Movies & TV Will splitting Audio/Video enhance sound quality ?

Ramadhir Singh

Ramadhir Singh

Wasseypur
Adept
So one of TV setup is like this:
FireTV Stick---> connected to TV HDMI, and TV Optical----> DAC ----> Active Speakers (L&R).
In this setup the TV can only pass PCM vis optical cable.

I do a a parallel setup, Bluray player ----> RCA Coax/spdif----> DAC----> Active speakers (L&R).
And ever since i discovered the sound quality is much much better if i play bluray of Dark Knight Rises, i'm not able to sleep comfortably.

I came across this - https://www.amazon.in/dp/B078JG2QFB
wondering if using this in setup#1, will enhance overall sound quality.
like instead of getting optical sound from TV, bypassing TV to process audio..

Is it the PCM of TV or the sound quality of the streaming services?
Anyone has any thoughts.
 
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I don't think there will be any benefit unless your audio chain is full HDMI in which case you would benefit using a HDMI ARC if your TV had one. That linked device will do the same thing which your TV does today - extract the audio from HDMI and pass it over Optical. Unlike HDMI, optical cannot transmit the higher formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS HD etc. but then your audio equipment needs to support that as well.
RCA to DAC - Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the DAC or am I missing something ?
 
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Optical out, or TOSLINK probably should not be used at all outside of headphones.

Unlike HDMI, TOSLINK does not have the bandwidth to carry the lossless versions of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, or more than two channels of PCM audio.
Click to expand...

en.wikipedia.org

TOSLINK - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Ramadhir Singh said:
Is it the PCM of TV or the sound quality of the streaming services?
Click to expand...

It's the quality of the streaming services, none of them come close to Blu-ray quality. Audio suffers more than the video because people are less likely to notice it.
 
ibose said:
HDMI ARC if your TV had one
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TV has ARC, but speakers don't have hdmi input.

ibose said:
RCA to DAC - Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the DAC or am I missing something ?
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I don't think it's helping much except a source switcher, and you are probably correct - optical is analog already.
Had the DAC lying idle so just plugged. might try removing it from chain & save its lifespan.
my TV doesn't support DD+ or atmos.

--
im little out of touch these days. Do you see any cheap solution of this ?
some IRL situation .. I'm not sure when i will be moving houses, I have already moved most of my gears to my parents with heavy heart.
let's say i invest in good equipment and in a month my office say "hey bro, go and take charge of that office". I have to sell it, and it will be very disheartening.

rsaeon said:
Optical out, or TOSLINK probably should not be used at all outside of headphones.
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but thats the only audio out in most of the equipment...



greenhorn said:
What DAC Do you have?
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its decade old stuff, Maverick audio's tube magic D1.
 
dissel said:
Ideal usage will be Headphone (open back) / IEM (unless the hiss is too much) with Maverick D1.

What are those Active speakers?
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d1 removed from chain post this thread. mine was the fully loaded d1, wit all possible upgrade available that time,. never observed any hiss issue, i used it to drive multiple hi-end headphone from bayers to denon, back in time...
speaker are s2000 from that pathetic company. ( product is good, company worst that i dont want to name them here).

Btw seem like issue with firetv's quality. for all music needs, i am falling back to my bdp now. life is good.
Recently played something from amazon music and same song sourced via apple music ... exact day and night difference.
amazon music is muffled with non-existence soundstage. this is a sample song -
, even yt sounds better than amazon.
 
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