Odd XDA-2 issue

[eflizotte]

Hello folks!

appreciate any help you can offer me. 

I I have a unique problem. Here is my signal path:

Apple TV and blu ray player go via HDMI into hitachi plasma television. Audio goes digital out via toslink out of TV into xda. Xda acts as dac and pre and sends signal to xpa2. 

The TV is set up to output pcm only. All signals being sent into the TV are set to pcm. 


When i first installed the xda, I was not able to get signal into the unit that it would recognize and then output. Triple checked inputs and settings and still no luck. I messed around with the few available audio settings there are on the TV. Then I tried using my previous dac (fiio unit which also excepts only pcm audio) directly into the amp which did work and pass audio. So I knew the optical cable was good and that the TV was sending pcm signal. At this point i walked away in frustration. Turned things back on that night and I suddenly had audio passing thru the xda properly. The xda did not display resolution but at least everything was working properly. Things have been normal for three days. i turned things on today and I once again have no audio. 

Anyone have any thoughts as to what might be causing this issue?

[garbulky]

I'mn guessing it's one of these.
Bad TOSLINK cable.
TV forgets the PCM out setting. When turned off for some reason.
TV is crap at its digital out. Use the Apple TV's optical port instead (TOSLINK - you have to use an adapter to make it fit to a regular toslink). And use the blu rays digital out - usually a RCA SPDIF.

[eflizotte]

I have used the digi out of the TV with this same cable for two years into my previous dac with no issues. I feel like that eliminates the TV and the cable as potential issues.

I suppose the only way to be sure is to go get another optical cable.

I did try using the existing cable out of the optical of the Apple TV into the xda with no issues; however that is not ultimately how I would like to configure my setup.

[garbulky]

Try also turning off the ASRC on your XDA-2. That may solve the issue. The TV might have bad jitter which may be playing issues with the XDA-2's jitter reduction.

[eflizotte]

Good idea. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

[vcautokid]

Hmmm, I think the ASRC was mostly for the USB input. As this allows the XDA to use its internal clock, or an external clock as its reference.

I Have to say with the TV's I have had, it is sometimes weird soup as far as the Optical out is concerned. I always want to be sure that it sends out exclusively 2 channel PCM audio exclusively. But for the most part with my XDA-1 I had connected to my Toshiba 42 inch LCD from its Optical output, no problem at all. Same would hold true when I ran my DC-1 and my newly acquired Sharp LED TV's Optical digital out as well. Now I had acquired an Audiolab MDAC, and would love to see how it would work out. I would think no difficulties would be encountered. As long as the signal from the TV is exclusively sending out 2 channel PCM, most listeners should not encounter difficulties either.

[eflizotte]

Update: there are days where I will turn the system on and things will work fine. The next day, no audio to the dac. Tried to borrow an optical cable from work but we don't have one long enough so I'll order one today and see if that helps.

[mm]

I had a similar issue with my first XDA-2. Replacing it fixed the problem. Forgot to mention that unlike in your case when there was no sound the XDA-2 was displaying the correct sample rate.

[coldfusion]

Aug 26, 2015 7:38:55 GMT -5 eflizotte said:

Update: there are days where I will turn the system on and things will work fine. The next day, no audio to the dac. Tried to borrow an optical cable from work but we don't have one long enough so I'll order one today and see if that helps.

Turn it on and off. There have been a few reports of a stuck mute relay. This happens on my unit. One of these days I'll get around to sending it in..,but cycling the power once or twice tends to unstick it.

Mine is also like mm's. I see a bitrate on the front, but get no sound out.