Hi-Def Hi-Fi AV hardware

PacketMan

PacketMan

So I really like Plex in my FreeBSD (Windows free) home environment. I am enjoying the various Plex clients, but the home theatre port for FreeBSD is especially nice.

So, I have a really nice stereo, but of course my old PC's have cheap sound cards in them. If a fellow wanted to build an appliance equipped with HD video, and Hi Fidelity audio, what should he consider? Obviously I am posting in this forum so what ever equipment it is, it must work with a box that is running the FreeBSD OS. PS3 has nice sound, and I use that now, but I am interested in a true HD HiFi player.

Some guys are using USB based DACs in a Linux environment. I'd like to avoid having to use an external device plugged into the PC. I really want to have a self-contained box.

Thoughts?
 
I am personally using NVIDIA video card and external HDMI receiver for my media center. Before that I've used SPDIF port on motherboard to connect the same receiver, but it was limited bandwidth to handle only either stereo or compressed multichannel, while HDMI can pass even full 7.1 without compression, if needed.
 
Well when I say Hi Fi audio I don't mean jacking audio through HDMI. What I did mean is audio hardware that is (typically) very expensive, say at least $1000 to start. This might be the wrong discussion for this type of forum, but I thought I'd ask. :p
 
All audio in PC is digital and you should have DAC somewhere in the chain. The only question is "where". You may try to do it inside PC with some expensive sound card, hoping that it will do it with proper quality, or you may pass digital stream as-is out of PC to some external DAC. I personally trust DAC of my Marantz HDMI receiver more then any sound card that I have. Does your very expensive audio hardware has any form of digital input to receive bit-perfect passthrough, or we are speaking about some amplifier on vacuum tubes that require external DAC and gold wires?
 
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mav@ said:
Does your very expensive audio hardware has any form of digital input to receive bit-perfect passthrough, or we are speaking about some amplifier on vacuum tubes that require external DAC and gold wires?
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My audio gear is strictly analog at the moment; no digital components exist, yet. And I didn't say my existing gear is very expensive. But I like to really think my future plans.

But to confess I didn't think about passing bit-perfect digital stream as-is to an external DAC. That's not what my (possible) future project is about.
 
My personal experience with analog PC audio ended 8-10 years ago with Audigy2ZS sound card (definitely not an audiophilic, but the best I could get on local market at the time). After that I migrated to SPDIF and external receiver for $500, that even with cheapest laptop sound card and crappy cable made me forget about static noise, cable crostallks and other analog things. Now I have 5 meters of noname HDMI cable passing 8 uncompressed audio channels at 192KHz/24bits or original DTS-HD MA or TrueHD stream, and I the only thing that really affects quality is the receiver itself, which can be as expensive as needed.
 
mav@ said:
Now I have 5 meters of noname HDMI cable passing 8 uncompressed audio channels at 192KHz/24bits or original DTS-HD MA or TrueHD stream, and I the only thing that really affects quality is the receiver itself, which can be as expensive as needed.
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Hmm, good points. More thinking is needed I see. Thanks mav@.
 
A 24bit PCM soundcard will do. Flac24 sound files are lossless and can take advantage of it. This has a higher sound range than cd audio. For streamrate, the highest one available is best, it's less gaps of sound per time frame (resolution). There's another protocol which is 1 bit DSP, that has high quality sound, it requires an analog sound filter, and it can't be readily converted or edited without losing sound quality. An analog sound noise filter for recordings is ok for working with any digital protocol.

mav@ said:
192KHz/24bits
Click to expand...

For speakers less ohms (6ohm) should mean better sound because there is less resistance in the circuit, as long as it matches the reciever's output. A tweeter, and a subwoofer in addition to speakers make for better sound. The higher wattage is just how much volume the speaker can produce before distorting the sound. Of course there's more, like manufacturing quality, newer technology and speaker material. I couldn't help much with amplifier selection, except that two mono amps is usually better for producing better stereo sound (it eliminates potential stereo cross-talk).

Here are links about comparisons of hdmi, optical digital, and digital coaxial...
http://www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-vs-optical-which-digital-audio-connection-to-use/
http://www.realtor.com/advice/optical-digital-vs-digital-coaxial-best-home-surround-sound/
 
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