Nuprime CDT8 I2S output compatible with DS DAC?

Thanks dawkinsj much appreciated. Will evaluate the Cambridge CXUHD then.

The only transport that will hand off the SACD layer as DSD to the Directstream DAC is the DMP. Any other transport may play the SACD layer but would hand it off as 24 bit 88.4khz

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Not true actually?

My modded Oppo 203 with i2s output does that.

Very Strange as without the handshake between the transport and the DAC it violates the Sony Copy protections. You actually see the DAC display DSD 64?

There are a few companies who offer mods out there that flout Sony’s design. Apparently if you are small enough no one that cares at Sony (or the record companies) notices.

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Yeah.
Dsd on the Directstreams display.
It does the handshake thang.:slight_smile:

You are seeing DSD on the screen but not because of the handshake. That is proprietary to PS Audio. They must just simply be shipping the DSD stream out over the HDMI which means it will play DSD on any DAC that supports DSD over I2S. It probably sounds ok but not like the DMP.

Assuming the dac just displays whatever source its fed?
Dont pretend to know everything though.
DSD to the dac…is DSD?

Would love to add a DMP to my rack, sure it brings more to the table than a modded Oppo.

But have an Octave to save up for!..:slight_smile:

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I don’t know everything either. I am just surprised that Sony isn’t going after the company doing the mods. Good for you and anyone else that is using the Oppo as a transport.

Beware that the Oppomod I2S board may have quality issue.
The one I got had a static noise and did not work with DSD signal at all (no sound).
Seller offered return but I have to pay the return shipping to Korea and deal with the hassle.
Seller also stated that the board has not been tested with PS Audio DirectStream. No guarantee that it is compatible.
In my opinion it is not worth the risk involved.
Hope this helps.

Tested ok on my Directstream here, works like a charm.
Not a big disc spinner anymore, but great to be able to play into the DS’s i2s input.

Main reason I got the board was to improve bluray sound output into the Dac and to make it as good a streamer for Roon as possible.

At least until the Octave is available, then its movie duty only I think.

Amen to that (Octave anticipation here too!)

According to earlier posts, I have successfully tested the DS dac with Nuprime CDT8 pro via I2S. A week ago I tested the CDT-8 with Stellar Gain Cell DAC via I2S, and it didn’t work well…
In standard mode (PCM 44.1) or upsampled mode in PCM, I just got a digital noise in the right speaker. When I tried with upsampling in DSD 64 or 128, I got sound, but quite low in level and kind of soft.
Anyone else that have tried this, or could explain this behavior?
(I have tested with two different GC dac’s, and the behavior is the same on both)…

Low level sound when playing DSD indicates that something along the path from the source to the destination is corrupting the data: most often a volume control or perhaps some form of DSP processing. If the disruption is sporadic it might be more hardware related. This is consistent with the right channel being noisy - that would definitely cause the DSD to not be recognized and hence DSD material to be soft (and noisy.)

One difference between the DS and the Stellar Gain Cell DAC might be that the DS ignores the master clock. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the Gain Cell DAC might need a good master clock.

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Thanks Ted, but if you bought a Stellar Gain Cell DAC and a NuPrime CDT-8 Pro and have spent all that money, how do you make it work? Does PS Audio maybe have a connection guide for it to make it work? As far as I know the NuPrime CDT-8 Pro is the only I2S HDMI CD Transport / player on the market, it would be really great if PS Audio DAC (I mean all of them) could utilize the advantages of the I2S interface.

PS Audio publishes their I2S interface, it’s been the same for years (except the DS ignoring the master clock.) Jesus maintains a great I2S compatibility spreadsheet (HDMI format is the 2nd page): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h5PMUBkldkpt1rCnAR4ZHYGZNeCe-vwIFyKWYMZWsX0/edit#gid=724151739 (you might need to scroll back to the 2nd page.)

I’d always ask if any I2S source I was considering supported PS Audio’s I2S. If they said it did and it doesn’t I’d ask them if there were a fix. I don’t have a NuPrime CDT-8 Pro and wasn’t involved in any way with PS Audio’s DACs outside of the DS and DS Jr so I can’t really make any concrete suggestions - perhaps my guess above about the master clock is wrong too. It might be as simple as some volume control or other processing being misconfigured upstream of the Gain Cell. PS Audio support might be helpful.

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I rip my SACDs and play the resulting DSD files through Roon.

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“One difference between the DS and the Stellar Gain Cell DAC might be that the DS ignores the master clock. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the Gain Cell DAC might need a good master clock”.

When I asked Support about the HDMI pin outs on the Stellar GCD, I was told it does not use the Master clock connection and that even if it was connected at the source end, the Stellar would ignore the connection.

Good. Thanks.

As far as I am aware all the PS Audio equipment uses the same HDMI pin out for i2s, why would you do anything else. Pro-Ject’s new CD Box RS2T and Jays Audio CDT-2 both have i2s output over HDMI sockets, but I have not seen the pin outs to confirm they are compatible. Audio-GD make DAC’s with a PS Audio i2s compatibility, they also sell an i2s line driver board with HDMI socket that allows a Raspberry Pi etc, with i2s output to be connected to a PS Audio DAC.

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