Emotiva XMC/RMC front L/R sent to digital outputs?

[eboleyn]

Hi all,

I figured this was a good place to ask since there is a lot of Emotiva XMC-(1,2)/RMC-(1L,1) expertise in these boards.

Given the programmability of the Emotiva XMC/RMC lines, I'm keenly interested in if there is a way to have the front L/R channels sent to the digital outputs, and NOT as a downmix!

Specifically, my setup is that my fronts are digitally tri-amped with a DEQX unit. Converting the digital sources to analog then back to digital gives a notably worse result than keeping it purely in the digital domain in my experiments with other HT units (currently used one is a Yamaha RX-Z11, with newer HT units I'd tried measuring worse so ended up staying with the Z11). So right now, I just accept HT sources go through analog then back to digital, but for 2-channel music at highest fidelity, I send it directly digital into the DEQX unit. Kind of a pain.

I don't currently have an Emotiva XMC/RMC unit so the above tests were not specifically done on one, but what measurements that are available tell me is that while it would be somewhat better than my current HT setup, it would still be inferior to keeping it in the digital domain.

I mean, ideally, there would be digital outputs for ALL of the channels on the XMC/RMC units, but I'd be pretty happy to just have the front L/R channels routed to the normal digital outputs.

Thanks all,
Erich

[colofan]

This is a related post to the above.

I would like to change to AES/EBU outputs from HT processor.

The two options are very expensive and would prefer product for this. I would assume that the digital stream is available inside the units and could be configured to output the AES/EBU signal protocol out the XLR connectors instead of an analog signal.

My DBX Venu360 units could then receive the signal without going through another A/D conversion.

A software switched to jump around the DAC in the unit seems fairly straight forward.


Comment?

[AudioHTIT]

Sept 22, 2021 8:15:13 GMT -5 colofan said:

This is a related post to the above.

I would like to change to AES/EBU outputs from HT processor.

The two options are very expensive and would prefer product for this. I would assume that the digital stream is available inside the units and could be configured to output the AES/EBU signal protocol out the XLR connectors instead of an analog signal.

My DBX Venu360 units could then receive the signal without going through another A/D conversion.

A software switched to jump around the DAC in the unit seems fairly straight forward.

Comment?

Only Emotiva will be able to tell you if this is actually feasible (and they may not chime in here), often times there is specific circuitry in place that prevents what seems to be a simple change.

However at one point there was mention of a “digital I/O” expansion module for the RMC-1, it would seem an AES/EBU output could be added to that if there was sufficient interest. I personally would like to see a bi-directional USB-C port that could provide a digital output to USB devices (like a digital oscilloscope), and also provide multichannel input. But I haven’t heard any further discussion along these lines.

[klinemj]

Nov 2, 2020 3:31:26 GMT -5 eboleyn said:

Given the programmability of the Emotiva XMC/RMC lines, I'm keenly interested in if there is a way to have the front L/R channels sent to the digital outputs, and NOT as a downmix!

This is was it says in the XMC-2 manual on Page 80 about the digital outputs (my guess is that it also applies for the RMC1/1L).

Connect these outputs to the digital inputs of an external audio device or DAC.

Note: The Digital Audio Outputs of the XMC-2 are subject to processing, and/or re-sampling
or sample rate conversion in some instances. They are intended for connecting other external
devices with their own digital inputs, but should not be considered to be bit-perfect copies of
the digital input signal.

I'd call Emotiva for more details on the "in some instances" part.

Mark