Please forgive my ignorance.....before reading this thread from it's beginning, my plan was to upgrade to a UDP-205 replacing my BDP-105D. I figured it had reasonably decent DAC's for processing all audio sources to analog prior to output via it's 7.1 analog outputs. Of course it would serve as my 4K player and various audio disc formats.
After reading, I've learned that a superior DAC would likely be in order and I have identified several options thanks to the thread.
My 'ignorance' is this: since the oppo DAC processes all sourced material prior to output to any speaker configuration (ie- stereo, 5.1 or 7.1), how is the external DAC (with only L/R outputs) connected to my main processor (Marantz AV7702mkII) to facilitate analog output to ALL surround channels? Or is this even possible?
If it cannot, and the DAC is purely meant to deliver 'analog stereo', how is this connection to the main processor accomplished while at the same time enabling the oppo surround capabilities for movies, sacd and DVD audio play?
My guess is:
From oppo to external DAC: digital out to digital in
From oppo to processor: multi-ch analog audio out to analog audio in
From external DAC to processor: L/R analog out to Assignable L/R audio in
Then I simply choose the desired sound source on the processor.
Thanks all for your consideration and feed back. Very much appreciated!
Steve
ps - I'm thinking PSA Directstream Jr. -or-