TV to DAC Magic to Stereo

[admin_exported]

aright guys, I have a Stereo HIFI with a DAC magic. Into my dac magic I have an optical digital sound cable from my Bravia TV, Into my tv I have HDMI from my laptop. All the music I listen to is FLAC on Laptop. I pretty much have my Laptop connected all the time via HDMi to Tv as I use the Tv as a bigger display for work etc.

Im curious to what is a "better" connection, my audio + video from laptop being pushed to TV via HDMI and then the audio coming out of TV optically to DAC and on to my HIFI; or my laptop being linked via USB direct to the DAC.

I believe the USB link sounds "better", but am confused as the maximum sample rate and bit rate, (I have some 24 bit 96khz flac files) is higher for optical than USB into the dac magic!? Will it be the case that either HDMI audio is limited OR that the TV output is bitratesample rate limited or is it just a case of interferance as audio signal is passed through tv and then to DAC?

Optical out from laptop is not an option unfortunatley!

Thanks in Advance!

 

[Anonymous]

Just to say I have read around the forums in regards to this but everything I have read seems to deal with Blu Ray players/PS3's with 5.1 sound, just to reiterate this is Stereo music and what ever visual is on the screen of my laptop via HDMI to TV and then on via optical to DAC magic.

 

[Anonymous]

I do think that the signal passing through many steps can lead to degradation. Though one could argue that if we believe in the rule of digital signal, this can never happen. Have you checked the specification on your digital output from you TV. In other case it could be that signal from HDMI is converted to Analog by D/A converter in TV and then converted to Digital again by A/D converter which could result poorly.

This is a vague guess so I guess just believe your ears of what's best.

 

[SteveR750]

I do think that the signal passing through many steps can lead to degradation. Though one could argue that if we believe in the rule of digital signal, this can never happen. Have you checked the specification on your digital output from you TV. In other case it could be that signal from HDMI is converted to Analog by D/A converter in TV and then converted to Digital again by A/D converter which could result poorly.

This is a vague guess so I guess just believe your ears of what's best.

Depends alos what software / streamer you are using to play your music files with, and dos your PC have an optical out? If so then then this would the ideal way to connect your PC to the DAC, bypassing the TV, which must be at the very least resampling etc. There is a cambridge audio ASIO driver that you can download, which might work with the dacmagic - but I am not sure if it is adaptive or asynchronous as it is with the dacmagic+

 

[Anonymous]

aright mate, unfortunately no my laptop only has 3.5mm and hdmi out! Im using the foobar player..