Esoteric PO3 Transport XLR Output

Found this in a review, look like it has a single aes/ebu xlr, but also some dual xlr thing going on as you said for use on Esoteric dacs. 

" Want to play a Red Book CD? Take your choice of outputs. The P-03 will give you AES/EBU on an XLR connector, SPDIF on an RCA connector, Dual AES on dual XLR connectors, and iLINK (IEEE 1394 or “Firewire”) on its dedicated iLINK interface connector."

Cheers George

Hi George,

The photo in this ad shows the markings more clearly.

Best regards,
-- Al

Hi George,

The photo in this ad shows the markings more clearly.

Best regards,
-- Al

Yep, that's the money shot my bad.

Cheers George

To all,

Not that I have a large collection of SACD's but on this transport, SACD's are only output through XLR's or i-Link, not  is S/PDIF.  

FWIW dCS offer a similar connection methodology -- dues AES/EBU (one for each channel) that can carry PCM or DSD. It’s a proprietary format and only compatible with other dCS DACs. However you can use a single AES/EBU to carry both channels instead if you prefer

So in the case of a full dCS stack you take 16/44.1 PCM out of the Transport to the up-sampler on one AES/EBU and then use a pair of AES/EBU from the up-sampler to the DAC to carry your choice of higher rate PCM or DSD. At the same time the transport gives you another pair of AES/EBU to carry the signal from any SACDs you may have.

I’d hope the Esoteric set-up is similar and you can configure the dual AES/EBU output to carry both channels on one. This would also explain why SACD is not available on a single AES/EBU - the Esoteric is the same as the dCS in this regard. Single AES/EBU is limited to 16/44.1 only.