CD playback from Blu-Ray player

[Maclintick]

I needed an extra CD player to feed into a top-of-the-range CA streaming DAC. Since I had an old Blu-Ray player which I hardly ever used lying around, fully CD-compatible in the digital domain, it seemed an economical proposition to set the Blu-Ray audio to LPCM and strip it from the HDMI stream via a cheap HDMI converter & Toslink into the streaming DAC -- outlay approx £40 as opposed to shelling out for a new CD player. It sounds pretty ace to me, and the stream seems rock-solid, but I'm aware that there may be disadvantages of which I'm unaware, being no expert in this sort of thing...comments, please ?

[richardfinegold]

You doth protest to much. Enjoy. Is the Cambridge Audio the CXN 60?

[Dave2002]

It’s a while since I did anything like this. Does the Blu Ray unit have an optical digital audio out? Also, does the DAC have an optical digital in? If so, another way would have been to use an optical cable to link the units together. However you found a way which works, and it sounds good to you, so well done! Cost wise and cable length wise there’s probably not a great deal of difference between approaches - plus if the units don’t have appropriate optical ins and outs that wouldn’t have worked.

[Maclintick]

It’s a while since I did anything like this. Does the Blu Ray unit have an optical digital audio out? Also, does the DAC have an optical digital in? If so, another way would have been to use an optical cable to link the units together. However you found a way which works, and it sounds good to you, so well done! Cost wise and cable length wise there’s probably not a great deal of difference between approaches - plus if the units don’t have appropriate optical ins and outs that wouldn’t have worked.

Apologies, Dave, I should have said that the Blu-Ray player only has HDMI out. As you say, if it had an optical digital audio out, it would have been child's play to link it to the DAC via Toslink, & I would only have had to shell out a few quid for the cable, rather than purchasing the audio extractor. What for me is one of those Rumsfeldian "Known Unknowns" is whether there are likely to be any unwanted degradations (jitter ?) introduced due to the data-stripping process which might degrade the DAC performance. I'm hoping not as it operates asynchronously with USB audio, but whether the same applies here ?... This is my area of ignorance.

Rfg, the DAC is the Azur851N, which I think was CA's premium streaming DAC when I bought it some years ago. It may not be now, of course.

[richardfinegold]

The question about jitter being introduced depends upon the quality of that HDMI to Optical conversion. Even though you describe your converter, it might do the job well. HDMI itself is a relatively high jitter interface. These devices put the stream from the HDMI cable into a buffer, reclock it, and then out the TosLink end. This can be done relatively inexpensively.
The best test would be to see if someone will lend you a CD player and then do some comparison listening between the two (using the digital outs of the CDP—or a dedicated CD transport if one is available). If you can’t detect much of a difference between the two, then relax and enjoy the music

[Maclintick]

The question about jitter being introduced depends upon the quality of that HDMI to Optical conversion. Even though you describe your converter, it might do the job well. HDMI itself is a relatively high jitter interface. These devices put the stream from the HDMI cable into a buffer, reclock it, and then out the TosLink end. This can be done relatively inexpensively.
The best test would be to see if someone will lend you a CD player and then do some comparison listening between the two (using the digital outs of the CDP—or a dedicated CD transport if one is available). If you can’t detect much of a difference between the two, then relax and enjoy the music

Thanks Rfg. Some controlled experimentation is in order, as you say. The audio extractor I bought seems to be well-specced & has good reviews -- the company based in your neck-of-the-woods...

https://www.orei.com/products/hda912-hdmi-digital-optical-audio-converter

[richardfinegold]

Thanks Rfg. Some controlled experimentation is in order, as you say. The audio extractor I bought seems to be well-specced & has good reviews -- the company based in your neck-of-the-woods...

https://www.orei.com/products/hda912...udio-converter

Thanks for sharing that. I don't know the company but it is close to me and for this kind of device one usually sees smallish type companies producing it

[Maclintick]

Thanks for sharing that. I don't know the company but it is close to me and for this kind of device one usually sees smallish type companies producing it

Designed in Skokie -- yes, but of course manufactured you-know-where...

