Oppo ISO Support Now Removed with New Firmware!

(And even for SACDs, there are ways to go totally files-only, rather than
needing a disc player every time you want to hear them)

You also probably understand that a large portion of the audio engineers
mixing music these days are playing off their computers - they just call
them DAW - Digital Audio Workstations. Their DAWs usually connect to an
external soundcard, which they call an audio interface. Their audio
interfaces have good quality ADCs and DACs.

You can build a silent PC and connect via USB or Firewire, an external DAC
of very high quality. Then your external DAC can output to an analog stage
that can be very high quality (and expensive). Of course, the PC can be
connected via HDMI or S/PDIF, but you might have a little more jitter since
the PC is then the master clock. With an asynchronous connection (like
correctly implemented USB2 and Firewire) the DAC's clock is the master,
which minimizes jitter. These high end PC -> external DAC solutions can be
every bit as high quality as anything out there. Almost always of higher
quality than an affordable A/V receiver (those $5K and under). BTW, what
DACs are in your Oppo? What sort of analog output stage does it have? Is the
output single ended or balanced? The external DACs you can connect to your
computer have some of the highest quality components available today.

I bring this up because I don't want everyone reading this thread to assume
using a computer as a source is always going to give you lower sound
quality.

*Audibly* matching its DAC performance is not that difficult.

Specs are great, but there is a point beyond which we can measure, but
can't hear, difference. Or do you think human hearing is infinitely
resolving?

Perhaps if you wrote 'X and Y sound different to me', full stop, it would
be a neutral and accurate report that leaves open both of the common,
real-life possibilities:

1) "I'm right, they really do sound different, but it's subtle enough that
some can't hear it"
2) "I'm mistaken, they don't really sound different"

But if you simply can't or won't accept that (2) might be true, despite
all evidence that biases are rife and people aren't flawlessly accurate
interpreters of what their senses tell them....there really isn't much to
discuss.

Most of the commercial A/V Receivers and transports don't necessarily spend
a lot of money on these components. Their products would be a lot more
expensive if they did.

Right now, some of the best ES9018 stuff out there is from the DIY
community. There are a bunch of commercial high-end products, but they're
out of my price range.

Here's some to look at (and pay attention to how much attention is dedicated
to the power supplies and analog output sections.):
http://www.exasound.com/
https://sites.google.com/site/ackodac/
http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/digital/buffalo.aspx

As far as building a high end PC... there's not much to it. You don't need a
lot of horsepower, you just need a CPU that's powerful enough to play high
resolution content. A i3 level Intel chip will be fine, and it's pretty
cheap. Combine that with a reasonable graphics card (actually most of the
modern video chipsets that are included with motherboards are powerful
enough) from NVidia or AMD/ATI will do. 4GB RAM, a quiet hard drive, etc. So
basically, a relatively cheap PC. The only tricky part is making sure you
use the right accessory components to make it quiet, but that's not that
hard or expensive. I have several PCs on my home network that are all pretty
cheap and basically silent. My HTPC in our family room connected to my best
audio system is a lot quieter than the ambient noise of the room (and I have
an older home without forced air heating/cooling). For storage I have a
dedicated server with a boat load of 2TB drives. The server is in a back
room and it can make a lot of noise because it is far enough from my
listening areas that it doesn't matter. As for the quality of graphics of a
PC (or dedicated graphics card) versus a Marvell Qdeo video processor...? I
can't imagine getting more flexibility and higher quality than I can achieve
with my ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card, but I've never tried to compare
them.

My HTPC is connected to a 55" HDTV (basically a big 1080p monitor). With my
HTPC, I can watch and record HDTV (I have 5 tuners - another device
connected to my network in a back room - one of the HDTV tuners - an
HDHomeRun Prime - lets me watch and record encrypted content because it has
cablecard functionality) with a very nice EPG interface; watch DVDs,
Blu-rays and online video; and listen to my music library, which consists of
ripped DVD-As, SACDs, Blu-rays, CDs and Vinyl rips (and some wonderful stuff
sourced from tape that I've discovered with the help of this group). So
there's very little I can't do with my HTPC. Because of the convenience of
my setup/interface, I rip all of my movies and music to my server and don't
bother with physical media. The discs are just stored away as backups. I've
since gained about 80lbs because I no longer have to get off my ass to
change the discs, so maybe I should rethink this hobby :-).

Back in the old days, I had a different component for just about everything
in my hifi system. I had a couple amps, a preamp, a pair of speakers for the
high frequencies, another pair for the mids and a huge subwoofer. This meant
I also had a specialized crossover. For input devices I had a nice turntable
with an enhanced arm and cartridge. Actually, I had to have a specialized
electronic component for the strain-gauge cartridge. I had a Neal cassette
deck, a TEAC reel-to-reel. I had a nice radio tuner. There was also a
dedicated equalizer. And eventually, I bought a CD transport and dedicated
DAC. This all fit neatly into a big fancy rack case and you could see all
the little lights blinking through the glass front doors. I thought this
looked pretty cool, but I was a big audio geek. I spent a fair amount on all
that stuff, but never considered it super audiophile.

Now that I'm old and cranky, I don't like lots of stuff and the blinking
lights. So part of the motivation for the HTPC was to simplify things
without sacrificing the experience. I think my current HTPC setup blows away
the old stuff. It sounds much better.

Anyhow, HTPCs aren't for everyone and they aren't nearly as simple as they
should be. Most of my siblings wouldn't want the hassle, besides the fact
that they probably aren't PC-savvy enough to deal with them.

However, I always like to point out to people that going the HTPC route
doesn't mean the experience of listening or watching is going to be worse.
If done right, it can be very, very good. I constantly read comments from
people saying the PC based systems are as good as the player's or receiver's
DACs, etc. And comments from respected magazine reviewers (like Sterophile)
saying the PC is too noisy, etc. But none of these people have much
experience with HTPCs and networked servers. But, that's beginning to
change. 10 years ago they were completely rejecting PC audio. Not so much
now.

As for firmware, in the 970 at least, some firmware updates fixed old bugs
while introducing new limitations or bugs. So it can be a judgement call
whether to stop at version X.1 or upgrade to version X.2.

Sent from my iPad

I spent a month in Australia a couple of years ago - great time was had -
good time of year to be there.

Shame you missed new year in Sidney mate.

If you go again, recommend the restaurant in the Shangri-La for new year's.

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