Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Esoteric DV-50S into a 568?

Howdy fella's

I currently own a 568 and want to improve my source and am looking at the DV-50S.

My issue is this, for films I have no problem with connecting the digital out to the 568 to allow this to decode it.
However as the DV-50S has a 'special' seperate internal DAC for 2 channel replay, if I connect the single ended outputs into one of the two analogue inputs on the 568, will the 568 add anything to the signal and therefore remove some of the magic. The 568 is after all mainly for digital use. I can't demo as it would be bought second hand.
Any ideas guys?

Hi Gav,

For other hikers like me who'd never seen this one before, it's here:

http://www.teac.com/esoteric/DV-50.html

From the blurb, they're claiming something slightly different to normal upsampling. With normal upsampling, you insert zeros between the existing samples, then FIR filter the frequencies above fs/2 (aliased signals). This is an interpolating filter. They're claiming to insert new data above fs/2, which is normally considered undesirable, but they might have something very clever. According to sampling theory, there is absolutely no useful information above fs/2 - just a mirror of the useful spectrum. Normal upsampling doesn't add any new information, it just makes the analogue anti-aliasing filter's job easier by adding more margin between the useful spectrum and the mirror.

The 568's input ADC is 96kHz, 24 bit, so it would preserve freqencies below about 40-45kHz (when you take into account the anti-aliasing filter). So - yes, you would preserve some of the 'magic'. They're claiming an fs of 1.5Mhz, so it certainly wouldn't be all that is there. Theoretically they could have spectrum up to 700kHz or so!

The downside is that you've gone d-a-d in the interface.

So I'd try both and compare. It's a cop-out answer but with good reason. Analogue gives you a lot of the RDOT processing, but at the cost of two conversions.

I'd be really interested in your results if you do go for it!

Cheers,

Mark.

Thanks for the response Mark.

I think to get the best out the esoteric I would have to have a prepro that has analogue inputs allowing the players character to come through. I've heard a Wadia 861se ran into mono amps and the result was spectacular, best sound I've heard. The point being if a player costs �4500 brand new, I should give it the chance to shine which the 568 won't do by a-d-a.
The other option is to add an analogue pre amp with a ht bypass feature although I'd rather house it all in one unit, so things are on hold for the time being......

Gav

FWIW, I use a Wadia 861se and a 568.2, as you correctly state, passing the analogue output of the player through the 568.2 a/d - d/a doesn't do the sound much good so I use a passive pre-amp (Audio Synthesis Passion 8). I feed the digital output of the 568.2 into the 861se and the output of the 861se into the pre-amp so I get the benefit of the superior dacs in the 861se for the L/R channels of my surround system.

Regards
Gary

Gavp, I bought a DV50s about 6 months ago. I have a G68 with B&W 800Ds front, 802N rear HTMD2 center, with Classe AMPs. I upgraded from a Denon 3910 to the DV50s. I ended up selling the DV50s within a month. I personally didn't like the sound with the upscaling. To me it was a little on the harsh side and fatiguing. However, the reason I ended up selling was the picture quality of the DV50s was a major step down from the Denon 3910. I purchased a Denon 5910 while still owning the DV50s and did an A/B test to see if I should keep the unit or sell it. The 5910 had a much better picture and the sound, to me, was more appealing. So as I mentioned above, I sold the DV50s.