Unfortunately, it appears MiniDSP no longer lists that unit for sale. I trolled through their site yesterday and couldn’t find anything similar.
In the meantime, I’ve repurposed my HTPC to run Roon as an endpoint (as well as JRiver) for the sole
purpose of playing my MCH audio recordings.
Regardless of that setup, your UltraRendu setup is close to mine. When you run 7.1 analog from your MCH DAC to the Denon AVR, are you still able to run Audyssey room correction with this setup?
My Denon AVR4520 will need to be replaced in the near future. Ideally, a Pre/Pro, with either ARC or DIRAC room correction, that includes an USB input is ideal. Analog 7.1 inputs seems to be very rare.
Is there a 7.1 analog to HDMI audio converter out there? An USB input would be ideal but they are hard to find.
On Marantz prepros — likely the same on Denon — Audyssey is not available on the MCH analog inputs.
I’m unaware of any 7.1 analog to HDMI converter. But why do you need that? Your HTPC has HDMI out to your Denon and Audyssey will run just fine off of that HDMI input. JCR
Yes, it’s true the HTPC has HDMI out to play MCH audio files but that kind of defeats the purpose of using the UltraRendu as the source of music in the media room. It’s a patchwork solution that I wasn’t
prepared for in purchasing the UltraRendu as I assumed I could play ALL music files through this NAA
(without downmixing).
I suppose the answer is to find a Pre/Pro that can accommodate an USB input directly from the UltraRendu so MCH PCM can pass lossless to the DAC.
I use three different DACs in my main system: a Bel Canto streamer for stereo 24 bit PCM (with DSD downconversion and convolution courtesy of Roon), which uses wireless USB for input; the Okto dac8pro for MCH (24/96 FLAC or DSD64) upscaled by HQP to native DSD128, with the microRendu for USB input; and a Pro-Ject PreBox S2 digital for playing digitized vinyl real-time, with an RPi3 as an NAA to the DAC upscaled by HQP to DS512.
My point is that there is nothing wrong with different DACs and inputs for different applications. Use your UltraRendu for stereo and enjoy the MCH via HDMI as rendered by your prepro and its Audyssey capabilities! JCR