And it works! When it's not playing playing/forwarding anything, I am able to select a connected USB DAC as an output device, and am successfully passing on 24/192 audio to it from the TOSlink or coax input. Doing that right after turning it on results in a brief high pitched sound - maybe a sample rate mismatch, but otherwise it works. Is it bit perfect? Who knows, I'd like to test that some day.
Schiit Yggdrasil, Schiit Jotunheim and Topping D10 all work, even through an active 10 m USB extension cord, a USB hub and an iFi iDefender, or through an iFi iSilencer. It even detects multiple DACs connected to a USB Hub - but can only send audio to one of them, of course.
When you turn it off and on, it remembers to send audio to a USB DAC, but even with "Resume Play" on, it does not automatically start "playing" the TOSLINK input again. For that, you have to press Input, then 2x Down, then OK on the remote. That is quite annoying, I would prefer it to just keep doing that when I turn it back on. Apart from its price and size, that limits its usefulness as a S/PDIF to USB converter further.
Less important for this thread, but I'll mention a few more points:
- It had some trouble when starting to play a free CD I got at RMAF last year, seemingly being frozen for half a minute or so, but eventually started playing it, correctly sending 16/44
- Spotify Connect works
- Playing MP3s, 16/44 FLACS, 24/96 FLACS, 24/192 FLACS and even WMA files from an attached USB stick works
- TOSLINK out and AES out work
- HDMI to my 1080p TV only produces a 720p image, and required restarting the X35 to show the option in the Setup menu. Audio is passed to the TV, which resamples everything to 48 kHz, so I cannot verify the sample rate it received. When I connected my AVR instead, 44.1/88.2/176.4 content was initially downsampled to 44.1 kHz, 48/96/192 content was downsampled to 48 kHz. Restarting the X35 yet again allowed sending these sample rates unmodified to the AVR. Higher sample rates resulted in drop outs in conjunction with a 35 ft HDMI cable I'm using.
- The headphone out works
- The analog input and aux input do not work well. Regardless of the settings related to sample rate, it tries to pass them on with 192 kHz, and it's choppy. They work fine through the integrated headphone amp, though.
- The Android app works, mostly. Already got it to crash once, of course.
Edit 2: If the USB out is active, the other digital outputs (TOSLINK, coax, AES) are not.
Edit 3: This crazy chain works, even with 24/192 content: Laptop > 10 m active USB extension cable > USB Hub > iFi iDefender > USB A to B cable > Topping D10 > TOSLINK cable > J-Link TOSLINK-Switch > TOSLINK > cocktailAudio X35 > USB A to B cable > Singxer SU-1 KTE > AES cable > Schiit Yggdrasil
While the X35 recognizes USB DACs even when connected to the two USB ports intended for storage devices, it isn't sending audio correctly this way. With the USB Audio out port, it works fine.
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