Denon x1600h: Can it be connected to external DAC ?

druk2004

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Hi,

There is an option in Denon x1600h to configure the sound output to play from "AVR" or from "TV".
If I use "TV" option, my question is .... will the Denon's internal DAC processing be already applied on the input stream from say "Tidal" ?

My intent was to use the Network Steaming capabilities of x1600h and connect the HDMI Output to an external DAC. This way I can save money on streamer.

BR
Roy
 
Use Pure Direct mode in the AVR to bypass AV Receiver's internal processing altogether and let the down chain takes care of the further processing.
 
Hi,

There is an option in Denon x1600h to configure the sound output to play from "AVR" or from "TV".
If I use "TV" option, my question is .... will the Denon's internal DAC processing be already applied on the input stream from say "Tidal" ?

My intent was to use the Network Steaming capabilities of x1600h and connect the HDMI Output to an external DAC. This way I can save money on streamer.

BR
Roy

Was not aware that you could let sound play from TV while using Denon as a source. If you can do that then yes, connect an external DAC using optical out from your TV (not HDMI).

If you configure sound to play from TV I dont think any AVR processing will be applicable , can you please provide a screenshot of that option as that would help us dig further to see if any nuances are present.
 
Was not aware that you could let sound play from TV while using Denon as a source. If you can do that then yes, connect an external DAC using optical out from your TV (not HDMI).

If you configure sound to play from TV I dont think any AVR processing will be applicable , can you please provide a screenshot of that option as that would help us dig further to see if any nuances are present.
Plz see this snapshot from Denon manual . I have tried this and the sound shifts to the TV.
 

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Hi,

There is an option in Denon x1600h to configure the sound output to play from "AVR" or from "TV".
If I use "TV" option, my question is .... will the Denon's internal DAC processing be already applied on the input stream from say "Tidal" ?

My intent was to use the Network Steaming capabilities of x1600h and connect the HDMI Output to an external DAC. This way I can save money on streamer.

BR
Roy

What are you trying to achieve ? I think you want to use your external DAC and not Denon's.
According to me it won't make a huge difference nor it will work as you think.
Use your DAC on a decent IA.

Plz see this snapshot from Denon manual . I have tried this and the sound shifts to the TV.
Yes. this feature is intended to work that way.
Lets say you are watching cricket or football through a device connected to AVR, but you don't want your speakers to play sound. This is that feature.
 
Plz see this snapshot from Denon manual . I have tried this and the sound shifts to the TV.

Thanks , then an external dac will be beneficial. However please note optical out of tv is not very clean , even a basic streamer like CCA is likely to sound better via its optical out to DAC. Then you can connect the dac to the avr rca inputs and use in pure direct mode to bypass the avr dac.

The resultant SQ of this process will be basis of
i) Quality of source
ii) How good a dac you are using outside the AVR dac

so you might still not be very satisfied with the results after so much efforts . Might be better off building a parallel stereo chain
 
Thanks , then an external dac will be beneficial. However please note optical out of tv is not very clean , even a basic streamer like CCA is likely to sound better via its optical out to DAC. Then you can connect the dac to the avr rca inputs and use in pure direct mode to bypass the avr dac.

The resultant SQ of this process will be basis of
i) Quality of source
ii) How good a dac you are using outside the AVR dac

so you might still not be very satisfied with the results after so much efforts . Might be better off building a parallel stereo chain
Thanks !! Yeah ... I also agree ... building an independent setup would be better !!
 
u mean, there are DACs which support ARC ?
Rare but not unheard of, HDMI out from the AVR (ARC) probably is the only way to get the bitstream pass to the downstream chain from your AVR without involving the built-in DAC through Pure Direct. Not sure how fruitful this approach will be! That said, you can make yourself a budget streamer with the help of Volumio and Pi4 and bypass the AVR entirely in the first place.
 
Technically its possible but probably nottried. When you pass through audio to TV and instead of TV, you connect HDMI DAC/streamer, then you need another amp/speakers to play it. Yes if DAC has headphone out then its another option. But again what will video do if avr has only 1 video out or DAC doesn't have video out? So best is add DAC before AVR and not after so that your avr can drive speakers. Also you have more options now.
 
Nah. Avoid this route. The stereo out is via hdmi to tv. Do confirm whether the tv will again route it out via a digital output to another dac. My guess is it won't. A better route would be to use the Digital out from the receiver to another dac and then to an amp+speakers if you wish to use the receiver as a streamer.

MaSh
 
Nah. Avoid this route. The stereo out is via hdmi to tv. Do confirm whether the tv will again route it out via a digital output to another dac. My guess is it won't. A better route would be to use the Digital out from the receiver to another dac and then to an amp+speakers if you wish to use the receiver as a streamer.

MaSh

Mash , AVRs these days dont provide any optical outs (even the all in one like NR1200, RN-803 same story), so using external DAC that way is not possible. However lot of TVs come with optical out , you can use an external DAC to feed that signal (had done this with my LSX and passive speakers too). But the issue for OP would be he would again feed it back to the AVR which will be used as an amplifier, the benefits might be far and few if any as A/D conversion is likely to happen (pure direct probably bypasses that but no way to be 100% sure). As you suggested a better route would be to use the optical out from wherever possible and then a dedicated stereo chain (with different amp preferably).
 
Hi,

There is an option in Denon x1600h to configure the sound output to play from "AVR" or from "TV".
If I use "TV" option, my question is .... will the Denon's internal DAC processing be already applied on the input stream from say "Tidal" ?

My intent was to use the Network Steaming capabilities of x1600h and connect the HDMI Output to an external DAC. This way I can save money on streamer.
The speakers are directly connected to this unit. You can use the streamer function and the sound will play on the speakers connected to this unit. Why do you want to connect an external dac to this unit and extract audio?

You don't require dac to be connected to HDMI out. The HDMI out will already have 2 channel audio as analog signal (see page 158 of user manual).

If you want to extract audio from HDMI, you can connect HDMI extractor like the one below
1638342397059.png
 
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