It's not unique for this unit - all high-end audio units have quite standard cabling between interior components -- which is why I find it so amusing when hifi-dealers try to sell you super expensive interconnects with dimensions approaching that of my wrist. Kudos to B&O for not falling into the trap of talking its customers into spending fortunes on cabling.

That said - I'm becoming curious as to the DAC inside this unit, and look forward to Keith's further investigations.

Very interesting,keep going Keith!

Ok – I know two-fifths of F/A on this but here goes…..

Page 73 of the service manual references Module 51 (B&O’s Area 51 equivalent!!)  “ML-PL Module”

There seems to be a DA1852 DAC which I don’t think is standard in any Soundblaster but standard in a lot of good CD transports, a MAS3530 DSP (whatever that is) as well as a controller of types and a volume controller.

That module is I suggest where cost is, the rest is in the margin!!

10%

Micronas MAS3530

Analog Devices AD1852

Not sure I'd look for much cost here, at a glance I can't find any cost info for the Micronas part but the A/D is ~$5. Both are established components.

A quick skim through the MAS3530 pages suggest there is no support for  Dolby True Audio or DTS-HD Master Audio although that's irrelevant if it has nothing to do with Blue Ray audio in the future.

Have you discoverd more about the sound processing Keith.🤔

Overview of the Beomaster 5 Audio Circuit

The Beomaster 5 has two key components when it comes to most functions and particularly the audio circuit and that is the Amitech PC motherboard and the Masterlink/Powerlink control module hereafter called the ML-PL module.

From a hardware viewpoint the BeoMaster 5 can transfers digitally encoded audio data from The Amitech motherboard to the ML-PL module via either the USB connection or the SPDIF connection.

The SPDIF protocol standard does not specify a given data rate or resolution, so without putting an oscillopscope on the input we can only make an assumption based on the following fact:-

• The SPDIF input to ML-PL module from the Amitech motherboard goes to the DSP chip which provides "loopthrough" for the external SPDIF output socket for use with the Beolab 5. Whilst not tested, the Beolab 5 SPDIF input spec provides for PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 kHz, so we can assume that the input is one of these values.

The overall audio control and routing on the ML-PL is performed by a standard Philips 80C51 programable port microprocessor with 64 kB Flash and 1024 bytes of data RAM. This processor controls the following audio features:-

• Masterlink audio signals routed via the "Audio switch matrix" to the Powerlink outputs meaning it can act as a Beolink Passive
• The Digital to Analog conversion performed by the Analog Devices 1852 of the SPDIF input from the Amitech motherboard
  to the masterlink, Powerlink or Line out connectors.
• The routing of USB data from the Amitech motherboard to the DSP chip for output to the masterlink, Powerlink or Line out connectors.

The DSP chip is a standard type MAS3530 audio signal processor and a block diagram of the basic functions of the chip are below

There is not much you can really say about this chip which is widely used and provides the following audio decoding features:-

• DTS Digital Theater Systems DTS 5.1 decoder
• Dolby Digital (AC-3) decoder for all Dolby Digital formats from 1.0 to 5.1 channels 
• MPEG-1 Layer-2 
• Dolby Pro Logic ΙΙ Creates 5-channel surround sound from any stereo source 
• PCM stereo audio data

The output of the audio processor is sent to the AD1852 digital to analogue converter and then to the required output.

The AD1852 is a  18, 20 or 24-bit single-chip stereo digital audio converter which provides via the "Audio Selector" the output used to the left and right analog channels for the Masterlink, Powerlink and Line out connector.

From my observations there is nothing particularly special about this audio cicuit which uses off the shelf components to provide the required solution.

From my observations there is nothing particularly special about this audio cicuit which uses off the shelf components to provide the required solution.

Oh😭

In other words......it's just a fancy display with a premium price!

Why on earth don't they use audiofile components!!!!!

And i was told that the sound chip was a custom built one??😡

Alex:

The BeoSound 5 is high-end! It's not a direct replacement for the BeoMedia; the BeoMaster 5 is, which is part of the BeoSound 5 package. The BeoSound 5 package is much more than just another a mediacenter - it's a BeoSound.

Alex:

RE the sound performance - B&O have taken the sonic performance very seriously - think of a product to compliment the BeoLab 5 (hence the '5' moniker). The audio circuitry was designed by B&O - it's not an 'off-the-shelf' sound chip.