HI And thanks for reading this post.
I am listening to movies, blurays, dvds etc through my hp 8570p laptop (£1200). i7 3520m cpu, 4 gigs ram ddr3.
I am wondering if changing to a media streamer would help to increase audio and video quality.
So i picked up a budget Ac-Ryan for £80, have heard a few good things about it.
But laptop turned out to be much better for audio and video quality.
As budget streamers are not cutting it, do you think upgrading to a top end streamer would be a good move or do you think i should stick with the laptop.
Have you tried a top end streamer or read anything.
Many thanks in advance. John.
I am listening to movies, blurays, dvds etc through my hp 8570p laptop (£1200). i7 3520m cpu, 4 gigs ram ddr3.
I am wondering if changing to a media streamer would help to increase audio and video quality.
So i picked up a budget Ac-Ryan for £80, have heard a few good things about it.
But laptop turned out to be much better for audio and video quality.
As budget streamers are not cutting it, do you think upgrading to a top end streamer would be a good move or do you think i should stick with the laptop.
Have you tried a top end streamer or read anything.
Many thanks in advance. John.
I think you probably want to differentiate between media streamers and pure audio streamers.
You are apparently looking for media streamers (for video+audio) that can play your stuff from an external HDD or NAS, am I right?
As long as video playback is concerned, any streamer has to handle 1080p and have a good user interface. (This is what comes to my mind first). What was wrong with video playback on your Ac-Ryan?
When you are looking for good audio playback as well, I don´t know if combined video/high end audio streamers exist... (they probably do). But usually it is quite easy to use external DACs with your normally priced media streamer, as long that he has a digital audio-out via spdif, toslink or USB. On this output, you can install the high end DAC of your choice (or build your own, since this is diyaudio).
Et voilá: good video and very good audio playback...
You are apparently looking for media streamers (for video+audio) that can play your stuff from an external HDD or NAS, am I right?
As long as video playback is concerned, any streamer has to handle 1080p and have a good user interface. (This is what comes to my mind first). What was wrong with video playback on your Ac-Ryan?
When you are looking for good audio playback as well, I don´t know if combined video/high end audio streamers exist... (they probably do). But usually it is quite easy to use external DACs with your normally priced media streamer, as long that he has a digital audio-out via spdif, toslink or USB. On this output, you can install the high end DAC of your choice (or build your own, since this is diyaudio).
Et voilá: good video and very good audio playback...
Hi Thanks for the reply.
I want to play movies from external Hdd, music as well sometimes, or better still if the hdd slots into the media streamer as the Ac Ryan allows.
The video did not look as good and audio quality was lower on the Ac Ryan, laptop sound was smoother, more detailed.
Video on laptop was better, more cleaner, solid, Ac Ryan the colours not as strong, slightly grainy.
For audio I am running the laptop usb into a headroom desktop dac (£700) and it does sound good, i am wondering how a top end streamer might sound through the Headroom.
For Video i am running hdmi from laptop into a acer hd projector.
Many thanks. John.
I want to play movies from external Hdd, music as well sometimes, or better still if the hdd slots into the media streamer as the Ac Ryan allows.
The video did not look as good and audio quality was lower on the Ac Ryan, laptop sound was smoother, more detailed.
Video on laptop was better, more cleaner, solid, Ac Ryan the colours not as strong, slightly grainy.
For audio I am running the laptop usb into a headroom desktop dac (£700) and it does sound good, i am wondering how a top end streamer might sound through the Headroom.
For Video i am running hdmi from laptop into a acer hd projector.
Many thanks. John.
It all comes down to CPU processing power and software compatibility. Whenever I use a third party device such as Sony playstation or apple TV, I always end up wanting more out of it. With a Computer I just ask myself what software should I try, and do I need to update a hardware component.
The DAC component has the greatest effect on Sound Quality.
Now back to your question about the streamer. MOG is advertised to stream at 320kbps MP3 through a wifi connection, uncompressed cd is around 1411kbps.
Now ask yourself, how much should you invest in playing a 320kbps MP3 source signal?
The DAC component has the greatest effect on Sound Quality.
Now back to your question about the streamer. MOG is advertised to stream at 320kbps MP3 through a wifi connection, uncompressed cd is around 1411kbps.
Now ask yourself, how much should you invest in playing a 320kbps MP3 source signal?
HI. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
The money is not a problem. At the moment i am running the headroom dac into a £10k audio system which i picked up on ebay by the sniping method.
But the thing which really bugs me is it does not sound like a 10k system. The speakers and active amps are working fine, for video the laptop is running into a acer projector (£2k). I gave it a good listening to yesterday and it just sounds ok but nothing like a 10k system should. The video quality is ok as well.
By process of elimination the weak link might be the laptop. My reasoning is perhaps a pc is a jack-of-all-trades, in that it is used for word processing, internet surfing, spreadsheets, etc Perhaps a streamer which is specalised to do one thing may excel in that area, which is the reason for this thread.
Also someone suggested to run the pc hdd into a bluray player (with usb port), which is supposed to give excellent results.
Have you tried this at all.
Your thoughts and suggestions will be most appreciated.
Many thanks. John.
