WD TV Live Stream Media Player - Best Connection?

[DylanFan]

I use most of the time a large collection of CD'S via a ‘Rokan K2 Amp’ & ‘Kandy CD player’ which will remain my main source for now? - However I have an awful lot of music (70,000 tracks) ripped both on my networked PC & or USB drives mainly MP3 but a fair bit of flac - I've ‘acquired’ a ‘WD TV Live’ & rigged this up to my shared drives on my desk PC via ethernet (500 Home-Plug) as this is on 24/7 & was setup in minutes - I also have a Cambridge DAC Magic (the model with several optical/Coax inputs) as I used to use this with my previous CD player - The TV is connected to my DAC Magic via a 3 metre Toslink cable as I’m yet the go other than two channel.

I actually get pretty good quality from the ‘WD TV Live Streaming Player’ running from HDMI to my TV & then Toslink from the TV Optical out to the DAC Magic.

Now my question at last:

Would I gain anything by running the Toslink cable direct from the ‘WD TV Live’ optical out to my 'Dac Magic' ommitiing the audio going through the TV?

I'm thinking this is a pass-through? & omits using the on-board DAC on the WD TV Live? - This does work as I have tried it but I'm a little confused as to the four alternative outputs on the WD which are ‘AAC’ - ‘Dolby Digital’ - ‘DTS’ - ‘WMA Pro’ - Which of these shall I select to run the optical out to my ‘DAC Magic’ via Toslink if any? - Any tips will be most helpful - I’m actually rather impressed with my first foray into streaming & at some point will upgrade but just testing the waters for now & ripping to flac every spare minute I have 🙂

 

[professorhat]

Would I gain anything by running the Toslink cable direct from the ‘WD TV Live’ optical out to my 'Dac Magic' ommitiing the audio going through the TV?

Depends what's going on with the TV - if it's just routing the digital signal through the TV and out to the DAC, then it's unlikely to make too much of a difference I would think. If on the other hand the TV is performing a digital to analogue conversion, then another analogue to digital conversion, then i would expect this to affect the sound.

Best bet is to try it and see if you think there's a difference. If not, then go with whichever setup is easier for you.

I'm a little confused as to the four alternative outputs on the WD which are ‘AAC’ - ‘Dolby Digital’ - ‘DTS’ - ‘WMA Pro’ - Which of these shall I select to run the optical out to my ‘DAC Magic’ via Toslink if any?

So is this a setting in the WD's menus? I would think it's either going to be AAC or WMA Pro, but I don't really understand where you're doing this and what purpose these outputs have. Perhaps someone who also has the WD TV Live could help better.

 

[DylanFan]

The alternate inputs are in the WD Player options for optical pass-through.

The difference in sound quality with the TV out or WD out is about the same after some faffing about, but I'm going to run a second fibre cable to another input on the DAC Magic as it's easy enough to do as I'm not really sure of what happens in the TV & probably get a half decent cable as the one I'm using was really cheap though the older I get the less I'm convinced paying a fortune for cables is worth it - Thank for the reply.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

I suggest wd to tv hdmi for picture and optical from wd to dac for sound. Surely passing sound thru the tv has no advantage whatsoever. My wd is connected thru hdmi to my amp for picture and sound but toslink must be as good unless u use hd sound only available thru hdmi.
I love my wd. Seems very solid & competent for little money.

 

[DylanFan]

@Robin: The only reason I was going to run it through the TV was so as not to re-run (idleness) & conceal another optical, but no good reason to run it through the TV as I'm not sure what happens when the digital signal is in there - I'm quite surprised as to the quality from the WD esp. flac. It's quite amazing for the money - Thanks 🙂

 

[DylanFan]

Finally: Interestingly I bough a half decent optical cable (around £20) as the original was really cheap, thin (I also now suspect the optical out LED on the WD isn't very strong?) & the differences now between the TV optical out & the WD out are very, very apparent - The TV out sounds very over bassed (seems it was maybe being converted twice?) & constricted in comparison the WD out now sounds very good, with the levels the same I am really, really struggling to tell any difference between the network player & the Roksan CD player (in .flac) - Quite a shock really, & after years (decades) of using record decks & CD players its taking a bit of getting my head round that it sounds OK & there is for me a psychological barrier to go through - I'm listening to music I've just ripped I probably wouldn't have bothered finding the CD out to listen to & music I’ve bought & never played.

 

[lucyw888]

I'd go either AAC or WMA Pro ­

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Disagree lucyw. AAC is compessed. Forums always recommend flac or else alac etc. Always lossless unless u really need the space and then for mp3 players batch convert to that format/player. My wdlive plays flac well and carries album art happily.
WMApro?? Why would you?

 

[anas]

What do you think of the following setup ?

Im using WD tv live as my music and movies source .

I have connected the WD via opt toslink to Audiogen D1 DAC . RCA outout of the DAC is connected to Dayton DTA-120 AMP , it produce 60watt per channel .

speakers for now are an old JVC speakers. Put the finals will be Dayton and yamaha studio monitors.

I like the sound quality,

When listening or watching a movie at night i use my Sony mdr-v6 head phones.