[craig134]

At the moment all of my audio is being routed through a DVDO Edge hub/scaler which can output audio through either hdmi or optical. The optical out sends either dolby digital 5.1, dts 5.1, standard stereo, or lcpm stereo. What I'm unclear on is whether a dac will handle the dolby digital or dts signals without issue, given a decoder is necessary for an av receiver. Since the dac is converting the digital signal to analog is this a non-issue?
 
And if so, what would be the best dac for around $100-$350. My cans are Audio Technica A700, Beyer Dynamic DT-770-80, and AKG K702.

 

[craig134]

So far the Gefen GTV-DD-2-AA to a headroom total bithead seems to be the best option for my needs? Does anyone have any experience with the quality of Gefen products?

 

[MoldBuster]

A straight 2 channel DAC won't handle the DD or DTS signal stream. That is a matrix encoded signal which requires a corresponding decoder which interprets the steering of the signals to the assigned channels and handles the LFE signal routing. The output of the decoder is then sent to the DACs (in the case of a 7.1 channel preamp, there are 8 DAC channels). The chain goes as follows...
 
Digital Stream---> AC-3/DTS Decoder----> DACs ---> Preamp Stage --->Amplifiers/LFE Output.
 
If your DVDO allows you to access the downmixed 2 channel stereo track, that is what you'll have to select.
 
The Gefen unit looks to be an ultra basic AC-3/DTS decoder and DAC on a chip with fixed 2 analog outputs. You already own one. It is doing the same thing your DVD player already does with its' stereo analog outputs. Simply run the analog 2 channel outputs from your DVD player instead. Better yet, buy a DAC and use the downmixed 2 channel digital signal.