?
 

sailor2005

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There is a strong chance you are actually downgrading because the specs on the esoteric are 16bit output only? Try the Panasonic before upgrading it is an excellent measuring unit have you looked at the review here on ASR?
The 16bit digital output is for CD, when the Esoteric is playing CD's. It is a SACD/CD player but also a DAC, and it will take anything PCM or DSD on its inputs. Therefore it should be an upgrade over the analog output of the Panasonic (at least theoretically). The Panasonic can convert to PCM before output to Toslink. I have an UB820 and an Oppo 203 both going to an ADI-2 DAC via Toslink thru an HDFury Vertex2. I mean, some people just watch movies with just using 2 channels for audio
 
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Solecky

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thx a Samsung qled 75 inch tv, not sure what u mean by “what's the BR player (picture processing or BR media reproduction) in for?” Please clarify thx
 

Chrise36

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The 16bit digital output is for CD, when the Esoteric is playing CD's. It is a SACD/CD player but also a DAC, and it will take anything PCM or DSD on its inputs. Therefore it should be an upgrade over the analog output of the Panasonic (at least theoretically). The Panasonic can convert to PCM before output to Toslink. I have an UB820 and an Oppo 203 both going to an ADI-2 DAC via Toslink thru an HDFury Vertex2. I mean, some people just watch movies with just using 2 channels for audio
Yes but i think it is an indication that it is downconverting 24bit to 16bit in the DAC so that would not be an upgrade.
 
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Solecky

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Sail
The 16bit digital output is for CD, when the Esoteric is playing CD's. It is a SACD/CD player but also a DAC, and it will take anything PCM or DSD on its inputs. Therefore it should be an upgrade over the analog output of the Panasonic (at least theoretically). The Panasonic can convert to PCM before output to Toslink. I have an UB820 and an Oppo 203 both going to an ADI-2 DAC via Toslink thru an HDFury Vertex2. I mean, some people just watch movies with just using 2 channels for audio
The 16bit digital output is for CD, when the Esoteric is playing CD's. It is a SACD/CD player but also a DAC, and it will take anything PCM or DSD on its inputs. Therefore it should be an upgrade over the analog output of the Panasonic (at least theoretically). The Panasonic can convert to PCM before output to Toslink. I have an UB820 and an Oppo 203 both going to an ADI-2 DAC via Toslink thru an HDFury Vertex2. I mean, some people just watch movies with just using 2 channels for audio

thx sounds there is hope to leverage the esoteric dac for 2 channel movie audio
 

sailor2005

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Yes but i think it is an indication that it is downconverting 24bit to 16bit in the DAC so that would not be an upgrade.
The 16bit digital output they refer to is the one from CD when it is used as a transport to an even higher quality DACand there would be no down conversion either because CD is just 16bit. If it is a DAC, why would anyone use it between a signal source and another DAC further down the path? It actually does not matter for his purpose. In any case, the manual specifies that it is 16bit just in case of CD playback.
 

Chrise36

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If i were to spent 20k $ for a DAC/CD PLAYER i would like to be sure it will not downgrade the signal fed in to it.Not my money anyway...
 

ZolaIII

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thx a Samsung qled 75 inch tv, not sure what u mean by “what's the BR player (picture processing or BR media reproduction) in for?” Please clarify thx
Why do you need BR player in the chain in the first place? Panasonic does basic picture processing great (color space & gray scale), has a HLG which is missing on Samsung (whose missing and it's announced to came as HLG10+ dynamic to come with future products) but for audio optical out well you can do the same from TV. What's the rest of the chain (amp, speakers)? Putting money where system is the slimmest or have a weakness will yield improvement and usually that's not DAC.
Edit:
Other question is what are you trying to get in the first place? I mean I don't know how exactly bit stream is getting converted to PCM and is it pure digital as it involves decoding and conversion to PCM 2.0. You do know that per every analog connection you lose couple of dB. You know most of video related audio is still 16 bit encoded source & probably also know that power amps don't come close to great (110 ~ 120 dB SINAD) or even cheap properly implemented DAC's (92~105 dB) even with given headroom to lose couple on input. Input sensitivity range can also be a factor.
In other words the cheap really good DAC with integrated Dolby decoder via optical input and stereo output would be logical way to go & wouldn't cost more than 100~150$.
 
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sailor2005

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Am I the only one to have read the OP's first post completely and carefully? He stated on his first sentence that he wants a BR player to watch movies. That should clear the question about why he needs the BR player in the chain (some people, like me, don't have dedicated surround systems for movies). He is just asking about the possibility of digitally connecting the UB9000 to the Esoteric, nothing more nothing less. And the answer would be that it is possible and super easy. Just set digital output to PCM and connect cable, that's it.
On his second paragraph he mentions the system he is using, pretty high end by the way, and why he wants to change a couple of components in his system. He already has a working system.........So why start talking about amps, SINAD, input sensitivity and cheap DACs with Dolby(!?!?!)
 

muslhead

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Am I the only one to have read the OP's first post completely and carefully? He stated on his first sentence that he wants a BR player to watch movies. That should clear the question about why he needs the BR player in the chain (some people, like me, don't have dedicated surround systems for movies). He is just asking about the possibility of digitally connecting the UB9000 to the Esoteric, nothing more nothing less. And the answer would be that it is possible and super easy. Just set digital output to PCM and connect cable, that's it.
On his second paragraph he mentions the system he is using, pretty high end by the way, and why he wants to change a couple of components in his system. He already has a working system.........So why start talking about amps, SINAD, input sensitivity and cheap DACs with Dolby(!?!?!)
Well, duh. Do you really need to ask this question? This is ASR and it what people do here. At least one tangent in every post :)
 
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Solecky

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Am I the only one to have read the OP's first post completely and carefully? He stated on his first sentence that he wants a BR player to watch movies. That should clear the question about why he needs the BR player in the chain (some people, like me, don't have dedicated surround systems for movies). He is just asking about the possibility of digitally connecting the UB9000 to the Esoteric, nothing more nothing less. And the answer would be that it is possible and super easy. Just set digital output to PCM and connect cable, that's it.
On his second paragraph he mentions the system he is using, pretty high end by the way, and why he wants to change a couple of components in his system. He already has a working system.........So why start talking about amps, SINAD, input sensitivity and cheap DACs with Dolby(!?!?!)

sailor2005
thx u got me exactly! And thx for what I was looking for, my only other question if u know is any idea if there would be any sync issues with lips in the movie and the audio from the esoteric?
 

Chrise36

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Am I the only one to have read the OP's first post completely and carefully? He stated on his first sentence that he wants a BR player to watch movies. That should clear the question about why he needs the BR player in the chain (some people, like me, don't have dedicated surround systems for movies). He is just asking about the possibility of digitally connecting the UB9000 to the Esoteric, nothing more nothing less. And the answer would be that it is possible and super easy. Just set digital output to PCM and connect cable, that's it.
On his second paragraph he mentions the system he is using, pretty high end by the way, and why he wants to change a couple of components in his system. He already has a working system.........So why start talking about amps, SINAD, input sensitivity and cheap DACs with Dolby(!?!?!)
I think he believes the DAC in the Esoteric is better because of price or Brand in my opinion the DAC of the Panasonic is ultra clean just look at the 32 tone measurement.Can it get better?
 

sailor2005

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sailor2005
thx u got me exactly! And thx for what I was looking for, my only other question if u know is any idea if there would be any sync issues with lips in the movie and the audio from the esoteric?
Don't think you would have sync issues. I have an almost similar connection, mine goes from player to 4k switch to HDFury, and I don't have sync issues. Yours would be even more direct. You could have sync issues if you go from player to TV and then to DAC. Those I have seen and experienced.
 

JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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Am I the only one to have read the OP's first post completely and carefully? He stated on his first sentence that he wants a BR player to watch movies. That should clear the question about why he needs the BR player in the chain (some people, like me, don't have dedicated surround systems for movies). He is just asking about the possibility of digitally connecting the UB9000 to the Esoteric, nothing more nothing less. And the answer would be that it is possible and super easy. Just set digital output to PCM and connect cable, that's it.
On his second paragraph he mentions the system he is using, pretty high end by the way, and why he wants to change a couple of components in his system. He already has a working system.........So why start talking about amps, SINAD, input sensitivity and cheap DACs with Dolby(!?!?!)

and the dx5 does not have any other digital outputs so I cannot get it to play movie audio through esoteric which is why I am looking to buy the Panasonic
I realize the OP already has a DAC that he wants to use, so I did not suggest replacing it. But he has not yet bought the Panasonic. I read his post completely, and that last bit about his motivation to buy the Panasonic caught my eye. I stated that the DP-UB9000 was the best BR player, but if the audio output mismatch was the main motivation for upgrading the BR player, my suggestion of the avedio links would fix the mismatch and save him about $1000 in the process. I realize my mistake now - high price seems not a deterrent, but rather an attraction for the OP.
 
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Solecky

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Don't think you would have sync issues. I have an almost similar connection, mine goes from player to 4k switch to HDFury, and I don't have sync issues. Yours would be even more direct. You could have sync issues if you go from player to TV and then to DAC. Those I have seen and experienced.

thx!
 

ZolaIII

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Well quite frankly I don't know how Panasonic does Dolby decoding and PCM conversion nor does it have any impact on output signal (other than down mix). Even it does or you use it's DAC (most likely older Burr Brown) it's still good enough for most power amplifiers. I like Panasonic basic picture processing but for that use their mid range TV (colour, gray & gama's, for more than basic I use PC). Don't really need a BR player and if I needed a better DAC (which I don't for my current power amplifier) to do decoding directly would go for something cheap which mesured good.
I leve you to it and have a nice time.
 
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