ninjagosg

xeo is based on the excite x12, while the focus 110a is the active version of the focus 110a. the focus range is just above the excite range, i believe both are the entry models in their respective lines the dac/transmitter on the xeo is limited to 48kHz so hires gets downsampled, thats the main reason i went for the focus since i was getting into hires audio downloads. plus after discounts price difference is not that much

+1 im using them myself in my music setup, which does double duty as my 2.0 ht setup... refined for music, impactful for ht!

same here, no hdmi issues/problems so far. i have recent bd players, (pioneer bd/sacd player and sony bd player) connected via hdmi to my nad m51 dac connected to a 6-7 year old panny plasma and haven't encountered any hdmi issues/problems. in comparison, i encounter the occasional hiccup with my imac connected via the async usb input on the nad m51, though not often enough that i would call it unreliable/a failure

hmmm, using the imac's optical out might limit your flexibility in this case plus limit digital output to 96/24. for my setup, i use usb to connect to my nad m51 dac and in audio midi setup, i'm able to set them separately if your dac doesn't have usb input, maybe you'd like to use a usb-to-spdif/aes-ebu converter? the musical fidelity v-link 192 connects to your mac's usb and outputs to coax and aes/ebu. selling for USD199 (USD399 SRP) from some online stores in the us, i find it's one of the cheaper usb-to-spdif/aes-ebu converters. i'm not sure about other options though as i'm quite new to this stuff, plus most of the ones i looked at lacked aes/ebu

hmmm do you have your alerts and sound effects routed to your dac in addition to your main sound output? in my case i have my main sound output --> dac and my alerts and sound effect --> imac's built-in speakers. i can adjust the levels separately using Audio MIDI Setup or Preferences -> Sound