Has anyone ever unplugged the digital input cable from the ML amp (any car,) and tried to input a different digital source with any success? I'm wondering if it's a just a regular S/PDIF electrical signal, or perhaps a TOSlink optical signal.

Car: '08 IS350 ML w/Nav.

My lofty goal is to keep the head unit stock, but allow switching between the DVD-A and another digital input source so that I can play hi-res FLAC, DSD, and *especially* 5.1 DTS material.

I love the idea of a modern double-DIN installed via the Beat-Sonic SLX-140L. But none of the current double-DIN head units appear to support pure-digital output, let alone 5.1 DTS.

That 5.1 is what makes the ML system really shine, imo. Don't get me started on burning my 5.1 material to DVD-A. What a PITA.

Thanks for reading!

 

So a bit more research (and this thread,) all but confirm that the digital cable connector (and probably the stream itself,) are proprietary to Pioneer. Not SPDIF or TOSlink compatible whatsoever.

TL;dr -- For an ML system, there's no straightforward way to input a digital stream other than what comes out of the DVD changer.

 

Too much time on my hands after heart surgery so figured I'd circle back on this.

Your high-res FLAC, DSD, and DTS files/cd's -- yes, burn 'em to DVD-A. That's the only way to get MAX goodness out of the ML system until someone figures out how to feed a digital signal to the ML amp.

So, this is probably mentioned elsewhere, but the best quality you are going to get out of the ML system in a 2nd gen IS ... is (no pun intended) 24 bit, 96 KHz 2-channel, or 24 bit 48 KHz 5.1 channel, provided you do the needful:

IF NECESSARY, get ffmpeg. It's available in Windows via Chocolatey, Mac via Macports or Homebrew, and in Linux, almost naturally.

Then if necessary, resample your hi-res FLAC/WAV to 24/96 with ffmpeg syntax such as:

$ ffmpeg -i input.wav|flac -ar 96000 -sample_fmt s32 -c:a pcm_s24le output.wav

or for 5.1 channel DTS files:

First decode DTS to WAV with dcadec:
$ dcadec -o wav6 input.dts > output.wav--
Then, resample your 5.1 WAV files to 48 KHz to make sure they're compatible with the car:

$ ffmpeg -i output.wav -ar 48000 -c:a pcm_s24le output2.wav

and then burn those (or your 24/96 2-channel WAVs) to a single-sided DVD-A using a proggie specificallly made for that, such as discWelder Chrome. Burning DVD-A's is not trivial, but I've had much success with the aforementioned proggie.

Feel free to ping for advice if you have any hiccups.

 

The ML amp’s digital input is likely a proprietary signal, not standard S/PDIF or TOSlink. Some have tried hacking it with mixed results usually no sound or sync issues. Your best bet is a DSP (like a Helix) between the head unit and ML amp to inject a clean signal. DVD-A’s DRM makes 5.1 FLAC/DSD a headache, but a modded Fire TV Stick or Raspberry Pi with USB DAC could bypass the stock HU. Tough project, but doable with patience.