got a new music cd, in bluray format. how to listen on highest quality ?
Nov 29, 2017 at 9:18 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 7

FrogYS

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i bought a new music cd in a form of bluray.
PowerDVD shows:
Audio: LPCM 2.0 4608 kbps
output: LPCM 96Hz/24bits 2 channels

what do i need to do to get the maximum of it ?

i have the sennheiser momentum earphones and listening on my pc.
 
Nov 30, 2017 at 10:29 AM Post #2 of 7
I'll forego the usual "waste of money, placebo effect, hi-res audio is snakeoil" comments (which I admit jumped into my head), because it's rude and beside the point. More power to you if you think you need blu-ray audio.

Googling about doesn't reveal any audio playback software promising to handle HFPA/blu-ray audio. And if/when it does emerge, it'll probably be proprietary; I went through a similar debacle trying to play BR video on my computer. To play the disc on your computer itself you'd need to get an internal blu-ray drive (expensive) and then wait for expensive third-party playback software to emerge that supports it.

Better bet, and what people on other forums are talking about, is to just use a dedicated blu-ray player. Take the digital audio output from that, plug it into your amp/setup/whatever. Frankly involving a desktop PC is a compromise anyway given the amount of interference kicking around in them; I use PCs for my audio purposes myself, but resorted long ago to external DACs and amps just to cut out some of the noise.

Speaking of which, how do you currently use those headphones? Are they just plugged straight into your PC or have you got an external soundcard/amp/DAC?
 
Nov 30, 2017 at 6:08 PM Post #3 of 7
i plug my headphones directly to the pc. but i use the standard soundcard that comes with a normal motherboard.
play it with internal bluray drive.

usually i listen to music through my stereo system (plug my headphones there) but it doesnt play bluray. need to buy new one, too lazy to do the research...

I'll forego the usual "waste of money, placebo effect, hi-res audio is snakeoil"
correct me if im wrong, but as far as i know, people who think like that dont have much to do in these forums.
 
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Dec 1, 2017 at 8:24 AM Post #4 of 7
If you want to hear the audio as clear and accurate as possible, then by all means get a dedicated blu-ray player.
I have the Pioneer BDP-180K - stunning picture and sound, for the money.
 
Dec 1, 2017 at 11:32 AM Post #5 of 7
correct me if im wrong, but as far as i know, people who think like that dont have much to do in these forums.

As much as people who plug expensive headphones into the onboard analog output on a desktop computer's motherboard.

Look, it honestly doesn't matter to me what you do. Do what you please and enjoy your music. But I want to tell you one basic fact I discovered when I bought my first decent headphones and tried to connect them straight into my computer:

The integrated audio systems on computers suck. They've improved in the last few years, but they are dreadful - truly, truly dreadful. Honestly. If they were sound cards, they'd sell them for $2 in Maplin in the bargain bins. They totally lack power as 'amps' (plug something higher impedance into them and you literally don't get any bass frequencies) and they get a LOT of interference. On good headphones you can actually hear little clicks and whines as various components power on or transfer data. I'm told it's EM interference (don't quote me on this, I'm not an engineer) and that it's because the DAC process is taking place inside the computer - this is why high-end sound cards often have EM shields and special circuitry to filter noise from other components, and why motherboards often have TOSLINK outputs so you can feed the digital signal into an external DAC and amp of your own choosing (this is what I ended up doing).

Basically, if you care about audio quality at all, a motherboard's 3.5mm analog out is just about the worst thing you could possibly use, and worrying about Blu-Ray audio while using one is deeply paradoxical - like agonizing over your choice of bodykit when you're driving a Ford Kaa.

Before spending money on the 'bodykit' (Blu-Ray audio) you should really do something about the 'Ford Kaa' (the audio system). Consider getting an external sound card like the Creative Omni or a USB headphone amp/DAC combo like the FiiO E10k - these devices connect via USB and get the analog conversion process safely away from the cage of EM interference that is your computer, as well as providing a MUCH more powerful amp than your computer's integrated audio chip, which was designed more or less exclusively for speaker systems with their own amps (insofar as it was designed to do anything beyond making the Windows chimes audible). If you want to be fancier or have more options in the future, get a separate DAC (like a FiiO Taishan or one of those cheap USB-to-analog dongle soundcards) and a dedicated headphone amp like a Schiit Magni 3 or an Objective2 (if they're still around). Those are the two I'm vaguely familiar with (I have an O2) but Amazon has loads of other options as well, to suit all price points.

Covering these two bases - DAC outside the case, and a decent amp - with separate amp and DAC, or a DAC/amp combo, or a USB soundcard that does both - will transform the sound qualty you're getting. That should be priorities #1-100. Blu-Ray audio should be priority #101.

This all assumes you're still going to use the computer at all. If your existing hifi setup is decent, it'd make a lot more sense to just add a home blu-ray player to that. Most blu-ray players have TOSLINK out.
 
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Dec 1, 2017 at 12:05 PM Post #6 of 7
i bought a new music cd in a form of bluray.
PowerDVD shows:
Audio: LPCM 2.0 4608 kbps
output: LPCM 96Hz/24bits 2 channels
what do i need to do to get the maximum of it ?
i have the Sennheiser momentum earphones and listening on my pc.

This $70 USB-DAC/amp is about the cheapest you can try, for improving headphone audio (and it should improve audio quality, over on-board audio).
https://hifimediy.com/UX1-dac
 
Dec 4, 2017 at 5:52 AM Post #7 of 7
We still need some clarification on the software situation here. He's got an internal BR drive, but what media players, if any, are going to support BR audio discs? I Googled it and the results were inconclusive.

edit - this thread details a rather elaborate (read: PITA) method:

You could try MakeMKV with DTS-HD dll and use the FLAC profile. Then open in MKVtoolnix and exclude everything except the 1 audio track you want and the chapters. Load the mka file in to Foobar2000 and split in to tracks.

[cough]And then if you're feeling really hardcore, do a blind test against a normal CD player...[/cough]
 
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