Not sure why you bought a dac and do not intend to run a digital signal to the dsp... Does the zapco have a spdif input? I only see optical. You'll need a converter

 

My chevy Impala has Mylink infotainment system that doesn't support Flac or Wav format file only Mp3.

I had to stream my music through phone bluetooth to dsp, then shifting to phone Aux to DSP now I have DAC.

Answering to your question Yes it has SPDIF but I dont know how to use it with my DAC or what should I buy? Am open for your suggestions.

 

Dac to digital coax cable (on the spdif output) to coax/optical convert to dsp

 

S/PDIF is the digital Protocol. Both Toslink Optical and Coaxial (75 ohm wired RCA cable) use the S/PDIF protocol.

But your M11 Pro DAP only outputs a COAXIAL Digital signal. And your Zapco DSP only has a Toslink OPTICAL input.

These Connection Types are Not compatible as one uses wires and the other uses light.

As stated you would need a digital Coaxial to Toslink optical converter box, either connected between the DAP and the Zapco DSP, or from your DAC to your DSP.

I'm pretty sure that the Zapco DSP's Low-level RCA inputs accept balanced Differential. I would just use the Balanced LO output (Line Output) from your FiiO DAP into the Low-Level RCA inputs on the Zapco DSP. This will give you the higher output voltage of the Balanced output from the DAP and should sound extremely good.

Even though this means that the system will be doing an additional analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion, it still sounds extremely good.

For instance, I use the same connections from my iBasso DX300 DAP into the Analog Inputs of my various DSPs. When switching the input/source presets on the DSP between the direct digital and the balanced analog connections from the DAP, I honestly have not been able to distinguish which one is actually better.

It's important that you completely level match the 2 inputs before testing this, but they both sound incredibly good, and provide a pretty much nonexistent noise floor. They do sound just the tiniest bit different in terms of tonality, but I don't really find one to be consistently superior to the other.

I honestly wouldn't fret about not being able to use the direct digital output from your DAP to the Zapco DSP.

Another example. Michael Meyers, DIYMA member audiophile25, used his iBasso DX160 DAP's Analog LO into his Arc Audio DSP in his former IASCA and MECA competition car and won several SQ events with this setup. He has a new vehicle now and AFAIK he intends to stick with this same setup as his source.

YMMV

 

I assume something like this would address the OP’s issue…right? I’m kinda asking for myself also. This connects to the DSP via toslink, avoiding any D/A conversion until after the DSP…once again, right?

 

I believe the Fiio has a setting to make that SPDIF out

 

I used an coax to optical converter, it works, but not as good as straight coax imho. Need a 12v to 5v step down as well to power it.

 

I have the same sorta issue ,I have a fiio m17 ,that I feed into my dsp with 4.4 balanced to rca aux in left /right ,on my bit one hd . the m17 had coax out ,but same problem only optical in on dsp ,they do have a coax to optical box ,is it worth using? ,will it sound better ?

 

Get a different DAP, one that outputs optical like an IBasso.

 

The only issue with optical is that id does not support the bit rate that SPDIF does.

 

true. I think the best with optical is 24/96.