Shanling ET3 cd-transport connected to Gustard X26 Pro dac via i2s

[TwinAudio51]

Last week I bought a Shanling ET3 CD transport and connected it to my Gustard X26 Pro DAC via the i2S input. The Shanling ET3 has the ability to oversample the music tracks on a CD to various DSD and PCM modes. The strange thing is that the oversampled PCM music tracks can be played, but when oversampling to DSD I hear nothing. What is the cause of this? Is it due to the pin layout of the i2S input of my Gustard X26 Pro DAC? Finally: how can I get this combination to work properly?

 

[RandomEar]

You should probably contact Gustard and Shanling support about this. Sounds like some incompatibility with either device and DSD. Also, to clarify: I can think of no reason to oversample like that from a CD. You are (very slightly) degrading the signal and - in this instance - creating problems with a switch of the data format. Just stream 44.1kHz/16bit clean from the ET3 to your DAC for best sound quality and compatibility.

 

[staticV3]

Two factoids that make this a fruitless endeavor:

1. The X26 Pro oversamples internally anyway. Any external oversampling is redundant.

2. Though the X26 Pro can receive native DSD, it cannot directly play DSD. Instead, the data is first converted to PCM.

Doing PCM (CD)->DSD->PCM->Analog serves no purpose.



I second @RandomEar's opinion: best playback fidelity will be achieved sending the CD stream directly to the X26 without upsampling or conversion to DSD.

Ideally via USB so that the signal is clocked by the X26's own, internal clock.

Using I2S from the Shanling ET3 will increase jitter (not audibly, but still), simply due to the longer distance between clock and DAC.

 

[TwinAudio51]

Thanks for your quick answer and good advice!

 

[DVDdoug]

Are there other options besides i2S? It's not exactly standardized for connections between equipment...

And I agree, there's no point in converting to a different intermediate format. The goal is converting the original PCM to analog.

 

[TwinAudio51]

You should probably contact Gustard and Shanling support about this. Sounds like some incompatibility with either device and DSD. Also, to clarify: I can think of no reason to oversample like that from a CD. You are (very slightly) degrading the signal and - in this instance - creating problems with a switch of the data format. Just stream 44.1kHz/16bit clean from the ET3 to your DAC for best sound quality and compatibility.

You should probably contact Gustard and Shanling support about this. Sounds like some incompatibility with either device and DSD. Also, to clarify: I can think of no reason to oversample like that from a CD. You are (very slightly) degrading the signal and - in this instance - creating problems with a switch of the data format. Just stream 44.1kHz/16bit clean from the ET3 to your DAC for best sound quality and compatibility.

I have also an AES/EBU cable between my Shanling ET3 cd-transport and the Gustard X26 Pro dac and this connection works perfectly.