Newbie question - Best way to stream

amitk777

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I have a following setup :

Go Flex Home NAS ( Contains 24/96 FLACs) on DLNA --> Foobar on a laptop , the card supports and setup for 24 bit output --> Headphone out to L/R RCA to my onkyo TX SR 503 reciever . The reciever runs on Pure Audio mode which is supposed shutdown any audio / video processsing.

My questions are : Where is the DA conversion happening is it happening on my PC or the receiver ?

Will a optical / co-axial out sound better , because DA conversion happens on receiver ?

Should I replace my pc by a media player that is able to output bitperfect audio ?

Looking for guidance folks.
 
When you user 3.5mm headphone jack or line out from a laptop or desktop, the audio is analogue, and so when you play a digital audio, your sound card does the conversion and send out analogue signals. For this to work it should be connected to analogue in of your receiver.

However when you use optical or coaxial the audio is already Digital and it should be connected to the digital input of your receiver to work. If at all a scenario exists for it to be connected to Analogue in of the receiver then we require a DAC in between. In case of receiver getting digital in, the conversion happens in the receiver before it passes on to the spks

Will digital audio sound better, subjective, as all would say. People usually prefer all Analogue route, from sound card/CD player to the Stereo AMP/AVR so that no D to A conversion needs to take place.

My experience says ...... the speakers play a major role in defining the end sound. A High quality analogue setup will sound avg with crap speakers in comparison to low end analogue setup or (even digital), with high quality speakers ........ but thats my personal opinion. Please no bashing by any one ..... :)

PS :: A PC with a good sound card is as good as (infact better) than a media player ....
 
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Thank you, Sam.
Of course the idea is also ease of use and power consumption. It is clear that htpc is more flexible.
What we need is small fanless htpc and nothing would beat it. For me Audio is the only consideration.
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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