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Having Some DAC Issues, Hoping Someone Can Help?


jjptkd

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I just received my long anticipated Benchmark DAC2 HGC I've been drooling over for quite some time now, space restrictions and the right deal made this work as I've been looking to replace my trusty old Sunfire TG-III I've been using off and on for the past several years.

I hooked up the DAC / preamp the same way my TG-III was hooked up which has worked just fine; I have two hard drives plugged into my TV via USB ports and a optical cable on the audio output from the TV to the Processor / DAC. With the TG-III all files play and work fine, with the new DAC only a small handful will play and I get an error reading from the DAC via a flashing blue light on the files that don't play, which according to the owner's manual means unreadable or no input.

Wanting to make sure I didn't get a bad DAC I pulled out my computer which has a digital coax for an audio output to the DAC and an HDMI output to the TV using the same hard drives plugged into the computer all of the files play just fine through the new DAC so the DAC can obviously read them?

I've been using a cheap $3 optical cable from eBay (which has worked just fine and still works with the TG-III) but in the trouble shooting guide of the owner's manual the cable is listed as a possible problem so I ordered a nicer, higher resolution? cable which will be here Monday.

Can anyone think of anything I may be missing here? I was really hoping for a plug and play ='s big grin move here but something is not working. I even pulled out my old PS Audio DAC III and tried running it through the Sunfire and got the same results, will only play a small number of files through the TV but plays them all through the computer, could it be just the cable or am I missing something? Any input would be great thanks!

Jesse

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Do not think the new optical cable will be the fix based upon what was said. Maybe you will get a surpsise there. Straight from computer think desireable into DAC. Either coaxial, or HDMI. As for your TV, is there an HDMI out available.? Always had used USB to DAC from computer, and then analog out into preamp. Coffee in my case helps.

Thanks! 

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1 hour ago, Schu said:

Toslink is the worst...

It's all 1's and 0's isn't it? A computer tech friend of mine seems to think toslink can support just about everything short of 7.1 Blu-ray. 

 

My TV is the 6500 series Samsung 4k, I don't believe it has any other audio outputs other than the 3.5mm headphone jack. 

 

I was really hoping to keep the computer out of the mix for simplicity for the wife but will hook it back if I have to I guess, really hoping not to have to though. It's really kind of frustrating that my nearly 20 year old Sunfire can handle this no problem but my almost new model very expensive DAC cannot, really hoping its just a cheap cable issue.

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Well I just found a couple of higher quality cables in my box of misc cables and no change at all. The DAC has a solid blue light when connected to the TV and you can hear clicking sounds as you scroll through the files and some movies and TV shows work and sound fine but no music will play that I just tried. When a music file is selected the blue light starts blinking really fast which I guess means the file type is not supported, at least through the optical inputs. When I back out of the selected file the light goes back to solid and TV sounds come through again.

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It's not the cable.  Are the files that don't play some sort of multi-channel format?  How are they different from the ones that play fine?

 

Your DAC only supports 2-channel 24/96khz (max) PCM stereo on the optical input.  My guess is the TGIII was able to play these files because it is an AVR able to decode multi-channel formats that the TV is sending it.  Your TV assumes it's connected to an AVR that can decode just about anything.  

 

One way to check is to hook up the TGII again and play a couple of files through your TV.  Look at the display on the TGII and see if it tells you what it is receiving/decoding.

 

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Looking at the owner's manual of the Benchmark apparently there is a difference between the input capabilities of the optical and the Coax:

2 Coaxial Digital Inputs – 24-bit/192 kHz PCM, DSD (DoP 1.1) 

2 Optical Digital Inputs – 24-bit/96 kHz PCM

Looks like I may need to go a different route for a preamp, what a shame, I guess the oppo Sonica may be the way I go after all.

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6 minutes ago, pbphoto said:

It's not the cable.  Are the files that don't play some sort of multi-channel format?  How are they different from the ones that play fine?

 

Your DAC only supports 2-channel 24/96khz (max) PCM stereo on the optical input.  My guess is the TGIII was able to play these files because it is an AVR able to decode multi-channel formats that the TV is sending it.  Your TV assumes it's connected to an AVR that can decode just about anything.  

 

One way to check is to hook up the TGII again and play a couple of files through your TV.  Look at the display on the TGII and see if it tells you what it is receiving/decoding.

