WD TV Live Hub As Music Server

[admin_exported]

Hi all. I'm about to start the tedious task of ripping my CD collection (using dBpoweramp) and storing on my home network. I already have a Western Digital TV Live Hub on my network with a 1TB hard drive so I don't need a further NAS storage device. The Live Hub will of course offer a music playback option and it is connected to an Onkyo TX-SR876 reciever. Music playback will be in the Onk's 'Pure Audio' mode and it is connected to ProAc's Response Hexa speakers with REL T3 Sub.

Now given that the TV Live Hub is connected to the Onk via HDMI it is the DAC in the Onk that is on conversion duties and it doesn't sound bad at all with the FLAC files I have tried so far. The thing is, I'm trying to way up the benefits of the new wave of music streamers such as Pioneer's N50. Aside from the few additional features which I am not bothered about, would they offer a better sound? Does it just come down to the DAC in the Onk v the DAC in the music streamer box? Would an alternative be to try an external DAC, which of course would have to be of higher quality than that in the Onk? If so an ideas what I should consider?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[fr0g]

You could of course experiment, but in all honesty, I wouldn't bother, as you say, it's using the AV amps DAC(s) and you'd probably need to spend quite a bit to gain any benefit (if at all - It would still need to feed through the AV amps analogue in unless you got a stereo amp as well!), and in the process make the whole system far more complicated.

My TV system has a Squeezebox going through my Yamaha receiver (as well as a WD Live which I use for films) and it sounds great.