Streamer differences?

2 words: User Interface

The PS3 interface is not designed for music and is quite buggy.

As long as the streamer doesn't do any additional processing to the data then there's only really jitter that can affect the sound quality.

btw I once tried my XBox 360 feeding my DAC and even set to stereo out it output everything at 48KHz. The resampling must have been poor as the sound quality was noticeably worse than other sources feeding the DAC.

hi,
as far as the interface is concerned for me it works flawlessly, once twonky is recognised all music is set out by artist and album, scrolling through is fast and without glitch so, in that area, for me there is no concerns tbh. I just wondered if I woul achieve better sound quality by paying extra cash for a standalone device when i have something else which can multitask.

I have not seriously tried my PS3 as an audio client yet, since it is connected via HDMI to my TV so I would not expect much from that set up.

Since I have both the PS3 and a Slim Transporter, I can try two things:

1. Connect the chaepo PS3 analog cable to my Naim pre-amp via RCA, compare with Transporter

2. Connect the PS3 via TOSLINK to the Transporter DAC in, compare with Transporter

I should try that one of these days. Gash07, is Twonky client freeware? Does it do video well?

I'd be interested to hear how the PS3 vs Transporter test goes. Thanks.

Is PS3 referring to a Playstation 3?

Sorry for the silly question...

That's what I had assumed.

quote:

Originally posted by gash07:
I just wondered if I woul achieve better sound quality by paying extra cash for a standalone device...

Usually yes....

I cannot imagine using a PS3 as a part of a Naim kit. But then again, what do I know. Does it sound good now? If so, just keep it as is.

Well for starters your sonos or SB (with the exception of the transporter) will not play 96/24 flac files, the PS3 will.

Quality wise I would not expect to hear any differences between using a PS3 v Sonos v Mac v PC into a DAC. Of course assuming they are all jitter free and they are not being re sampled (matt303 - this is what your XBOX360 is doing - it is windows based and media player does not support ASIO so everything gets re sampled to 48khz).

I have not tried my PS3 v Sonos yet, when I get home I will give it a go though my AV2 but I suspect I will not be able to tell them apart. Proof will be in the testing I guess. I also believe there is an iphone UI in development for PS3 control....this would be fantastic.

pcstockton - the PS3 makes a great addition to just about any home cinema, bluray's, upsampling DVD, streaming media, BBC iplayer, digital audio source and of course games

I admit, once bluray standards are settled down (and I own enough to justify)- I will replace the PS3's blurays duties with a dedicated player to get the HD audio decoding ability. But otherwise the PS3 is doing a fantastic job in my system right now.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
Usually yes....

I cannot imagine using a PS3 as a part of a Naim kit. But then again, what do I know. Does it sound good now? If so, just keep it as is.

I use a PS3 into my AV2 as a Blu-Ray player (and for very occasional gaming) but for network music playback I use my HDX - if you get the chance, try a decent sized (15" or so) touchscreen hooked up to the VGA and USB connections on the rear of the HDX ... as a user inteface I really think that takes some beating!

Phil

quote:

Originally posted by Occean:
pcstockton - the PS3 makes a great addition to just about any home cinema, bluray's, upsampling DVD, streaming media, BBC iplayer, digital audio source and of course games

I still use a DVD5 for SD DVD playback - I reckon that fed standard def into my JVC DILA-HD1 (with the HD1 doing the scaling) gives a better image than the PS3 upscaling SD DVD to 1080p...

quote:

Originally posted by Occean:
I admit, once bluray standards are settled down (and I own enough to justify)- I will replace the PS3's blurays duties with a dedicated player to get the HD audio decoding ability. But otherwise the PS3 is doing a fantastic job in my system right now.

Yup - unfortunately the PS3 runs very hot and very noisily so I'll be doing something very similar too!

:-D

Phil

quote:

Originally posted by avole:
I can only assume that the PS3 does a fair amount of processing before it starts streaming, and it's this that caused the differences.

...or that the output from the PS3 is suffering from quite a lot of jitter which is causing the DAC to sound different?

Possibly?

I do reckon that the PS3 playing CDs via digital audio into the AV2 (using the AV2 as a DAC) doesn't sound as good as the DVD5 playing CDs via digital audio into the AV2 (using the AV2 as a DAC)...

Phil

I concur, my PS3 doesn't sound as good as my sonos, both into anav2, just did the test and the difference was very apparent.

Hi, been away a while, in response to jyow, I dont think twonky is freeware but i got it free with my nas. Thanks for everyones responses, very interesting, i'd say the majority are saying ps3 is a little sub standard to be feeding naim equpment. For the mo' my listening situation will remain as is. For the record i found that the the ps3 streaming into s-nait sounded better than the playing cd's themselves in the ps3, strange i thought, but good as i much prefer to browse music without the inconvenience of cd's.

quote:

Originally posted by gash07:
For the record i found that the the ps3 streaming into s-nait sounded better than the playing cd's themselves in the ps3, strange i thought

Doesn't sound strange in the least to me.

May have worded last reply a little crudely, when I say playing the cd's themselves in ps3 I mean the ps3 was still using the optical out into s-naits dac but everything sounded better when the music was being streamed to said dac, rather than reading the info from cd. This result is what I found a little strange given that it was the same dac and the same digital info being used.

the PS3 might be introducing a grip of jitter.

Have you guys been into the PS3 setup menu and disabled the "sound enhancing" features? Could be a cause to the "big" differences you are experiencing.