Network bridge and windows audio default device

Audio Components DACs
1

Guys, I am new to this forum and planning to buy PS audio DS with network bridge option to access my music on HTPC.

I have a quick question for windows users;

I need my hometheater PC to keep both HDMI audio out and PS audio bridge DAC output active simultaneously, so that I can use HDMI output for watching movies and use Jriver to output music via PS audio bridge.

Windows tend to default one audio playback device active at a time and I don’t want to go through device panel every time.

Any of you used your unit in a similar set up as mine??

Thank you

Peter

2

Hi Peter, welcome to the PSA forum! :)

In your case you would stream music from JRMC running on HTPC to the Bridge via the UPnP (home network LAN), while movie player would use the HTPCs sound card to output movie audio via the HDMI. Therefore I do not foresee any issues here :)

3

iTunes.jpg

Any of you ever used DS/bridge option with windows iTunes??

Can PS audio DAC be selected from iTunes audio defaults (see picture)?

I have extensive iTunes library with red book CD’s and no high resolution audio at all, so I don’t see the need for JRMC.

It will make my life lot easier as I am buying stuff from iTunes and organizing my playlists constantly.

P

4

I don’t the answer to your configuration question but I assume you understand that anything you buy from the iTunes store is not red book quality, it’s 256k AAC. When possible (particularly if you’re buying a whole album), I would suggest buying the CD and then rip[ping it to iTunes. The DS will play the AAC files just fine but you’re paying Apple about as much for lossy compressed files as you would pay for the CD, which should sound noticeably better.

5

I know that iTunes downloads are little compressed but I am interested in lot of international music with no choice of buying cd’s.

I also have lots of cd’s ripped in lossless format to iTunes.

My favorite artists (Sting, Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman) are rare to come in DSD format.

Peter

6

Two of Sting’s more recent efforts were released as high resolution PCM files (96/24) and Sacred Love also came out in DSD. I believe Brand New Day came out as a DVD-Audio (it’s possible to rip the high-res sound files with the right software) but I’ve never seen a copy for sale. iTunes won’t do DSD on its own (on the Mac there are programs that work with iTunes that can handle DSD but I don’t know what there is for Windows, although some of the same programs may have Windows versions). The DS makes red book CDs sound so good that that there may not be a big advantage to the high res versions (it can still matter but the main factor is the quality of the mastering, which sometimes is better than the CD and sometimes not).