CH Precison C1 configured in mono

Roysen

New Member
Aug 6, 2011
728
2
0
I read with some enthusiasm about the possibility to use the CH Precision C1 DAC configured in a mono mode. This was described on Wizarrd's old blog. It is removed now, so I can't go back to check the details. Does anyone remember the details? From what I understood the two C1 used were not custom or special in any way. They were normal off the shelf CH Precision C1. Not that they are off the shelf products, but you get my drift here.

My questions in regards to this are quite a few. Normally a digital output from a transport would be a stero signal. It was my understanding that the system in question was using a CH Precision D1 transport as the source and used its CH-Link digital output to send the signal to a CH-Link digital input to each CH Precision C1 DAC. To be able to do this I assume that the D1 transport would need to have two Digital_Out boards installed where each D1 CH-Link output was used to somehow output a mono digital signal for left and right channel to one C1 handeling the right channel and one C1 handeling the left channel instead of outputing the normal stereo digital signal on each CH-Link output. The C1 is a dual mono DAC which handles the right and left channel half of the digital input signal in its seperate DAC channels for left and right channels. If the incomming digital signal is a mono signal both DAC channels will be handeling the same signal even though they are handling the right and left channel half of the digital input signal. Normally these signal halves would be converted to analogue and then output on a left and right analogue output. How would this be in this solution? Both the left and the right analogue channel outputs would be identical? With the two C1 used together there would be two right channel analogue outputs and two left channel analogue outputs. What would be the use for this in a stereo system as was used in the show where this was demoed? What would be the advantage of running these DACs in mono mode in this setting if the only thing acheived is to get two identical analogue singals from the left and right analogue outputs on each C1? My understanding was that the advantage was actually in doubling the processing power of each channel by running the C1 in mono mode and using only one analogue output from each C1. How is this configured and acheieved?

Then there is the issue of clock syncronization. How is this acheived with two C1 running in mono mode? The clock syncronization in a D1/C1 system from CH Precision is normally acheived through a Sync_IO board installed in both the D1 and the C1 where the Sync_IO board can be configured as either slave or master and from what i understand the Sync_IO board has one clock input and a clock output. To optimize clock syncronization it is important that the DAC is the master and the transport is the slave to minimize distance between DAC and master clock. In this mono C1 configuration there are two DACs in seperate chassis. Both can not be set up as master for the D1 transport. I assume it would be a compromise to the solution to configure the D1 with two Sync_IO boards and set it up as master and the two C1 DACs as slaves and I also would think it is a compromise to set up one C1 as master for the other C1 who is working as a slave for the first C1 and at the same time as a master for the D1.

Input from anyone in the know would e appriciated.
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing