What is your dac @NB60 ?
The OP has a Naim ND555 DAC (500DR/552DR/ND555/LP12 system into Titan 808s system, according to the first post).
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Thanks will consider Mutec. The DAC in the ND555 is presumably pretty good, but can’t connect to the D100 as the output has to be USB and the ND555 doesn’t have USB input, hence the need for a USB/Spdif interface, or an extra DAC which does have USB input. Which option to consider (if at all) is then a matter of SQ vs price of each, as usual. I can play CDs on the BDP300 directly via RCA out to the 552, but it’s not great SQ!
Neil
I think that you are missing the point that I was trying to make: the BDP300 has both electrical (RCA) and optical (Toslink) SPDIF digital outpouts. Your ND555 has 2 electrical (RCA and BNC) and 2 optical (Toslink) SPDIF inputs. Hence you can connect the BDP300 digital outputs to the ND555 directly. In order to connect the D100 to the ND555, you need a USB to SPDIF interface. Unless you are not happy with the ND555, you have no reason to buy a (likely lesser) DAC. If you are not pleased with the ND555, you could of course try another DAC, but this is a completely orthogonal problem, in my view.
This way you rely on the BDP300 internal DAC which, as one would expect, is not as good as the one of the ND555. This is probably not a good idea.
What you should do is to connect one digital output (see my previous post) of the BDP300 to one digital input of the ND555 and let the ND555’s internal DAC take care of the digital-to-analogue conversion.
Just try both optical (Toslink) and electrical (RCA) connections and select the one that sounds best.
The idea is always to have the best DAC (in your case the one of the ND555) take care of converting the digital outputs of different sources: TV, CD player, etc.
This way you ensure that all your devices have a consistent sound signature, namely the one determined by the ND555.
It goes without saying that different sources will provide SPDIF signals of different quality to the ND555. But you will still be using the best DAC that you own for all your sources.
This was the original idea behind the Naim DAC that had a whole array (8, I believe) of SPDIF digital inputs. Your ND555 still has 4 SPDIF digital inputs and thus you can still connect up to 4 devices to it.
The Mutec follows by the way a similar design. It is also (but not only) a USB to SPDIF interface. It reclocks SPDIF inputs, too.
This means that you could connect both the BDP300 and the D100 to the Mutec. This is likely to bring another improvement aginst a direct BDP300 -> ND555 digital connection.
Thanks nbpf, I get you now! May depend on the cables as the BDP has to be the other side of the room and needs ~ min 6M cable to the ND555, whereas the D100 can be close to it. Will try what I can without spending too much more at the moment!
In this case the only viable connection between the BDP and the ND555 is Toslink (optical SPDIF).
I use a 10M Supra ZAC Toslink cable (http://www.jenving.com/products/view/zac-toslink-optical-1003100284) between the Sony TV and the the nDAC and it works flawlessly. It is also more flexible and thinner than electrical SPDIF cables.
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