S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio to 5.1 ?

[Christian_IA]

Hi All.

My surround reciever can't use S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio, only 5.1, meaning the one with 2 rear, 2 front, 1 center og 1 sub.

I have ordered a Popcorn Hour C-200 and it doesn't have 5.1 output,
but S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio.

Is it possible to convert S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio to 5.1 ?

[linuxworks]

(09-02-2009 02:27 PM)Christian_IA Wrote:  Hi All.

My surround reciever can't use S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio, only 5.1, meaning the one with 2 rear, 2 front, 1 center og 1 sub.

you mean you have analog-inputs (only) and not a digital in?

that's very unusual. are you sure?

Quote:I have ordered a Popcorn Hour C-200 and it doesn't have 5.1 output,
but S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio.

Is it possible to convert S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio to 5.1 ?

it sounds like you want to use an external 5.1 style DAC to convert the spdif into 5.1 *analog* channels (rca cables).

honestly, its cheaper to buy a better receiver that has spdif (coax or opto) input. even an older (5 years) receiver will do this. even a 10 year old one will! that will be the cheapest way to do this.

[tux99]

(09-02-2009 02:27 PM)Christian_IA Wrote:  Is it possible to convert S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio to 5.1 ?

Yes, with a receiver

[vaxxi]

Not necessarily. If you're happy with just getting stereo from that optical output, you can buy for 50-60$ something like this.

If you want multichannel, it will set you back as much as a budget A/V receiver, with which you get more advantages anyway

[linuxworks]

(09-02-2009 03:11 PM)vaxxi Wrote:  Not necessarily. If you're happy with just getting stereo from that optical output, you can buy for 50-60$ something like this.

If you want multichannel, it will set you back as much as a budget A/V receiver, with which you get more advantages anyway

or something like the mocha china/ebay unit (I have a spare if anyone wants to buy mine). I gave up on multichannel audio and now just downmix all 5.1 to 2.0 and send that to my high-end DACs.

the geffen dac will do the job but I've never heard of anyone using it. there are MANY MANY 2 channel dacs out there. go to an audio forum (I go to head-fi.org, myself) and you'll see more DAC talk than you want

stereo dacs can be found for $50 but also as high as several 10's of thousands of dollars. seriously. but you won't find high end multichannel dacs. they don't exist. there is no 'high end' in 5.1. I've not found one, and I've been pretty serious in the audio field. high end = 2.0 channels. multichannel is 'for movies' and gets a lower quality set of chips, preamps, and so on.

[tux99]

(09-02-2009 03:11 PM)vaxxi Wrote:  Not necessarily. If you're happy with just getting stereo from that optical output, you can buy for 50-60$ something like this.

If you want multichannel, it will set you back as much as a budget A/V receiver, with which you get more advantages anyway

Well, the C-200 has in-built analog stereo outputs, there is no need to buy anything if you just want downmixed analog stereo.

[daniel_owen_uk]

New receiver time me thinks.

Even if it's something low budget (something like an old Denon), or a cheap yamaha.

If you look on ebay something with optical and digital coax that will decode DD and DTS can be had for as low as $100-150.

And would probably be massively better than what you have at the minute.

[linuxworks]

(09-02-2009 04:12 PM)tux99 Wrote:  Well, the C-200 has in-built analog stereo outputs, there is no need to buy anything if you just want downmixed analog stereo.

I wonder what the analog specs are, on the bult-in dac. I bet its pretty ugly.

not sure I trust this company to design ANALOG gear. they have already shown they don't understand ethernet and spdif (on the a100, at least).

doing clean analog design is hard. probably they didn't do it right.

external DAC via spdif is the only real way to go.

I might trust the built-in dac on a squeezecenter transporter ($2000 item with a very high end dac inside) but I would not bet on 'popcorn hour' guys doing a clean analog path.

plus the fact that they use switching power supplies (instead of linear) means they don't understand audio

go external.

[daniel_owen_uk]

There is a difference between trusting it, and expecting it to match equipment costing 7 times as much

Switching power supply is surely due to the fact that they don't have a localised version and less to do with them no understanding high end audio?

[linuxworks]

(09-02-2009 04:35 PM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  There is a difference between trusting it, and expecting it to match equipment costing 7 times as much

I'm not talking about 7x.

you can find proper analog designs for $100 and even less. but you have to go to a company that understands and takes care in audio/analog chain.

the pch guys did not even implement coax-out properly on the a100. hard to believe but its true ;(

Quote:Switching power supply is surely due to the fact that they don't have a localised version and less to do with them no understanding high end audio?

no. they omitted it due to cost and lack of caring for the analog-out. honestly, most appliances with an analog-out are there just as a marketing check-box.

onboard pc sound also uses cheap switching power supplies and you also get sub-standard sound from analog circuitry that is inside a noisy (emi/rfi) pc.

I see your point about localized power (switching power supplies can adapt easier to any input voltage and linears ones tend not to); but my point is that this is a computer and not really a piece of analog audio gear.

anyone expecting to get decent sound from the 2 rca analog jacks should re-think this idea and just go spdif to something outside the box (receiver or dac).

at the very least, they should put the analog stuff on its own board and locate that board away from the 'computer stuff' (the main board).

[tux99]

(09-02-2009 04:29 PM)linuxworks Wrote:  they have already shown they don't understand ethernet and spdif (on the a100, at least).

Why whats wrong with ethernet and spdif on the A100?

I'm asking purely out of curiosity as both ethernet and sdpif appear to be working fine on my A100.

[linuxworks]

(09-02-2009 11:42 PM)tux99 Wrote:  Why whats wrong with ethernet and spdif on the A100?

I'm asking purely out of curiosity as both ethernet and sdpif appear to be working fine on my A100.

they work.

but they could have been designed with better isolation.

both, oddly enough, usually have pulse transformers which isolate and also give some differential (noise cancel) ability. and no ground loops!

I wonder if this could be a cause of ethernets dying on the a100's. I don't have an a110 so I dont' know much about those. but inside my a100, neither port has a pulse trafo on it. I know that audio should (I know that pretty well) and I'm also kind of sure that ethernet also should have the isolation trafo (you can find them on any pci ethernet card; look and you'll see them there).

here's my inside a100 shot:



do you see any pulse (black boxes) near the ethernet port? I sure don't.

this is what a pulse should look like:

http://www.leddrivermagnetics.com/LAN%5FTransformer/

and here, actually pulse brand label on top:



so, either they didn't know about this (shame) or they cut corners (double shame).

either way, they are NOT properly implemented.

[Christian_IA]

(09-02-2009 04:21 PM)daniel_owen_uk Wrote:  New receiver time me thinks.

Even if it's something low budget (something like an old Denon), or a cheap yamaha.

If you look on ebay something with optical and digital coax that will decode DD and DTS can be had for as low as $100-150.

And would probably be massively better than what you have at the minute.

That would probably also be the solution.

[Willem53]

(09-02-2009 02:27 PM)Christian_IA Wrote:  Hi All.

My surround reciever can't use S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio, only 5.1, meaning the one with 2 rear, 2 front, 1 center og 1 sub.

I have ordered a Popcorn Hour C-200 and it doesn't have 5.1 output,
but S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio.

Is it possible to convert S/PDIF Optical / Coaxial Digital Audio to 5.1 ?

What receiver is that? brand/model

[vaxxi]

(09-03-2009 02:18 AM)linuxworks Wrote:  this is what a pulse should look like:

Very interesting information. I assume a shielded RJ45 jacks wouldn't help in this case, unless you have a properly grounded router/switch ?



Or maybe something like this ?