[Wanted] El-Cheap DAC

[matrixkid]

Long story short, I am looking for a dirt cheap DAC that will convert Optical Audio to 5.1 Analogue. My budget is around R400 ~ R500

Item Wanted: DAC
Packaging Essential: No
Desired Age: Any
Location: CPT Northern Suba
Willing to accept a shipped item: Yes, But local takes preference
Ballpark/Budget Amount: R400 ~ R500


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[goldfritter]

Do you have a link to the sort of thing you're looking for? I don't think I've ever seen a DAC with 5.1 analogue outputs. DACs tend to be stereo.

Do you need RCA or 3.5mm analogue outputs?

Or alternatively, describe your scenario and perhaps there is an alternative solution?

 

[matrixkid]

Here is a link.

5.1CH DAC Converter Audio Decoder Digital Optical Coaxial Toslink to RCA 3.5mm Jack

【192KHz Auto Decode 】 Build-in high performance RTOS operating system and audio decoder chip,192KHz/24Bit; Support DTS/ Dolby AC-3(LPCM/PCM/RAW).Support MP3,AC3,DTS,WAV,WMA,AAC,ALAC,FLAC,APE,OGG,M4A;【Multiple Interfaces&Automatic Recognize】Digital SPDIF(Toslink/Optical) and Coaxial input ports,6...

reliablestore.co.za

 

[matrixkid]

Essentially I want to use an analog 5.1 (Logi Z506) on a TV that onlu has Optical out for Surround sound. Analog out is 2.0.

 

[goldfritter]

Essentially I want to use an analog 5.1 (Logi Z506) on a TV that onlu has Optical out for Surround sound. Analog out is 2.0.

Then the DAC you linked won't work, that has RCA outputs but the Z506 has 3.5mm inputs.

You'd need a DAC that has 3 x 3.5mm outputs to match the inputs on the Z506 - i.e. one for front left/right, one for rear left/right, and one for centre/sub. The only places you really find that sort of setup is on motherboards and on internal PCI(e) soundcards, I've never seen an external DAC with optical input that uses that arrangement (but I'm open to being proven wrong).

Otherwise I see the Z506 has virtual surround sound if your source is stereo. So you could get a normal stereo DAC with optical in and 3.5mm out (you can get these within your price range on Takealot) and see how that works. Or you could even try plugging it straight into the headphone jack on the TV, if there is one.

EDIT: took me like three tries to get my inputs and outputs the right way round. I blame load shedding.

 

[matrixkid]

3.5mm to RCA could be used essentially removing that hurdle. I don't really want to use 2 channel and virtual surround if possible

 

[goldfritter]

3.5mm to RCA could be used essentially removing that hurdle. I don't really want to use 2 channel and virtual surround if possible

Hmm good point. Then you'd need to find female 3.5mm to 2 x female RCA adapters, which are rare enough themselves, but overall your idea should be technically possible.

I'll let you know if I see something, but ultimately you may end up needing to import, which would be pricey but still cheaper than getting a receiver and 5.1 channel speakers.

 

[Sageofchaos]

I've also delved into the whole optical rabbit hole before to no avail.

I just stuck with HDMI for all of it and compensated for the delay by tweaking my TV and Sound Systems' Audio Delay. It's not the purists' solution, but it works well enough.

Back to the question, having 5.1 / 7.1 Surround is very dependent on the TV, (The optional) DAC, and the Speaker set - I could not find an Optical Audio DAC capable of this, however, what I've read is that 5.1 / 7.1 over optical is possible if all of the products support Dolby DTS/ ProLogic II/Dolby Digital or some proprietary format, but all of these formats are Digital. - Dolby probably has a proprietary microcontroller/IC that does all of this.

It seems they did not think further than Stereo for Optical audio, and it makes sense as to why not, decoding 2x analogue signals over optical is already tricky, and one might need an "oscilloscope" to decode more than 2 channels of analogue audio from optical, and even that will be a very dirty signal if not transcoded by a high end chip, naturally being more expensive, and defeating the topic at hand.

My best 2c would be to speakerdraad.

 

[matrixkid]

@Sageofchaos an apt name with that chaotic torrent of information.
Will look into this and maybe look at getting a different system which is what we are trying to avoid.
But I have seen some older surround systems on the forum going for reasonable prices.
Edit. This is the TV in Question
SkyWorth

 

[kinosfronimos]

Is this what you're looking for?

Takealot

www.takealot.com

 

[matrixkid]

Is this what you're looking for?

Takealot

www.takealot.com

I am actually not sure if that will work. It looks like it should, but not sure if it is software dependent.