Are the proprietary opital links between manufacturer's transport/DACs interchangable
 

Sorry for the long question, but having seen multiple instances of these proprietary links between a manufacturer's transport or SACD player and DAC (e.g., Esoteric ES-Link, EMM labs link, dCS link), I doubt that these cannot be re-engineered or there is some standard so that connecting transports and DACs from different manufacturers is possible. I know of the concern from SONY to protect the SACD format, but these optical link cables are not that sophisticated.

Does anyone have information about this topic?

Thank-you in advance - Gerry

You forgot one; HS-Link from Accuphase. ;)

I2s from PSAudio?

Folks-

Yes, that's correct. I was only listing examples in the parentheses using exempli gratia (for example).

Thanks - Gerry :icon_beer:

Are the proprietary opital links between manufacturer's transport/DACs interchangable
 

Gerry - it is possible to reverse engineer any interface.

Ask me how I know :).

But the juice has to be worth the squeeze. The test equipment required to accomplish the task (serial comms analyzer) is expensive and if there is encryption then that raises the bar a whole bunch.

The best thing to do is to try it out and see if it works! With optical there is no way to do any damage, so experiment away.

Tom

The links themselves are usually generic. It is the sender and receiver modules and the communications protocols that are proprietary.

Folks-

Thank you for the information. Although I do have an appointment in CSE as a courtesy here at Michigan, I know little about programming and engineering hardware, just software - although I did have to take a course in machine assembly language back in graduate school.

Kind regards - Gerry

Without published specs, subject to change, you are taking a substantial risk. IMO not worth it.