[OldScott]

I need someone to shed light on an issue that has long been bothering me.  I am using a Cary DMS-600 as the final link to my amplifiers.  The Cary will do both MQA and DSD256. I am feeding the digital output of the Cary to a miniDSP 2X4 which serves as a 3 way crossover to my amplifiers for my tri-amped system. The miniDSP does a digital to analog conversion for the amplifiers. My concern is that the miniDSP  only does a 194/24 conversion. It would logically seem to me that in going from DSP256 to 194/24 I must be losing something. Friends say not so. Would I be better off changing out the miniDSP for a 3 way analog crossover (like a Marchand ) and feed it with analog output from my Cary? I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this.

[audio.bill]

There are likely to be arguments on both sides as to which is better, using an analog crossover with only one D to A conversion or using your digital crossover with required sample rate conversion. What I would suggest would be to convert DSD256 to 176.4/24 PCM (assuming that's an available and supported option) instead of 192/24 since the DSD sampling rate is an integer multiple of 176.4 and it's not of 192 so the sampling rate conversion is much simpler.

[OldScott]

Do not think I can do that.  What then?

[OldScott]

And if I could I would still be going down from DSD256 to 176.4. Or as my friends say does  it really make any difference. This is unfortunately above my intellectual pay grade. Perhaps I need a simple hobby like rope skipping.