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Page 13 Rev D of the Manual:
"TIP: If the DAC1 USB is being used in a critical signal chain (...) the headphone mute switch should be defeated using the internal jumpers."
Ahh, I see where your concern comes from. This is only referring to situations where the DAC1 USB should never be muted. This tip is for critical signal chains that cannot be disrupted. In other words, if the DAC1 USB is being used in a television or radio broadcast, the audio cannot be disrupted under any circumstances.
The left-most headphone jack has an internal switch that mutes the main outputs when the headphone plug is inserted. However, this has no affect on the sonic performance of the unit. It will, however, be a bit "OOPS!!" if a radio DJ plugged in his headphones and the radio station was muted!!
I've recently bought a dac1 usb to connect with my laptop (just amazing quality); i'm using foobar 0.9.5.1 and i wanted to check if i'm going bit-perfect playing some track downloaded from:
I can hear oly static from output:benchmark1, so i made some research and i tried asio4all and kernel streaming to see if i could go bit-perfect (even if as far as i read from Elias foobar can play bit-perfect just through DS). Choosing asio4all under output tab (setted up like in the first page of the guide in this forum) turned back in static again. I tried then with KS but i can't choose dac1 from the menu so i assume it doensn't work.
Now, what's going on here? What does i have to check in my system and what to do?
Your software player has to decode the DTS or Dolby Digital signals, and then transfer the decoded PCM signal to an external DAC, only then can you hear the music.
Sounds like your software player is either not decoding the DTS/Dolby Digital signals, or your software player is outputting the DTS/Dolby Digital signals directly out to the external DAC.
Benchmark DAC1 cannot decode DTS/Dolby digital signals.
Thx furball for your reply, those files are .WAV file 44Khz/16bit encoded from a .DTS source and they should be readable by the dac1 only in bit-perfect scenario and they should prove the bit-perfect chain; in the case we hear a static it means the playback it's somewhat managed by kmixer or whatever and it's not bit-perfect.
(This is what i've understood reading through the forum though, i'd be happy if someone can shed some light on it)
Benchmark DAC1 does not decode DTS/Dolby Digital signals. And Benchmark DAC1 does not have digital output. It only has analog output. In order to test to see Benchmark DAC1 outputs a bit perfect digital output, you need to open up the case and do some mucking around with the internal components.
How is your setup hooked up?
That wave file is still a DTS encoded file. You need a DTS decoder to decode that file. This can only be done in the following ways,
1) Your software player
2) Your software player outputs the digital signal to an external DTS decoder (such as your receiver)
Because the Benchmark DAC1 does not have a DTS decoder, all you hear is pink noise.
And because Benchmark DAC1 does not have a digital output (pass through), you cannot hook up your DTS decoder to the Benchmark DAC1 to test to see if the bit perfect digital output is extracted from the USB port.
But more importantly, the DAC1 does not accept multi-channel signals because it's a two-channel DAC. You'll have to decode the DTS stream in software, then downmix it to 2.0 stereo, and by that point, it won't be bit-perfect.
But more importantly, the DAC1 does not accept multi-channel signals because it's a two-channel DAC. You'll have to decode the DTS stream in software, then downmix it to 2.0 stereo, and by that point, it won't be bit-perfect.
DTS, Dolby Digital, and their variants are a compression scheme designed to compress multichannel audio signals into one encoded digital signal.
A decoder, such as the one that exists in your receiver, decodes the DTS, Dolby Digital and other such formats, decodes the encoded digital signal into into 5 or 7 channels of analog signals.
There is only one encoded digital stream that carries the encoded DTS/Dolby Digital signal. The DTS/Dolby Digital decoder decodes that one encoded digital stream into the respective 5 or 7 channels of analog signal.
Benchmark DAC1 only decodes PCM style (2 channel) digital signals. It cannot decode DTS, Dolby Digital signals. You need your receiver to do that.
I don't have a multichannel setup (computer or otherwise) so it's just academic for me....
I just figured the single six channel digital stream (DTS or DD) would be decoded/demuxed into six independent, uncompressed digital channels before D to A conversion in a PC. This is how mp3 is played back. The multiple frequency-based and scaled channels are reconstructed and merged into plain old PCM by software before hitting the DAC chip.
Really? I always thought that DTS/Dolby Digital signals are outputted in one digital signal.
The DTS/Dolby Digital decoder inside your receiver only outputs 5 or 7 channel analog outputs, it does not output 5 or 7 channel PCM style digital signals.
As far as I know this also applies to computer soundcards. That one coaxial cable or optical cable carries the entire multichannel digital stream. Those 5 or 7 channel outputs are analog outputs.
this is my first post in this forum...
Linear Mode
