DAC+ Blu Ray player suggestion needed

[Bloom@83]

Hi All


I have booked the Elac B6 speakers (absolutely mindblowing sound for the price , beating out Wharfedales, Q Acoustics, Dali & others in the same price bracket) & Marantz PM5005 after extensive audition.

Now my question is about source. Initially I was thinking about buying the Pioneer BDP180 Blu Ray player , but forum searches made me think that for the same price I can get a lower priced Blu Ray player and a good DAC which would overall be better for sound quality.My collection is mainly HD audio files , flacs and Audio CDs.And I will not be using this for home theater in future.

Please suggest as I'm confused on this point.I am also told dedicated CD players like CD5005 are better for SQ , but its out of my budget for now and more importantly - I will not be able to play digital files through it (if I'm not wrong).

Kindly suggest (considering my budget cannot cross 20K for this).

Thanks

PS: I own a FiiO E07 Andes DAC+ Amp which I use with my iPod and FiiO X1. Will this be sufficient?

 

[spandan414]

Hi All


I have booked the Elac B6 speakers (absolutely mindblowing sound for the price , beating out Wharfedales, Q Acoustics, Dali & others in the same price bracket) & Marantz PM5005 after extensive audition.

Now my question is about source. Initially I was thinking about buying the Pioneer BDP180 Blu Ray player , but forum searches made me think that for the same price I can get a lower priced Blu Ray player and a good DAC which would overall be better for sound quality.My collection is mainly HD audio files , flacs and Audio CDs.And I will not be using this for home theater in future.

Please suggest as I'm confused on this point.I am also told dedicated CD players like CD5005 are better for SQ , but its out of my budget for now and more importantly - I will not be able to play digital files through it (if I'm not wrong).

Kindly suggest (considering my budget cannot cross 20K for this).

Thanks

PS: I own a FiiO E07 Andes DAC+ Amp which I use with my iPod and FiiO X1. Will this be sufficient?

You can pickup any bluray player which has a digital output (optical or coaxial) and connect it to a DAC. Make sure that the bluray player that you are buying plays FLACs and HD Audio formats. The other alternative that you have is the Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC setup. This is far better in-terms of sound quality compared to the Bluray + DAC setup.

DAC suggestions:
schiit modi 2 uber: This will cost you around 15K
SMSL Sanksrit 6th Edition: Will cost you around 10K

Thanks,
Sam.

 

[Bloom@83]

Thank you for the reply and suggestions .

Since I'm new to this and not very technical as of now , can you please tell me how a Raspberry Pi3 and a DAC set up will help me play HiDef files and Audio CDs both?I did a few quick searches and will appreciate a tutorial.

Also , from do I purchase the Modi 2 from Kolkata / online?

 

[srikar2011]

You can pickup any bluray player which has a digital output (optical or coaxial) and connect it to a DAC. Make sure that the bluray player that you are buying plays FLACs and HD Audio formats. The other alternative that you have is the Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC setup. This is far better in-terms of sound quality compared to the Bluray + DAC setup.

I recently purchased Arcam Irdac and thought of connecting it to my Sony Bluray or Media player.
Does Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC combo sound good than Bluray/Media player + DAC? If so I need to seriously consider the purchase of Pi 3.

Awaiting for your inputs..

Regards
Srikar

 

[s_sachin]

I recently purchased Arcam Irdac and thought of connecting it to my Sony Bluray or Media player.
Does Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC combo sound good than Bluray/Media player + DAC? If so I need to seriously consider the purchase of Pi 3.

Awaiting for your inputs..

Regards
Srikar

Srikar - Try the coax out of sony blu ray, you may be pleasantly surprised. i recently got a sony bdp 6500, it plays dsd as well. I have it connected to the coax of the gungnir dac. It does sound very good and i feel better than with coax from Juli@ card on PC.

 

[Bloom@83]

I recently purchased Arcam Irdac and thought of connecting it to my Sony Bluray or Media player.
Does Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC combo sound good than Bluray/Media player + DAC? If so I need to seriously consider the purchase of Pi 3.

Awaiting for your inputs..

Regards
Srikar

Does your Sony Player support flac?I have a Sony Blu Ray player which doesn't, and most of my collection is in flac files only.

