DACs?

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Discussion

Thudd

Original Poster:

3,100 posts

213 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
I don't use my home cinema rig (Sony DAV-S 880)at present due to faff, and am thinking of ripping it out and replacing it. I'd also like to listen to music in the living room.
I have a pretty much unused Arcam Diva rig upstairs (A85 amp/P90 power amp/CD73T CD/Monitor Audio RS6 floorstanders) and was thinking of bringing this down just using that instead.
I don't think the Sony sounds that great, so usually just leave the sound on the telly.

Is there a decent but low cost (~£200) DAC which will accept optical inputs from my TV boxes? SKY HD, X360, PS3, thinking of adding a Squeezebox. I wondered about the Cambridge Audio DAC but that only has one optical input.
I have an optical input selector on the current Home Cinema rig, but this is part of the faff i'd like to do without.
I guess the alternative is stick in an auto switching home cinema amp with HDMI inputs, Onkyo and Sony seem to do some nice ones, but I suspect this would be crap for music.

I really don't want to have to use different remotes to adjust the volumes. This would fail the wife/kid test.

Space is at a premium so I can't have the Arcam in the same room as a home cinema setup. Unless the H/C has really small shelf mount speakers, especially the Sub.


So, er, any good recommendation of multi-input DACS or autoswitching HDMI A/V Amps where I can control the volume from a SKY remote? Budget £200 tops for the DAC or maybe a bit more for the amp. Definitely no more than £400 for amp.

telecat

8,528 posts

247 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
Struggling really The Beresford DAC is pretty good at that price but only has one Optical input and two co-ax. The current Cambridge seems to have two. The problem is that the current trend is for two Co-ax an Optical and a USB digital input.

SJobson

13,081 posts

270 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
If you want multiple optical inputs, home cinema stuff tends to be where you need to look.

My Musical Fidelity X-DAC V8 has three coaxial inputs and one USB, but no optical; I still have my Sony QS Minidisc deck connected which has two optical inputs, outputting coaxially into the DAC. Doesn't seem to harm the quality.

For £200, the DACs to look at are the MF V-DAC, Beresford or Cambridge Audio ones, but none will have enough optical inputs. How about the Yulong DAH-1 which you can find on eBay? Willing to take a punt?

ETA: the Cambridge DACMagic has two optical and two coaxial inputs, BUT you can only use any two at a time.

Edited by SJobson on Thursday 3rd December 19:52

Thudd

Original Poster:

3,100 posts

213 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Bah.
The Sony has a passive sub, and the speaker towers are full of bad connections. Looks like an Onkyo amp and a set of secondhand speakers - my Mate is flogging some KEF 2001 eggs - is the way forward.

You'd think universal remotes would be getting cheaper by now.