Dutch & Dutch 8c with multiple sources

Simple selector switch. Remote for convenience.

I sold the D&D 8c but I always used all digital AES3 to the speakers but for what you want you'll need a preamp or DAC with multiple inputs.  

I don’t want to introduce another dac into the system. Can someone please tell me the names of a few preamps that would work?

I do not think there are any hifi preamps that take two or more toslink inputs and have an aes3 output. Or do I misunderstand how to do this?

That's why I said you might need to use a preamp or DAC with multiple inputs and use analog output to the speakers. The way I did it was setup my server on the network and used a Lumin U1 mini to stream from my ripped files and Quboz to the speakers. 

What a nightmare. All this just for audio from my tv.

Is your connection from the TV , Toslink, SPDIF , HDMI or analog ?  You could email Dutch and Dutch  explain what you're trying to do. They were always considerate and helpful. 

I would get something like this and use the analog in on the speakers. 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1618329-REG/cambridge_audio_c11217_dacmagic_200m_dac.html

I thought spdif and toslink are the same thing. It’s an optical output, spdif

If I use a cheap external dac as a preamp then I’m limiting the quality of the input to the 8c, which is fine for tv but is terrible for music from the computer

Don't confuse price with quality in DACs. I just used an example there are a lot of DACs that can be used as a preamp. Maybe this link will help.

https://pura-audio.nl/en/2020/10/13/elementor-4383/

Is it possible to plug the Mac mini into the network socket (via router) for use with Roon and also have something plugged into the aes socket?

djones51: thank you for that article, that has a lot of useful information however, I really want to get rid of extra dacs and use the DAC in the 8c

All D&D needed to do was include one optical spdif input and it would have saved users so much grief. This is a real design flaw

Yes, you stream from your Roon core via the RJ45 connection, then select the "automatically disconnect streaming" option in the D&D app. With that selected, the D&D’s disconnect from the the RJ45 input when you pause the music and switch back to analog on the XLR/AES input. You cannot damage the speakers by having signals on both inputs, they are designed to function like this. It’s literally like using a preamp to select an input. What’s cool is that you can control the volume of the analog input via the Roon app. This is how I have my system setup, RJ45 through a switch from my Roon core/music server, and my TV on the analog input, I am however using a digital output from my TV so it’s going through a DAC/preamp first. If your TV has an analog XLR output (highly unlikely) you wouldn’t need the DAC/Preamp.

 

By the way, this is also how Martijn, the designer of the speakers, has his system configured as well.