 

[srikar2011]

Does your Sony Player support flac?I have a Sony Blu Ray player which doesn't, and most of my collection is in flac files only.

Yes my Sony BDP does support flac's.

 

[Bloom@83]

Okay. I was thinking of buying the Pioneer BDP 180 which has very good feedback for audio playback and support of different formats.


Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

[spandan414]

Thank you for the reply and suggestions .

Since I'm new to this and not very technical as of now , can you please tell me how a Raspberry Pi3 and a DAC set up will help me play HiDef files and Audio CDs both?I did a few quick searches and will appreciate a tutorial.

Also , from do I purchase the Modi 2 from Kolkata / online?

You can buy Modi 2 and also Modi 2 Uber from Headphone Zone or directly order it from Schitt website and they will ship it to India.

You will need to install a audio player called MOODE on the Raspberry Pi 3 memory card. Here is a link to the setup guide. Its pretty simple.

 

[spandan414]

I recently purchased Arcam Irdac and thought of connecting it to my Sony Bluray or Media player.
Does Raspberry Pi 3 + DAC combo sound good than Bluray/Media player + DAC? If so I need to seriously consider the purchase of Pi 3.

Awaiting for your inputs..

Regards
Srikar

Yes. I found the Pi + DAC far better than my Samsung Bluray player + DAC combination. There are many reasons for it apart from the obvious sound quality improvement. MOODE is a proper audio player and the user interface excellent. Plays any audio format you throw at it. The Pi runs on Linux which is very fast. The Pi 3 has built in Wi-Fi which works like a charm.

Thanks,
Sam.

 

[s_sachin]

One more difference is the usb with pi and a coax with sound card/ blu Ray. It may be debatable but I always found coax to be superior than usb/optical atleast with dacs I have owned

Otherwise pi or any pc/laptop with usb is the best option. Reason I am still holding my pc with a juli@ card for coax

 

[srikar2011]

Finally I connected my sony bluray player via Coaxial cable to DAC and from DAC analog cables to Receiver. My DAC is detected with Coaxial cable,ie Coaxial light is blinking on the DAC. In Marantz receiver Bluray is detected by HDMI. So when I played my audio tracks of pendrive which connected to bluray player, i could able to able hear the tracks but the not video. Kindly guide me to see the video or menu of my pendrive in TV.

Thanks
Srikar

 

[shibashis]

Okay. I was thinking of buying the Pioneer BDP 180 which has very good feedback for audio playback and support of different formats.


Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

In my opinion for music listening only the Pioneer will be a waste, if you wish to serve the dual purpose of music and movies then the Pioneer makes sense. For music you should go the way of a DAC, a good one.
Answer the questions,
1) How much of your music is in CD?
2) Are you likely to listen to CDs most of the time?

If the answer for both yields that yes you are likely to listen to CDs almost 80% of the time only then a dedicated CD player or the likes of Pioneer makes sense. Otherwise if FLAC/WAV/MP3s are your primary source then must consider a laptop/RP3 + DAC setup.
Do you have an old laptop lying around, it can be easily turned into a dedicated music player, control it with your phone/tablet.

I used the E07K as my DAC for quite a while, it is a fantastic little device but a good DAC will offer you much more. Schiit is very popular in the forum, you can get some great deals if you are open to used equipment.

 

[MaSh]

Finally I connected my sony bluray player via Coaxial cable to DAC and from DAC analog cables to Receiver. My DAC is detected with Coaxial cable,ie Coaxial light is blinking on the DAC. In Marantz receiver Bluray is detected by HDMI. So when I played my audio tracks of pendrive which connected to bluray player, i could able to able hear the tracks but the not video. Kindly guide me to see the video or menu of my pendrive in TV.

Thanks
Srikar

What is the source you are selecting in your Marantz? If you select the HDMI source, then you will see the video and hear the sound. However, if you select an analog input to which you have connected the DAC, you will only be able to hear the sound and there will be no sound.

What you need to do is go into your Input Menu on the receiver and open the Input Assignment Table. There you will see your HDMI and Analog inputs. Under analog inputs enter the Analog input number which is connected to the DAC. Once done, when you select the Bluray HDMI source, the video would come from HDMI and Sound from the Analog input. It is a bit confusing in the beginning, but you'll get the hang of it soon.

MaSh