Arash Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 what is your idea? WDTV claims to have HDMI and SPDIF digital optical output with pure "0s" and "1s"steraming outputs... would it sound good to connect SPDIF to a DAC and then to a tubeamp??? would it be a hi-fi good-sounding audiophile source? tnx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 That would be an excellent way to do it! It would sound as good as WDTV ever could. I use SPDIF on my TV to a Grant Fidelity DAC which is connected to (for now) a Scott 299b. I also have HDMI from my computer to the TV and as long as I have the computer selected as the source on the TV I get the computer audio via the TV's SPDIF. Works VERY well! This configuration might have an edge on using the USB connection from the computer but I haven't compared enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arash Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 I have a Raysonic SP-120 MKII 50wpc tube amp (really musical despite irs PP) and also have a Pioneer VSX-1020K A/V Receiver and a WDTV player... I have a pair of LS and cornscala which I'm building but for now I use LS... I was thinking about buying a DacMagic (Cambridgeaudio) which has SPDIF and USB... correct me if I'm wrong... with a DacMagic I can both play Lossless Flac files with WDTV and steram it out using SPDIF to DAC and then to my tube amp and I can also play directly from my laptop to USB of the DAC and then again to amp... both should sound great... what is your idea? I think Pioneer is useless... can I use it as a Dac? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 I had a DacMagic for a short time. It's a pretty nice piece of equipment. You'll be fine feeding it Lossless FLAC files from the WDTV by SPDIF. HOWEVER... The USB port on the DacMagic is locked at 44.1K Hz & 48K Hz sampling rates. it doesn't matter what you do on the computer side USB wise. This is the reason I sold mine. I have a number of albums downloaded from HDTracks which are 24/96 FLACS and I could never get them to play through the DacMagic at anything greater than 48K Hz. I ended up getting a new sound card for the HTPC that supports sampling rates up to 24/192 AND has SPDIF out. Finding one that was also low-profile and Windows 7 compatible was a bit of a challenge though. In the end I got what I wanted out of it and the 24/97 HDTracks albums sound wonderful. Edited to correct USB sampling rates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arash Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 @ jhoak what if I just play 24/192 Flacs from WDTV (SPDIF) > DacMagic...? does Dacmagic support it or there will be issue like USB has... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 The SPDIF inputs will accept sampling rates up to 24bit/96KHz. Everything is then "up-sampled" to to 24/192 before heading off to whatever you have the output plugged in to. It's only the USB port that restricted to 16bit/48KHz. As long as the WDTV can output 24/96 (I'm just not that familiar with the WDTV specs) you'll be getting "full" resolution out of your FLACs using a SPDIF (optical or coaxial) connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arash Posted August 24, 2011 Author Share Posted August 24, 2011 Thanks for reply... you said you've sold yours... so what did you buy istead? I will know if I can use something else ... for example a sound card or something.. is there somehing else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 I bought an Emotiva XDA-1 DAC and an ASUS Xonar DS sound card for the HTPC. The decision on the XDA-1 was largely because of it having more SPDIF inputs than the DacMagic at 2 optical, 2 coaxial, 1 USB, and 1 AES/EBU. Frankly I think the DacMagic might sound a tiny bit better overall but in my system I needed the additional inputs. I have the output of the XDA-1 hooked to a vintage McIntosh preamp which just doesn't have the quantity of connections like the more modern equipment does. All in all I am VERY happy with the performance of the system that I have here. Of course there are places where I can improve but I think I've reached that "last 5%" point where any significant improvements are going to cost me a ton of $$ that I just don't have (and probably wouldn't spend if I did) to invest at this time. Here's a picture of the crap I'm forced to listen to every day... [] The current equipment list is posted in my profile if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted August 24, 2011 Moderators Share Posted August 24, 2011 Here's a picture of the crap I'm forced to listen to every day... Darn you really have it rough, how you get by with that ? [] And it looks great also, the things we have to put up with. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Hey... Come on... Compared to many (if not most) here what I listen to is just a step or two above a low grade Wal-Mart ghetto-blaster in their eyes. I'm OK with that. It's all I can afford at the moment. Just as soon as I can afford better I WILL have better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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