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What if I tried this with a Topping D10s ?

AudioStudies

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The Topping D10s allows for conversion from USB to both coaxial and toslink digital outputs. Clearly, this unit was designed for stereo. However, I am curious what would happen if I fed the unit a Dolby 5.1 signal from my computer, what I would get coming out of the digital outputs of the unit? Do you think it would just convert it to stereo, or if I am very lucky just mimic the 5.1 signal to the digital outputs? Or would it just not function at all? I may try it, I don't think it would damage the unit. But I wanted to hear some other thoughts before going ahead. In the system in question, I have an old EAD processor that doesn't have HDMI inputs. I need to feed it a coax.
 

gvl

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Nothing good will happen. You need to down convert Dolby to 2 channel PCM on your computer and send that to the DAC as it only understands PCM and DSD.
 
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AudioStudies

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Nothing good will happen. You need to down convert Dolby to 2 channel PCM on your computer and send that to the DAC as it only understands PCM and DSD.
Thanks, and I am not surprised by your answer. I want 5.1 going into my home theater processor (more than just a dac), so I will need to search for a device other than the D10s. The EAD processor was made long before the days of DSD, but I just want to get a Dolby 5.1 signal sent to it from a computer, I don't need DSD.
 

gvl

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Actually I didn’t read your post carefully. Not sure about it passing through Dolby data but I will be surprised if it does.
 

gvl

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Also check your PC motherboard, it might have a spdif header if it’s a desktop.
 

ZolaIII

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It doesn't have decoder for Dolby, you will get noise.
If you want a DAC hedaphone amp with that ability (lossy Dolby trough optical in) that will be downmix to stereo try with SBX G6.
 

gvl

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It doesn't have decoder for Dolby, you will get noise.
If you want a DAC hedaphone amp with that ability (lossy Dolby trough optical in) that will be downmix to stereo try with SBX G6.

The question is about passing through Dolby to SPDIF outputs.
 

ZolaIII

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The question is about passing through Dolby to SPDIF outputs.
I don't think that will work but feel free to try. Of course G6 has and optical output.
 
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AudioStudies

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The EAD processor though old, is a 5.1 Dolby Digital processor. I have plenty of existing options to get stereo, I am looking for an option to get 5.1. I am clear enough that the D10s was designed for stereo and that its analog outputs would be for stereo only. But the D10s is a unique DAC in that it also has digital outputs. I suspect the answer given here is correct that "nothing good will happen" trying to get 5.1 out of one of those digital outputs. However, I am hoping there is some chance that the D10s will just send a mirror image of what it receives digitally (from USB) to its digital outputs (coaxial & toslink). The computer that I have now does not have a coaxial digital output (USB & HDMI only). The old EAD processor does not have HDMI or USB.
 

gvl

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If you have HDMI you want this:


It does support bitstream pass through which I think is what you want. There are other similar devices out there.
 

Roland68

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The Topping D10s allows for conversion from USB to both coaxial and toslink digital outputs. Clearly, this unit was designed for stereo. However, I am curious what would happen if I fed the unit a Dolby 5.1 signal from my computer, what I would get coming out of the digital outputs of the unit? Do you think it would just convert it to stereo, or if I am very lucky just mimic the 5.1 signal to the digital outputs? Or would it just not function at all? I may try it, I don't think it would damage the unit. But I wanted to hear some other thoughts before going ahead. In the system in question, I have an old EAD processor that doesn't have HDMI inputs. I need to feed it a coax.
I'm afraid you have a misconception.
How are you going to get your computer to send a 5.1 signal to a stereo device via USB?
 
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AudioStudies

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I'm afraid you have a misconception.
How are you going to get your computer to send a 5.1 signal to a stereo device via USB?
Downloaded DVDs and Blu Rays on the computer hard drive, played back with an appropriate media player that can handle 5.1. and output that signal from the computer USB port. The final destination that I want that signal sent to is my EAD processor, not a stereo device but a Dolby Digital 5.1 device. I realize that using the Topping D10s in between the computer and the EAD (for connectivity reasons) may not work because it was designed as a stereo device. However, the D10s is a bit of a unique stereo DAC in that it not only has analog outputs but also digital outputs. What I am trying to ascertain is if the coaxial digital output is accomplished in the D10s by just sending a mirror image of what it sees at the USB port because no digital to analog conversion is required - everything is digital, it just changes from USB to coaxial digital. I would not even use the analog stereo outputs of the D10s, so it would not be needed for digital to analog conversion, only for converting the digital signal from USB to coax. You may very well be right that it is not possible, and I am leaning towards that answer at the moment. But I am not yet 100% convinced.
 

Zek

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If you already have all the devices at hand, connect them and see if it works or not.
 
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AudioStudies

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If you already have all the devices at hand, connect them and see if it works or not.
Yes, I probably will do that pretty soon, as I don't think it could harm anything.
 

gvl

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Downloaded DVDs and Blu Rays on the computer hard drive, played back with an appropriate media player that can handle 5.1. and output that signal from the computer USB port. The final destination that I want that signal sent to is my EAD processor, not a stereo device but a Dolby Digital 5.1 device. I realize that using the Topping D10s in between the computer and the EAD (for connectivity reasons) may not work because it was designed as a stereo device. However, the D10s is a bit of a unique stereo DAC in that it not only has analog outputs but also digital outputs. What I am trying to ascertain is if the coaxial digital output is accomplished in the D10s by just sending a mirror image of what it sees at the USB port because no digital to analog conversion is required - everything is digital, it just changes from USB to coaxial digital. I would not even use the analog stereo outputs of the D10s, so it would not be needed for digital to analog conversion, only for converting the digital signal from USB to coax. You may very well be right that it is not possible, and I am leaning towards that answer at the moment. But I am not yet 100% convinced.

I suspect that an audio device needs to advertise its capability to accept multichannel audio in some form for player software to be able to send mch audio stream to it, or perhaps just as a low level bitstream interface. The D10 only reports PCM stereo capability to the OS (I think) and maybe DSD, so the player will downmix multichannel to stereo and send it to the DAC as such, and this is what will come out on the spdif.
 
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AudioStudies

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I suspect that an audio device needs to advertise its capability to accept multichannel audio in some form for player software to be able to send mch audio stream to it, or perhaps just as a low level bitstream interface. The D10 only reports PCM stereo capability to the OS (I think) and maybe DSD, so the player will downmix multichannel to stereo and send it to the DAC as such, and this is what will come out on the spdif.
I think you are most likely right with what you suspect.
 
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