Wow... a single 12TB NAS harddisk. For use with HTPC and for Audio only or AV?

I seem to have created some pollution here and I want to clear the air first before I continue.

It is a FACT that the audio sent out by both the Oppo and HTPC is bitstream which is raw and untouched without any processing. All things being equal, when the same receiving AV amp processed the bitstream audio, the quality WILL always be exactly the same regardless of whether we use HTPC, Oppo 105D, Popcornhour, Dune Max, ACRyan or any media player. YES, I totally agree with your statement about this and do not dispute it. With that being said, I shall continue with my own personal opinion about the bitstream audio.

Please regard what I say after this as my fairy tale story which are based on nonsense so you will be right if you disagree with me... I will not make any rebuttals. Just continue to read and give it some thought.

[attachmentid=7089577]

Look at my drawn diagram above. As I mentioned earlier, when the AV Amp received the Bitstream Audio, it will be the same when "all things being equal". Unfortunately it is not equal in my own assessment after various tests done by me. Don't misunderstand me... I don't refute anything about the Bitstream Audio itself. Its about the "pollution" affecting the delivery of the same Bitstream Audio before it reaches the AV Amp to be processed.

There will always be the neverending discussions about the reasons for using an expensive HDMI Version 2.0 cable (RM 200++) when a cheapo one selling at RM 50 can do the job equally well because the digital signal will still be the same in 0's and 1's. I belong to the "cheapo" HDMI camp previously because I do agree that its a fact that the digital audio and video will not change no matter what cable we used except for the loss of signal when extremely long HDMI cable is used. One day, a friend of mine brought an HDMI 2.0 cable costing around RM 380 (2 metres) for me to test and compare with my no brand cheapo RM 55 one. I was a disbeliever but I was caught totally surprised when the audio and video quality did actually improve based on my own observation. I was wondering... what the hell is going on? Then I was told that a good quality HDMI cable with proper electromagnetic shielding and gold-plated contact with silver strand in the cable can "ease" and "speed up" the transfer of the signal to the receiving amp with less pollution, less resistance and interference. Its just like water (bitstream audio/video) flowing through 2 pipes where one is a clean pipe and the other is a dirty pipe... the water is the same but its quality drops when the delivery has problems.

Ok... lets return to the HTPC versus the Oppo player. The computer is notorious for ground loop noise which are generated from various internal parts which can possibly pollute bitstream audio before it is sent out. PC Bluray drives can be very noisy without any effort done to dampen its internal mechanism and its build quality just cannot be compared to the drive in a good quality player such as the Oppo, Marantz, Primare.



About 1 to 2 years ago, I tested using a bluray disc on these 4 different "players" using my previous Denon 4520 AV Receiver (sold recently)...
1) My Oppo BDP-105D media player.
2) My Intel NUC i5 mini PC.
3) My MSI 17 inch i7 Notebook.
4) My Desktop i7 PC with 3 bluray drives.

... where the result was (1) has the best audio and (4) is the worst.

Eventhough my Desktop PC is water cooled, it can be quite noisy with its 5 large internal casing fans and an NVidia graphics card that has 2 fans. Somehow I believe that my Desktop PC should have "polluted" the audio from the time that its read from the disc, goes to the PC RAM memory, travels along the motherboard to the graphics card and then out to the HDMI cable. Probably the path that the audio travels is more complicated when compared to the path used by the Oppo player. I believe why the Intel NUC is the second best is because there is no moving parts inside with M2 SSD harddisk and the power supply is external.



I even used a low noise power supply unit from Jay's Audio to power my harddisk dock to reduce the current noise affecting the reading of the data in the harddisk!! Very small improvement but an improvement nonetheless.

I also played DSD audio from my Intel NUC mini PC to my DAC and found out that the sound quality from a SSD harddisk is slightly better than a 3.5 inch harddisk connected the same USB harddisk dock!



However, the audio from playing an actual bluray disc is better than from any harddisk. The bluray concert sounds much more lively and detailed.

And ALL using the same Bitstream Audio output! Anyone can call me stupid, call me crazy, say that I am talking rubbish and what I can reply is... I deserve the criticisms! Hehehe... no problem.

Video and Audio is both objective and subjective so its up to each person to choose what he/she thinks provides the best quality for the money spent. If anyone says that HTPC video quality with MadVR is much better than Oppo BDP-105D, then you are right not to buy Oppo. If anyone says Oppo is better, then that is also right too.

Sorry for my extremely long reply.

@saitong
is 2 x 6TB NAS RED inside for movies, I'm using Dune HD player to stream Bluray movie from NAS

Many new toys to play! 

I seem to have created some pollution here and I want to clear the air first before I continue.

It is a FACT that the audio sent out by both the Oppo and HTPC is bitstream which is raw and untouched without any processing. All things being equal, when the same receiving AV amp processed the bitstream audio, the quality WILL always be exactly the same regardless of whether we use HTPC, Oppo 105D, Popcornhour, Dune Max, ACRyan or any media player. YES, I totally agree with your statement about this and do not dispute it. With that being said, I shall continue with my own personal opinion about the bitstream audio.

Please regard what I say after this as my fairy tale story which are based on nonsense so you will be right if you disagree with me... I will not make any rebuttals. Just continue to read and give it some thought.

