Western Digital HD Media Player

[Bengali]

Hi,

Do you have the Western Digital HD Media player? How do you like the sound when playing back FLAC or WAV?

I'll be trying one out as soon as it arrives. plan to use the toslink output to my DAC. One thing I like about this unit, you don't need a PC. I just hope the sound quality out of the toslink is really good.

thx

[star882]

I think there's open source firmware for it. It can then be modified to output bit-perfect if it doesn't already.

[Bengali]

I think there's open source firmware for it. It can then be modified to output bit-perfect if it doesn't already.

interesting. didn't really find anything when googled. I'll just have to see how it sounds as is. right now I'm trying exact audio copy and flac.

[zakman35]

I have both WD TV and WD TV Live.
Sound quality from analog output really sucks.
In the other hand sound quality from Digital output using my dac (Valab NOS Dac) is quite good, although I wouldn’t call it “High End”.
Comparing with some budget or middle class cd – dvd players that I’ve own (Sony CDP-XE510, Philips DVP 5980, Philips SACD 963 SA), WD TV beats them all in every aspect, but comparing with a really revealing cd player like my “DIY CD player from CDROM”, WD TV lucks some of the detail and the attack. Most important it lucks some of the harmonics produced from string instruments especially in the middle section.
I’m not sure that firmware upgrade will improve sound quality but I believe that some experimentation with different toslink cables and a new linear psu will definitely improve sound quality.
(I didn’t notice any audible difference between wav or flac recordings).

[Bengali]

I have both WD TV and WD TV Live.
Sound quality from analog output really sucks.
In the other hand sound quality from Digital output using my dac (Valab NOS Dac) is quite good, although I wouldn’t call it “High End”.
Comparing with some budget or middle class cd – dvd players that I’ve own (Sony CDP-XE510, Philips DVP 5980, Philips SACD 963 SA), WD TV beats them all in every aspect, but comparing with a really revealing cd player like my “DIY CD player from CDROM”, WD TV lucks some of the detail and the attack. Most important it lucks some of the harmonics produced from string instruments especially in the middle section.
I’m not sure that firmware upgrade will improve sound quality but I believe that some experimentation with different toslink cables and a new linear psu will definitely improve sound quality.
(I didn’t notice any audible difference between wav or flac recordings).

great to know! thanks. I would not be using the analog outs.

do you find the sound quality will for the most part depend on the DAC when used with digital output?

or you think the digital output of the WD is not as good as other sources?
so even if you have a high end dac, it still cannot sound good?

[zakman35]

I think the flaws i mentioned before about sound quality is because of the switching power supply it uses. A linear power supply will probably bring more improvements than a better dac.

i didn't say it doesn't sound good.
it sounds very good as is and it has completely replace my other sources (CD -DVD - PC).
I am very happy with the sound as is, but i will try to improve it if possible.

[SoNic_real_one]

I have WDTV live connected optically to my Denon AVR-3805 receiver. It sounds really good - as good as it can via SPDIF optical connection (that means worse than coaxial SPDIF in regards to jitter).
The latest beta firmware made it capable to output corectly the HDCD files (wav, flac) corectly - if you have a HDCD decoder you will have a nice sound.

What it still bothers me is that it doesn't play bitperfect - 96kHz files or 48kHz are downsampled to 44.1kHz.

Of course my Denon DVD-2930 connected via DenonLinkIII trumps the poor WDTV Live, it plays DVD-A and SACD... but I knew that already.