[Maclintick]

Finally got round to A-B comparisons. Just to clarify, my aim was to compare the sound quality of CDs played on an inexpensive & rarely used Blu-Ray player patched via an HDMI audio extractor to the optical input of a streaming DAC with that of my trusty old JVC CD player. Truth to tell, the ageing lugholes couldn't discern much difference in sound: both seemed tonally neutral, but the Blu-Ray/DAC combo displayed a slightly sharper attack on transients than the JVC, a marginal improvement in clarity which I imagine will be down to the superiority of the CA DAC.

[richardfinegold]

Finally got round to A-B comparisons. Just to clarify, my aim was to compare the sound quality of CDs played on an inexpensive & rarely used Blu-Ray player patched via an HDMI audio extractor to the optical input of a streaming DAC with that of my trusty old JVC CD player. Truth to tell, the ageing lugholes couldn't discern much difference in sound: both seemed tonally neutral, but the Blu-Ray/DAC combo displayed a slightly sharper attack on transients than the JVC, a marginal improvement in clarity which I imagine will be down to the superiority of the CA DAC.

Seems like a good reason to opt for the Blu Ray/CA combo. The laser on the Sony Blue Ray might die; I had one the keeled over after 3 years of light use; but if you already own it just dig in and listen

[Mal]

I needed an extra CD player to feed into a top-of-the-range CA streaming DAC. Since I had an old Blu-Ray player which I hardly ever used lying around, fully CD-compatible in the digital domain, it seemed an economical proposition to set the Blu-Ray audio to LPCM and strip it from the HDMI stream via a cheap HDMI converter & Toslink into the streaming DAC -- outlay approx £40 as opposed to shelling out for a new CD player. It sounds pretty ace to me, and the stream seems rock-solid, but I'm aware that there may be disadvantages of which I'm unaware, being no expert in this sort of thing...comments, please ?

I use an amazon fire stick going into an old monitor but wasn't getting very good sound using bluetooth to my kef lsx speakers. Yesterday, I used a cheap HDMI converter to take the signal from my fire stick and throw the toslink stream to my kefs. It was a doddle to set up, and greatly improved the sound. Lip synch, and infrequent jittering was also a problem with bluetooth, and it even cured these! Early days yet, but I think it may be good enough to live with. Saved me buying a new TV! But, like you, I'm thinking, "this is too easy, what's going to go wrong?"

[Dave2002]

Having a Blu Ray in the system would presumably permit playback of sets like this one - ASIN : B097SQWRCP Beethoven piano concertos, Zimerman, Rattle LSO. There are other sets which contain a mix of Blu Rays and CDs. I keep meaning to compare the different SQ from some, but never quite got round to it.

There might be better audio from the Blu Ray disc than from the audio CDs. Was a bargain - but now reverted to over £40.

[Maclintick]

Seems like a good reason to opt for the Blu Ray/CA combo. The laser on the Sony Blue Ray might die; I had one the keeled over after 3 years of light use; but if you already own it just dig in and listen

My Blu-Ray player is a fairly bog-standard LG.
I don’t know how their market share compares with that of Sony, or whether the laser failure rate varies between brands.

[Poppydhb]

My home cinema setup has a Sony blu-ray player that plays pretty near anything. The heart of the system is a Yamaha rx-v685 which with the Sony player gets CD audio to the left/right speakers cleanly and without any digital effing about. I can also play SACDs and send the multi-channel signal to the appropriate speakers, again with no digital messing. Quite important as my collection includes discs with 2, 3, 4, 5 and more recorded channels.

OK, it’s not top-drawer hi-fi, but as I’m 66 with age-appropriate hearing I csn live with that. Visitors of all ages like all my hi-fi, typically commenting on “getting the music as it’s recorded” (and I csn see the logical fallscy in that …).

[richardfinegold]

My home cinema setup has a Sony blu-ray player that plays pretty near anything. The heart of the system is a Yamaha rx-v685 which with the Sony player gets CD audio to the left/right speakers cleanly and without any digital effing about. I can also play SACDs and send the multi-channel signal to the appropriate speakers, again with no digital messing. Quite important as my collection includes discs with 2, 3, 4, 5 and more recorded channels.

OK, it’s not top-drawer hi-fi, but as I’m 66 with age-appropriate hearing I csn live with that. Visitors of all ages like all my hi-fi, typically commenting on “getting the music as it’s recorded” (and I csn see the logical fallscy in that …).

Do you have an external DAC?