 

 

Thing is the DAC will play all of the files multi0channel or not through the digital coax input via the computer but only certain ones through the optical, it must be the input that is the limiting factor here. I guess I'm done with Benchmark, will play around with it for awhile until the Oppo shows up then off it goes. Thanks for all the input!

 

Jesse

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I just ordered the Oppo Sonica, its listed spec's are the same for digital inputs either optical or digital coax plus they offer a 30 day return policy just in case it don't work:

 

Coaxial and Optical Digital Audio Inputs
Input Format Stereo PCM, Stereo DSD (DoP v1.1 or native)
Sampling Frequencies 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz
Word Length 16-bit, 24-bit
DSD Sampling Frequencies

2.8224 MHz (DSD64)

 

 

 

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Well figured I'd update my situation. The Oppo arrived Wednesday afternoon and I plugged it expecting it to just work straight out of the box as a preamp and it did, just the same as the Benchmark did, would only play a small handful of files. Long story short after full set up same thing so I emailed Oppo and asked them what was up? They informed me that the player would not work on Dolby Digital or DTS only PCM and I needed to check the setting on my TV.. There's a setting on my TV?? 

 

So after a quick google search and about 10 seconds with my TV remote everything works now and the Sonica DAC really sounds nice. I'll post my thoughts on it after I get to spend more time with it. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/10/2017 at 6:48 AM, jjptkd said:

Well figured I'd update my situation. The Oppo arrived Wednesday afternoon and I plugged it expecting it to just work straight out of the box as a preamp and it did, just the same as the Benchmark did, would only play a small handful of files. Long story short after full set up same thing so I emailed Oppo and asked them what was up? They informed me that the player would not work on Dolby Digital or DTS only PCM and I needed to check the setting on my TV.. There's a setting on my TV?? 

 

So after a quick google search and about 10 seconds with my TV remote everything works now and the Sonica DAC really sounds nice. I'll post my thoughts on it after I get to spend more time with it. 

So how's it going with the Sonica? I'm thinking about getting another one for downstairs. I'd love to find a refurbished deal like you did. Was that from Oppo directly?

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The Sonica works and sounds great, so far I'm very happy with it. I've only really used it a few times for music haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces yet but I really like what I've been hearing so far. Very easy to use and matches together quite well with the rest of my set up. I bought it directly through Oppo and although its refurbished the thing looks like brand new and was packaged as new as well, don't think you could pick this out over a new one honestly. Same warranty as new and looks like new glad I saved myself some money going that route. 

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On 11/10/2017 at 6:48 AM, jjptkd said:

They informed me that the player would not work on Dolby Digital or DTS only PCM and I needed to check the setting on my TV.. There's a setting on my TV?? 

Glad you figured it all out.

 

Had the same problem when I first routed my last Samsung TV through my CA 840C player/DAC.  Loud buzzing sound and no playback.  Did some trouble shooting and light bulb went off and I realized the issue.  Had to change the settings.

 

Bill

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On 11/10/2017 at 6:48 AM, jjptkd said:

Well figured I'd update my situation. The Oppo arrived Wednesday afternoon and I plugged it expecting it to just work straight out of the box as a preamp and it did, just the same as the Benchmark did, would only play a small handful of files. Long story short after full set up same thing so I emailed Oppo and asked them what was up? They informed me that the player would not work on Dolby Digital or DTS only PCM and I needed to check the setting on my TV.. There's a setting on my TV?? 

 

So after a quick google search and about 10 seconds with my TV remote everything works now and the Sonica DAC really sounds nice. I'll post my thoughts on it after I get to spend more time with it. 

Typical unfortunately, especially when using a computer that can handle surround up to a stereo DAC.  Make sure everything is PCM / 2Channel.  

I've fallen over this also.

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8 hours ago, jjptkd said:

The Sonica works and sounds great, so far I'm very happy with it. I've only really used it a few times for music haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces yet but I really like what I've been hearing so far. Very easy to use and matches together quite well with the rest of my set up. I bought it directly through Oppo and although its refurbished the thing looks like brand new and was packaged as new as well, don't think you could pick this out over a new one honestly. Same warranty as new and looks like new glad I saved myself some money going that route. 

Thanks for the info. I will see if I can't score another one like yours. Great machines.

 

Not that I would ever consider this, but have you seen details of the Modwright upgrades to the Sonica? Check it out just for fun. He does some crazy amazing work.

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