please help

[admin_exported]

Please help. What is the best sound quality? Direct through cables or through the air? more......

Hello,

I have just entered the world of HI FI 1 year ago. I have a pair of monitor audio BR5's, an Onkyo TX-SR605, a Philips 1080 37" tv, a 5 star sub woofer, 5 star QED hdmi leads, QED silver Anniversary XT speaker cable, and top class banana plugs. My surround speakers are Wharfdale Diamonds 9.1. Attached to my system is an apple tv, and 5 star Cord Company optical fibre connection to my amp. I also have a new ipod classic 120GB with Klipsch headphones and a pair of grado SR60's.

On my PC via itunes I have coverted all my music files to AIFF uncompressed music and the difference is amazing, especially on my headphones.

My questions are these:-

At present I play my uncompressed AIFF music files from my computers hard drive through my apple tv via Wi Fi.

1) Are musical sound waves better through wires or through the air via Wi Fi for example?

2) Would the sound quality be better if directly channeled from the computer via wires to my Onkyo amp?

3) Would the music sound better from a computer to a dedicated stereo amp?

4) Can you connect a hard drive or computer to an amp? Does the ethernet cable compromise sound quality?

1) If I buy a dedicated stereo amp and a pair of B&W 685's, and connect to my computers hard drive to the dedicated amp, would I need to upgrade my sound card, and if so what would be a suitable sound card for this set up?

2) And will a computer connected to an amp playing uncompressed AIFF files, sound better than a seperate cd player connected to dedicated stereo amp?

 

[nads]

I like wires.

having read a few things on here, here are a few things that come to mind. I am sure that others will add to and/or correct me where i am wrong/incorrect or just missguided.

1 It is best to get the "sound card " out of the PC. by sound card i mean the thing that will "play" the files. so an external PC sound card or a media player.

2 the digital signals then need converting to analouge. this can be donen few ways an inbuild DAC in the AV amp. the built in DAC in the Media player or by an external DAC.

3 input the analouge stereo signal into an AMP.

so how do i do it?

flac files on pc. played by a Squeezebox 3 to a DAC Magic to a stereo amp for the main listening.

for noise in the kitchen the analogue out from the SB3 is fed to Zone 2 of my AV amp and then wirelessly to some powered speakers.

for the bed room the Roku soundbrige stream wirelessly from the PC to the second AV amp which then powers the speakers.

does not really answer your question but might get you thinking.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with the Squeezebox to a good DAC to the stereo amp for main listening. I am really thrilled with my Squeezebox setup.

The thing is to get a good digital single to the DAC (better DAC = better sound). Personally I like wires. Other than running the wire it's simple and works every time.

 

[Anonymous]

There's already a thread on this - seems to be a duplicate.