PS3/DAC Combo

[admin_exported]

Hi guys

I currently have a USB Fubar 2 DAC,laptop and 1TB WD
Hard drive set up, and am happy with the sound. However i'm planning on
getting a PS3 and wondered if i'm right in saying that i can't use the
USB output on the PS3 for sound into my DAC, as there is no way of
installing the necessary drivers on there. Is this true, and if so
would i be right in thinking that if i upgrade my DAC to one with an
optical in, then i can use the PS3 as a transport,using it's optical
out, and connected to the WD Hard drive by USB.

If so, is there any difference in sound quality using the PS3 as a transport, rather than my laptop?

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

Correct in that you can't use the USB sockets on the PS3 to output audio into a DAC, you would need to get a DAC with an optical input. You can indeed connect the WD hard drive via USB, though I don't think you can use the PS3's playlist function on a USB drive - you certainly couldn't in the past but a firmware upgrade may have allowed this as I haven't tried for a while. A key issue is what format your music is in at the moment though. The PS3 only recognises a few formats (MP3, AAC, WMA and WAV are the main ones which spring to mind) so if your music is currently in a different format which is not supported (like Apple Lossless or FLAC) then you won't be able to play it.

Couldn't comment on the sound quality I'm afraid - it's going to depend a lot on what DAC you use to connect the PS3 to compared the USB one you currently use with your laptop.

 

[Anonymous]

"Correct in that you can't use the USB sockets on the PS3 to output
audio into a DAC, you would need to get a DAC with an optical input.
You can indeed connect the WD hard drive via USB, though I don't think
you can use the PS3's playlist function on a USB drive - you certainly
couldn't in the past but a firmware upgrade may have allowed this as I
haven't tried for a while. A key issue is what format your music is in
at the moment though. The PS3 only recognises a few formats (MP3, AAC,
WMA and WAV are the main ones which spring to mind) so if your music is
currently in a different format which is not supported (like Apple
Lossless or FLAC) then you won't be able to play it.

Couldn't
comment on the sound quality I'm afraid - it's going to depend a lot on
what DAC you use to connect the PS3 to compared the USB one you
currently use with your laptop."

Thanks for the info, just to answer your questions:

1. My music is all lossless WAV's so that should be fine.

2. The DAC i'm going to be using is a new Fubar DAC 4 which has an optical output and 24Bit/192kHz upsampling. The one i have currently sounds very good but is not as well spec'd being 16bit and 48KHz so essentially the new one should sound better. What i actually meant regards sound quality, was will there be much, if any sound difference between using a laptop as a source or using a PS3. I will have to try and find out if the newer PS3 firmware will allow the play the playlist function via a USB input.

Thanks

Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm currently using the PS3 in the manner you're thinking of with an external HD containing 3000+ wav files. I've been in the market for a DAC to use to hopefully bring the playback up to the standard of my cdp.

A couple of things that are sub-optimal with this setup are the poor media management and browsing on the PS3. As already mentioned you can't create playlists on an external HD so you're stick with browsing through the folder structure. Also the PS3 isn't silent and although mine isn't particularly loud it's certainly a different experience to using my cd player which is as far as I can tell silent.

My thinking at the moment is to look at one of the silent nettop pc's which are based on netbook type technology and can therefore run without cooling fans. They are pretty cheap to buy and also very small so easily fit in a hi-fi / tv stand. You could also install your choice of OS and use FLAC or other lossless compression formats and have playlists, artwork and possibly even use services like last.fm and Spotify. And you would get the choice to use USB for audio output.

I'm quite interested in the Firestone stuff and I think they have an offer on the Fubar IV at the moment, If you decide to make a purchase I would be interested to hear your impressions.

Cheers

Gareth

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback. Currently i'm using a Toshiba laptop plugged into my Fubar DAC and using RDP wirelessly from another laptop so i have remote access to it. To be honest i don't think i will purchase a PS3, i was thinking it may be an improvement in sound quality to use the optical out from the PS3 and upgrade to the Fubar 4 DAC, which as you say, is on offer at the moment. I like having Windows Media Player for playlists etc, it's better than most give it credit for. Think i may well just wait and get a Netbook for ease of use and use the SPDIF output at 24Bit as opposed to the 16Bit USB i currently use. Is there a discernable sound difference between 16Bit and 24Bit?

 

[Anonymous]

And after all that I've gone against my own "advice" and ordered the Spitfire to go with my PS3. Oh well!