The money is not a problem. At the moment i am running the headroom dac into a £10k audio system which i picked up on ebay by the sniping method.
But the thing which really bugs me is it does not sound like a 10k system. The speakers and active amps are working fine, for video the laptop is running into a acer projector (£2k). I gave it a good listening to yesterday and it just sounds ok but nothing like a 10k system should. The video quality is ok as well.
By process of elimination the weak link might be the laptop. My reasoning is perhaps a pc is a jack-of-all-trades, in that it is used for word processing, internet surfing, spreadsheets, etc Perhaps a streamer which is specalised to do one thing may excel in that area, which is the reason for this thread.
Also someone suggested to run the pc hdd into a bluray player (with usb port), which is supposed to give excellent results.
Have you tried this at all.
Your thoughts and suggestions will be most appreciated.
Many thanks. John.
The source is only sending 1010101010101...... to the DAC so there's not much that can go wrong.The only issue here is file Quality.(Up-sampling, Down-sampling, Format changes ,etc)
I have a Squeezebox duet for streaming and a ga-z77-wifi ITX based computer that I am using most of the time. The Duet is nice if you want to change a song-channel-volume you just need a device that can open up a web page.(I-phone)
The Headroom DAC mini seems to be quite dated (2006), the newer DACs have come a long way. For example wm8741 and es9018 chips.
I am looking at buying a Resonessence Labs Concero HD. It seems to have a large following of very happy customers and it comes with a remote. Even the non HD version would be nice if you didn't want to try DSD signal (computer source)
The Blue-Ray setup work's but the problems are having a TV to monitor, interact with your files, and third party software. I would never use it.
I hope this helps.
I have a Squeezebox duet for streaming and a ga-z77-wifi ITX based computer that I am using most of the time. The Duet is nice if you want to change a song-channel-volume you just need a device that can open up a web page.(I-phone)
The Headroom DAC mini seems to be quite dated (2006), the newer DACs have come a long way. For example wm8741 and es9018 chips.
I am looking at buying a Resonessence Labs Concero HD. It seems to have a large following of very happy customers and it comes with a remote. Even the non HD version would be nice if you didn't want to try DSD signal (computer source)
The Blue-Ray setup work's but the problems are having a TV to monitor, interact with your files, and third party software. I would never use it.
I hope this helps.
Hi Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
If the equipment is all fine then it is probably the room acoustics.
I remember listing to my equipment in the small bedroom a few years ago and it sounded fantastic.
My daughter got married and moved out so i converted her room into my listening room and the sound quality went absolutely downhill. I mean it was awful, like some cheap $50 set up.
It is amazing how much difference the room can make, once you are in a bad room there is nothing you can do.
Many thanks. John.
If the equipment is all fine then it is probably the room acoustics.
I remember listing to my equipment in the small bedroom a few years ago and it sounded fantastic.
My daughter got married and moved out so i converted her room into my listening room and the sound quality went absolutely downhill. I mean it was awful, like some cheap $50 set up.
It is amazing how much difference the room can make, once you are in a bad room there is nothing you can do.
Many thanks. John.
Yes speaker placement and room acoustics are very important. You need to start changing things around. I'd start with speaker placement and throw a few blankets and pillows near the reflective areas. You have to test things out, and have some fun.
I am also suffering from big speaker little room syndrome.🙁
But I am still finding improvements.
Good luck!
I am also suffering from big speaker little room syndrome.🙁
But I am still finding improvements.
Good luck!
i am having a similar conundrum --
is there a (cost effective) dedicated hifi streaming machine that can serve up hi-rez files thru a USB/Tos/aes-ebu interface ? Or do i have to make a fanless PC to do just this ? Most of the ones I can find either have CD drives and/or a dac/fancy case ... all of which adds needless cost 🙁
is there a (cost effective) dedicated hifi streaming machine that can serve up hi-rez files thru a USB/Tos/aes-ebu interface ? Or do i have to make a fanless PC to do just this ? Most of the ones I can find either have CD drives and/or a dac/fancy case ... all of which adds needless cost 🙁
All the newest hi-res files are moving to USB for larger sampling rates.
For Internet radio i'd use a Squeezbox duet there is little to be gained by spending more.
You can build a nice ITX computer for $500 US that will work great. Or if you want to try something trendy you can try using NUC miniPC. If you do a search for Media Player you'll get an idea for options. Asus has their EeeBox series if you want something pre built. Or if you want something more diverse use a laptop.
My ITX build uses a big fan so it spins slowly all the time and a Solid State Hard drive (SSHD). It runs silent.
For Internet radio i'd use a Squeezbox duet there is little to be gained by spending more.
You can build a nice ITX computer for $500 US that will work great. Or if you want to try something trendy you can try using NUC miniPC. If you do a search for Media Player you'll get an idea for options. Asus has their EeeBox series if you want something pre built. Or if you want something more diverse use a laptop.
My ITX build uses a big fan so it spins slowly all the time and a Solid State Hard drive (SSHD). It runs silent.
I did precisely that. I'm just stunned at the prices that folks are being asked to pay.... I guess I'll just do a home brew silent pc as suggested. Where does one get a card with nice digital outputs though ? Without a lame dac tagging along of course !
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