Blueray, Bitrate and DAC for a PC Home Theater

[samsailo]

I am planing to set up a small PC theatre in my bedroom with good audio and video quality.Instead of the ordinary sound card i am planing to use a DAC for the audio with some Dali Ikon speakers through a NAD amplifier,and a 21 inch monitor or a projector. Is it wiser to use a media player for this purpose or the original PC?Kindly help me sort out few problems.

I dont have a blueray player but wonder if i download a bluray movie and play it in a HDMI capable desktop or a media player would it retain the true qualities of a bluray? What if i blow up the picture on a Plasma or projector screen.

Secondly,I would like to know which has a better sound quality. A lossless audio format played directly from a PC played through an amplifier or a normal 128kbps MP3 through a DAC and then a dedicated amplifier.

Thirdly, Once a song has been ripped in 128kbps format and stored can the sound quality be really enhanced by reconverting it to a flac or lossless format or just by increasing the bitrate to about 192 or 320 kbps using some softwares like Formatfactory or dBamp.

Any suggestions better than the above mentioned configurations are always welcome. And i can spend only about a lakh on it..

 

[corElement]

no such thing as an ordinary soundcard, you will have a soundcard if you want audio to come to the dac, if the soundcard is inferior the dac output cannot compensate for the loss in data, so get a card like asus xonar d2 od d2x or hdav in yourcase since you want it for av and not just audio. theres also auzentech and ht omega. honestly with a card like asus xonar hdav another dac is pointless, the xonars come with professional grade internal dac's. Im jealous of your dalis.

 

[samsailo]

Will that mean that i wont be needing a separate DCA? or the inbuilt DAC in these sound cards are good enough? I give utmost importance to audio than videos.

 

[corElement]

the xonar d2c has a professional grade DAC so honestly i dont think you need an additional external one. the xonar costs 10k I believe.

 

[madbullram]

after repeated tests and session, it was very very clear even while using a DAC a FLAC file is superior to MP3 even at 320 KBPS. My DAC does a very good job with a 320 KBPS mp3 but I can close my eyes and tell when a FLAC is being played (of the same song). So for quality FLAC rules.

For you req you either can go with a HTPC or if you are looking at an easy option go with Media PLayers. They are good with projectors also.

 

[iaudio]

Samsailo, an external DAC for your two channel music, then what about your HT surround?
I infer that you are using a stereo Nad amp. So do you plan to get an AVR for surround or play downmixed audio thru 2 channel set up?

 

[samsailo]

Thanx fellas. I shall probably opt for an AV reciever later coz my budget is a little tight as of now. Thats downmix for now and upmix it later....these things arent cheap so have to get them one at a time. And since my first priority goes with audio i shall go with the stereo amp first and then of course the AV amp later.

What about my query on interconversion of audio formats.. Like converting an ordinary 128kbps MP3 to a FLAC format using some softwares like the Format Factory etc and plus which software converts MP3 to FLAC with the best quality audio?

Thanks

 

[iaudio]

I dont think converting 128kbps mp3 to flac is going to do any good other than increasing file size. Rather rip your cds to flac using eac with flac plug in.

 

[spirovious]

+1 to above as we can not get more from already lost information in mp3.

 

[samsailo]

YEAH..... thats exactly what i was thinking. i used to wonder how on earth will converting a file from Mp3 to FLAC improve the quality, after all whatever is lost has been lost during the ripping. I even tried converting an Mp3 to FLAC but noticed no difference in the quality.

Anyway thanx man, now one of my doubt has been clearified... what about the other two????

 

[iaudio]

sam, Even 128kbps mp3s get a new life when played through a decent DAC, but if I had invested my money in a DAC I would also take the pain to get good lossless music files to play.

 

[samsailo]

Thanks iaudio, but what about my other queries? my questions regarding bluray and other sorts?

 

[vpriyan]

FLAC, AAC, WMA Lossless are all same but FLAC rules