HDMI or USB/DAC?
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Thanks - another option to consider. I presume there is a Sonos device that can interface with the laptop?
Also can use hard wired network if your wifi is slow.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
Chris C-B wrote:
What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop.
If the only input to your "HiFi" is RCA, I don't think you should worry too much about any conversion that might take place elsewhere. Or am I misunderstanding what you're trying to do? The way I read it, it's like someone who wants to put some video on VHS, but is worried about a 4K to 1080p conversion before sending the final thing over as an analog signal...?
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
Chris C-B wrote:
What I want is true CD quality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_Digital_Audio:
The standard also specifies the form of digital audio encoding (2-channel signed 16-bit Linear PCM sampled at 44,100 Hz)
When you talk about 192kbps, are you *sure* it's 192k*bps*, or a 24bit 192kHz DAC converter? True, CD quality is 704kbps (16bit*44kHz), and the 192kHz 24bit dacs are actually (suppose) to be doing 4608kbps... But to be honest: the problem with most USB DACs is the quality and price of the interanls and shielding, not really the kbps, as they start typically at 48kHz 16bit DACs (CD and better "quality") but its the other interference that needs to be "handled" that makes their sound quality poor. Also, "upsampling" isn't necessarily goining to make it sound better from 44kHz going to 192kHz
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
Maybe you can use a TV DAC, if you are planning to upgrade your TV someday and have the TV in the same room as your audio system. I used to have one of those cheap hdmi splitters and it is resting in a drawer somewhere. It sounded awful. Please consider that my amplifier is not a high end one, it is an 1983 AKAI, considered a cheap one in its day, but it packs its own punch :) In 2018 I bought a SONY Bravia TV which includes a more than decent audio DAC. Inputs are: network (DLNA/UPNP... wired or wifi), chromecast, hdmi and USB (memory stick or hard disks), probaly also bluetooth. Output is a 3.5 stereo jack in 3 modes (headphone, fixed and variable which is controlled by the volume on remote). Android TV gives plenty of choice for software, I use the included Chromecast audio receiver controlled by HiFi cast on my phone to play FLACs on my PC, and HDMI for CDs that i put in a blu-ray reader. Streamed FLACs and wired CDs sound so close that I cannot tell the differences. I compared the Bravia audio out with the one of a Chromecast audio, the Bravia sounds distinctly better.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
I'm building my own Bluetooth receiver from an ESP32. My software isn't ready for release yet, but the ESP-IDF A2DP sample app works (if you disable the automatic volume change demo). I coupled the ESP32 with a cheap I2S DAC from Amazon (Noradtjcca Dac Decoder I2S Player Beyond Es9023 For Raspberry: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors[^] and am more than happy with the resulting sound quality. I'm driving a Musical Fidelity E10 amp with Arcam Delta2 speakers.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
> is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? The *signal* rate (bits/second) of USB is far better than what's needed for the *encoding* rate (bits/second) of the audio files/streams, especially USB2 which can do 480 Mbps. The *sample* rate (samples/second) of a DAC is multiplied by the bits/sample and number of channels--usually two--of the inputs to get the number of bits/second needed to feed it at the rate for highest quality. For CD audio, this is 1.411 Mbps, which is even achievable by USB1. > but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware Even a "cheap" DAC can do 192 KHz at 24 bits/sample but needs 9.2 Mbps to do that at highest quality. Mainly what determines sound quality is the weakest component, of course. The analog stage electrical isolation (especially from the power source) tends to have the biggest impact these days, because fewer discrete components are needed in capable designs. A battery-operated device can achieve that isolation very easily. The digital bus (USB, I2S, SPDIF, etc.) can generally be considered equivalent to an audio noise wall, even with relatively cheap cables connecting the system nodes. Now, the perceptual encoding of Adagio+ is below even the "encoding" rate of CD audio, but it's unlikely you will be able to hear much of a difference between that and a CD. OTOH, if your system--including your ears--can distinguish between CD and SACD rates, then you may need to invest more in a better DAC.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
USB2 limited to 192kb/s? What gives you that idea?. It will be fine.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
Are you open to buying an audio interface a musician would use, such as a Focusrite Scarlett Solo ? I've not used this particular one, but have been very happy with my Focusrite Clarett 8-mic channel system for recording the California Pops Orchestra. Unfortunately, the rest of the season's concerts have been cancelled.
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Being a gentleman of ah ... how shall we say ... ah ... more mature years, I am 'social distancing' big time, i.e. staying home most of the time - so I signed up with Idagio, THE classical music streaming site. Currently I am taking the sound part of the HDMI stream and feeding it into my somewhat over-the-top HiFi system using RCA stereo connections. I have two different HDMI adaptors. The HDMI to RCA audio and PAL/SECAM vision has better sound quality than the HDMI to Audio 3.5mm jack and VGA, which, of course, gives a full 1080p picture, but has lower sound quality, probably due to being a cheaper bit of hardware. Because the old laptop I am using had multi-media aspirations, a lot of bass boost was put into the headphone socket, making it unusable for a direct connection. I am thinking about buying a USB input Digital to Analogue (DAC) device which will output to RCA to feed the HiFi. With my Adagio+ subscription, I get 320kbps/44.1 quality, but I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned? If so, the whole thing is a bust. What I want is true CD quality - which I am paying for with Idagio+ - but not sure how to get it from the Win7 laptop I am using to the HiFi system without quality loss, which is currently apparent using the DAC built into the laptop. Knowing little about hardware, I would be very grateful for any guidance from the CP hive-mind.
Chris C-B wrote:
I am not sure of the USB2 capabilities - is it a maximum of 192 kbps as I have heard mentioned?
Try both and go with whichever sounds better to you. The reality though, is since you're going into the stereo with analog through RCA cables & connectors, it really won't matter which you do.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.