[attachmentid=7089577]

Look at my drawn diagram above. As I mentioned earlier, when the AV Amp received the Bitstream Audio, it will be the same when "all things being equal". Unfortunately it is not equal in my own assessment after various tests done by me. Don't misunderstand me... I don't refute anything about the Bitstream Audio itself. Its about the "pollution" affecting the delivery of the same Bitstream Audio before it reaches the AV Amp to be processed.

There will always be the neverending discussions about the reasons for using an expensive HDMI Version 2.0 cable (RM 200++) when a cheapo one selling at RM 50 can do the job equally well because the digital signal will still be the same in 0's and 1's. I belong to the "cheapo" HDMI camp previously because I do agree that its a fact that the digital audio and video will not change no matter what cable we used except for the loss of signal when extremely long HDMI cable is used. One day, a friend of mine brought an HDMI 2.0 cable costing around RM 380 (2 metres) for me to test and compare with my no brand cheapo RM 55 one. I was a disbeliever but I was caught totally surprised when the audio and video quality did actually improve based on my own observation. I was wondering... what the hell is going on? Then I was told that a good quality HDMI cable with proper electromagnetic shielding and gold-plated contact with silver strand in the cable can "ease" and "speed up" the transfer of the signal to the receiving amp with less pollution, less resistance and interference. Its just like water (bitstream audio/video) flowing through 2 pipes where one is a clean pipe and the other is a dirty pipe... the water is the same but its quality drops when the delivery has problems.

Ok... lets return to the HTPC versus the Oppo player. The computer is notorious for ground loop noise which are generated from various internal parts which can possibly pollute bitstream audio before it is sent out. PC Bluray drives can be very noisy without any effort done to dampen its internal mechanism and its build quality just cannot be compared to the drive in a good quality player such as the Oppo, Marantz, Primare.



About 1 to 2 years ago, I tested using a bluray disc on these 4 different "players" using my previous Denon 4520 AV Receiver (sold recently)...
1) My Oppo BDP-105D media player.
2) My Intel NUC i5 mini PC.
3) My MSI 17 inch i7 Notebook.
4) My Desktop i7 PC with 3 bluray drives.

... where the result was (1) has the best audio and (4) is the worst.

Eventhough my Desktop PC is water cooled, it can be quite noisy with its 5 large internal casing fans and an NVidia graphics card that has 2 fans. Somehow I believe that my Desktop PC should have "polluted" the audio from the time that its read from the disc, goes to the PC RAM memory, travels along the motherboard to the graphics card and then out to the HDMI cable. Probably the path that the audio travels is more complicated when compared to the path used by the Oppo player. I believe why the Intel NUC is the second best is because there is no moving parts inside with M2 SSD harddisk and the power supply is external.



I even used a low noise power supply unit from Jay's Audio to power my harddisk dock to reduce the current noise affecting the reading of the data in the harddisk!! Very small improvement but an improvement nonetheless.

I also played DSD audio from my Intel NUC mini PC to my DAC and found out that the sound quality from a SSD harddisk is slightly better than a 3.5 inch harddisk connected the same USB harddisk dock!



However, the audio from playing an actual bluray disc is better than from any harddisk. The bluray concert sounds much more lively and detailed.

And ALL using the same Bitstream Audio output! Anyone can call me stupid, call me crazy, say that I am talking rubbish and what I can reply is... I deserve the criticisms! Hehehe... no problem.

Video and Audio is both objective and subjective so its up to each person to choose what he/she thinks provides the best quality for the money spent. If anyone says that HTPC video quality with MadVR is much better than Oppo BDP-105D, then you are right not to buy Oppo. If anyone says Oppo is better, then that is also right too.

Sorry for my extremely long reply.

You want to play?

Just curious if you have your HTPC audio out to receiver set to at least 24bit 48000hz? Using Nvidia HDMI out for bitstream, it has a tendency to revert to 16bit and the SQ difference is pretty large.

Wow it's the kind of topic of believer vs non believer again 😜

Show me the science and I'll believe.

window weakness is the driver and sampling rate.
i rather listen song from play station

Windows weakness is because it's Windows. That is why audiophile prefer Mac or Linux

u mean micro soft haha

u mean micro soft haha.
i do have luck in 1 cheapo hdmi that can fight qed and wireworld brand in term of sound and video.

window weakness is the driver and sampling rate.
i rather listen song from play station

You know the funny thing is, microidiots actually had a very decent audio stack with Win XP? But they JUST have to decide to destroy everything with Vista, 7 and partly 8. 8.1 improved the audio stack in windows a little bit, 10 is more or less what 8.1 did but more streamlined but still isn't as robust as WinXP was.

And yes, the original fat PS3 that was launched (60GB and 20GB models) actually had decent audio playback with SACD support.

You know the funny thing is, microidiots actually had a very decent audio stack with Win XP? But they JUST have to decide to destroy everything with Vista, 7 and partly 8. 8.1 improved the audio stack in windows a little bit, 10 is more or less what 8.1 did but more streamlined but still isn't as robust as WinXP was.
And yes, the original fat PS3 that was launched (60GB and 20GB models) actually had decent audio playback with SACD support.

Share the detail of your cheapo hdmi and qed comparison