ajinkya
Active Member
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- Oct 27, 2007
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I'll begin my question with a bit of background. I've recently convinced my iPod-carrying friend to go the hifi route (the trials and tribulations of this endevaour are a separate story). He has finally bought a Denon AVR and has his entire CD collection on harddisk in lossless WAV format (useful for his ipod music). He wants to stream his collection from his PC to a media server, since he already has everything in digital format. So he is adamant about not buying a good CD/DVD player until he is convinced of reasons why. And his why is where I started pondering. Since we both are engineers, to convince him I need to convince myself and hence the reason for this post. And so here's the long-drawn out question-
Is streaming lossless WAV to a media server, which is connected to an AVR via COAXIAL cable (very imp.) any worse than playing the same media through a dedicated CD\DVD player?
-Let's assume that the WAV files were converted from CD using good hardware and software. By this I mean he has a high-end Soundblaster kit with software and dedicated PC that has no other process running while he is converting CDs/DVDs. So far, I assume that the transfer from bits on CD to bits on HDD is pristine (correct me if this assumption is itself flawed).
-Now we stream this over a strong wireless network with negligible packet loss (he has a pre-N router so enough bandwidth for hi-res audio).
-It reaches the media server via the network (he is using a DLink DSM-520 but any one will do). The server is connected via coaxial to the digital coaxial input of the Denon.
-So far in this chain, I am only seeing bits being transferred. There is no digital-to-analogue (DAC) involved (again, please chime in if you see any flaws). The bits are being send to the AVR where the D-A conversion takes place for the first time and then the signals are processed and sent out to the various 2.1/5.1 speakers and we get sound.
If the above chain is valid, then the only hi-fidelity analog component needed is the AVR's DAC, since there are bits everywhere else which is just data. In such a scenario, why will a dedicated CD player connected to the AVR sound any better than the media server? I am assuming that the AVR and CD player have comparable DACs for sound conversion.
Sorry for the long post...just wanted to get your thoughts since this has been vexing me since morning. Looking forward to your solutions/answers.
Is streaming lossless WAV to a media server, which is connected to an AVR via COAXIAL cable (very imp.) any worse than playing the same media through a dedicated CD\DVD player?
-Let's assume that the WAV files were converted from CD using good hardware and software. By this I mean he has a high-end Soundblaster kit with software and dedicated PC that has no other process running while he is converting CDs/DVDs. So far, I assume that the transfer from bits on CD to bits on HDD is pristine (correct me if this assumption is itself flawed).
-Now we stream this over a strong wireless network with negligible packet loss (he has a pre-N router so enough bandwidth for hi-res audio).
-It reaches the media server via the network (he is using a DLink DSM-520 but any one will do). The server is connected via coaxial to the digital coaxial input of the Denon.
-So far in this chain, I am only seeing bits being transferred. There is no digital-to-analogue (DAC) involved (again, please chime in if you see any flaws). The bits are being send to the AVR where the D-A conversion takes place for the first time and then the signals are processed and sent out to the various 2.1/5.1 speakers and we get sound.
If the above chain is valid, then the only hi-fidelity analog component needed is the AVR's DAC, since there are bits everywhere else which is just data. In such a scenario, why will a dedicated CD player connected to the AVR sound any better than the media server? I am assuming that the AVR and CD player have comparable DACs for sound conversion.
Sorry for the long post...just wanted to get your thoughts since this has been vexing me since morning. Looking forward to your solutions/answers.