Will a Proceed AMP handle LPCM input?

I think I have found my answer out on the web:

Optical or Digital coax can only carry two channels of LPCM. HD Audio like LPCM will not pass over s/pdif (your optical connector). So if you want the benefits of that you will have to use HDMI to your receiver.

In other words, there is no way to get the HD audio format into an AVP.

I'll first confess that I don't really know what I'm talking about. But, as I understand it, I think that LCPM (linear pulse-code modulation) is simply a means, and a pretty standard means, of encoding digital information. It's used in CDs. It's used in DVDs. The DACs on the AVP clearly accept and can decode digital streams from both CDs and DVDs, so it can obviously handle LCPM. LCPM, however, can also encode up to what we might call high definition (i.e., bit depths and sample rates over the 16/44.4 that is the Redbook standard). LCPM is used in BluRay, for example. While the AVP will certainly decode certain multi-channel codecs – anything clocking in at what we might call more modern high-def sample rates or bit depths, or any of the more modern multi-channel codecs – none of them existed when the AVP was in production. So, it's virtually certain that they will not be supported. Thus, I suspect LCPM or no is not the determinative question. The question will be what you're encoding by those means. Make any sense?

Mezmo's understanding is correct. At the risk of oversimplifying, LPCM is basically two channel audio up to CD redbook standards. For any surround codecs such as Dolby Digital or DTS you will be dealing with "bitstream" not LPCM.

So if you are looking to any higher resolution or surround codecs you will need to deal with HDMI hook ups and the DRM and HDCP that goes with it.

HTH

And at the risk of making things more complicated (yet, honestly, in an effort to simplify) worth specifying exactly who is doing what. Your source material, to start. I am not sure what a HD/Master Audio track is – but assuming it is either HD or a modern multi-channel codec (seems safe) – then the answer is No. The DACs on the AVP won’t have the slightest idea what to do with it. You mentioned using the PS3 to “decode” these tracks. As I would use that word, this means using the DACs on the PS3 to convert these tracks from digital to analog. If you could then offload a multi-channel analog signal from the PS3 (which you cannot, it only supports stereo analog output), you could use the DAC on the PS3 to do the heavy D to A lifting and then go multi-channel analog into the AVP just fine. But, again, you can’t. So, as it turns out, the only way to get multi-channel info off of the PS3 is digitally, so that means you need an off-board DAC with the grunt sufficient to do the decoding for whatever format you’re using.

OK, little more info. DTS-HD Master Audio (which I now get is what we're talking about) is a HD multi-channel codec used in BluRay (among other things). Think it was created in 2009. There is absolutely no way any Proceed product will be able to decode this format. Proceed folded long before it was created. That really should be the whole story.

Thank you HTH & Mezmo - you have answered my questions. I was hoping to indeed get the DTS-MA decoded in the PS/3 somehow into the AVP or an AVP2. Seeing as how I currently decode in the PS3 and send LPCM over HDMI into my Rotel RSP-1069 I was wondering if I could do something similar to the Proceed. But the DAC in the 1069 must know how to deal with multi-channel sounds in LPCM where as the DAC in the AVP/AVP would not (due to it's age).

I have this idea of using the 1069 for HDMI switching and send the audio out it's digital out port into the AVP/AVP2 to hand the sound reproduction. 2-Channel audio is of high importance to me.