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Topic: Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the (Read 8287 times) previous topic - next topic
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Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Hi - correct me if this question belongs to another forum group.

I've ripped my CD collection to FLAC files (Free Lossless Audio Codec), and I wonder how to get the best sound possible from the computer.

Currently i use this setup:

Computer with Windows 2003, running Winamp with FLAC plugin to play the music. The sound card used is called something like nVIDIA MCP SoundStorm 2 Audio, and has both analogue and S/PDIF output (coax/optical). The receiver is a Sony STR-DE 475 (5 ch, DD/DTS support etc.). Computer and receiver are currently connected with a cheap standard coax S/PDIF cable.

I want the S/PDIF signal from the computer to be the best possible, ideally, it should be the raw untouched data from the decoded FLAC file, just like when playing an audio CD in an ordinary CD-player.

But I've heard that this is almost impossible on ordinary sound cards, because they always resample any output to 48KHz, which is the only sampling rate supported by the S/PDIF port. I know that the SoundBlaster Live! does a really bad job about this resampling, and therefore, you can install a Winamp plugin that does the job better with an improved algorithm. But what about my nVIDIA MCP Soundstorm sound card?

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #1 –
I think only Creative cards resample audio passing through S/PDIF.

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #2 –
Creative and SoundBlaster wanna-bees (compatible).

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #3 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
Creative and SoundBlaster wanna-bees (compatible).

I have onboard sound on one box, a Realtek ALC655 chip with spdif output.  It's resamples all of the output to 48Khz/16-bit.  If you play 24/96 files they are resampled to 16/48.  Wouldn't mind finding a way around that.  I somehow doubt it is possible though.  Seems to be a rather common issue.

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #4 –
When it is part of the soundcard hardware, you are stuck with it. This is probably very common with motherboard built-ins. Soundblasters set the standard a long time ago. The computer industry seems to mainly see sound cards as "multimedia" and gaming devices, not real audio tools.

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #5 –
Duble0Syx: I think my audio codec is almost the same as yours. The nVIDIA mixer says:

Product name: nForce APU / SoundStorm
Model:nForce2 MCP-T


Firon: my nVIDIA soundcard also does that, the receiver says PCM/48KHz in the display when I play sound.

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #6 –
soluitions:

either:

buy new soundcard, which doesn't resample, like terratec ewx 2496 or M-audio,
there are also usb external soundcards iirc,

or:

use foobar2000 with resampler to 48k, then the on board soundcard doesn't do its bad job,
or simlar witzh winamp resampler plugin.

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #7 –
user: I've installed foobar now, loaded the DSP resample plugin pointed at 48KHz, and installed the Kernel Streaming Output plugin, so that the sound is not affected by the Windows Mixer settings (except from Master Volume, don't know why)

I use a small form factor PC to play the audio, and the only PCI slot is occupied by a TV tuner card, so can you recommend an USB or Firewire soundcard? I don't care about a lot of channels, a lot of input/output facilities, effects or hi-end D/A converter, the only thing needed is a S/PDIF port which is able to play back the raw decodec PCM data from my FLAC player program...

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #8 –
I picked up an M-Audio Transit several months ago which has an optical out. I use it on my laptop and it works extremely well, and for $60, I think it's a great solution. I will be moving it to a SFF HTPC when I decide to lay out the bucks for one.

The compact size is another big plus - easy to toss into the laptop bag when I take the laptop somewhere, and frankly, my girlfriend thinks I've already uglied-up the living room enough with my tower speakers and clunky receiver, so the fact that I can tuck the little Transit down into a small spot in the already cramped entertainment stand is great 

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #9 –
I wanted to use the digital output on my DFI NFII Ultra Infinity nForce2 based motherboard, too. Soundstorm is not good. I do not know the details any more, but suffice to say that every time I used it, and I tried everything, it outputted DTS or DD or whatever it is called. I have a Yamaha RX-V650 and I never manage to get PCM via soundtorm, even if I only had a STEREO signal. Obviously I relied on the display of my Yamaha receiver. Somewhere I read that one the great advanatge of soundtorm that it contained a DD or DTS or whatever (sorry I cannot remember any more) HW encoder. So gamers can use digital output instead of 6 analogue cables. In fact the article said that its alone worth as much as the entire motherboard and apparently was meant to be removed and marketed separately in later releases. Well I do not know and I do not care, but I wanted bit perfect result. So I bought M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

Triza
 

Playing FLAC music from PC through S/PDIF to receiver - what's the

Reply #11 –
Can't help you with a USB recommendation, but just wanted to add a few things to this thread:

* the resampling stuff is not Soundblaster-specific; rather it is in accordance with Intel's AC'97 spec.
* neither is Soundstorm the problem: supposedly it all depends on the codec that your motherboard is using...

For some really old and definitely outdated (like your motherboard ) info:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=19579

Anyway, the bottom line is that finding out which Realtek codec is on your board (don't they all have Realtek... ) gives you a definitive answer on whether you can ever force the board to output 44.1kHz. And, most likely you'll be out of luck, as said above...