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Digital Optical Audio Out sound quality

BongosAndPie

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If you want to use your tv as your streamer, since it hasTidal and it has a Digital Optical Audio out , if you run that direct to your DAC hiw will the quality of the sound be?
 
I'd expect it to be of good quality generally, but would think somewhat would depend on the tv itself as well as sources. Try it and see....
 
If you want to use your tv as your streamer, since it hasTidal and it has a Digital Optical Audio out , if you run that direct to your DAC hiw will the quality of the sound be?

It should be the same as coax or USB from a PC. Measured differences are really only in jitter AFAIK, and in that department toslink is usually the worst depending on how noisy the eletrical source is (a PC with a beefy graphics cards drawing 300w at non constant intervals, for instance), but it still VERY negligible because most (if not all) of it is inaudible.
 
If you want to use your tv as your streamer, since it hasTidal and it has a Digital Optical Audio out , if you run that direct to your DAC hiw will the quality of the sound be?
Assuming your DAC does not come with Dolby or DTS, you would have to feed a 2-channel PCM audio signal thru the TV's optical output, as your DAC will not work with a Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 (compressed/encoded) audio.
 
Optical connections are limited to 24/96 while coax and usb are greater. In addition optical does not carry a ground connection. Whether that matters or if you can hear the difference is not likely. But it is very important what formats you are trying to stream (ie SACD) as the connection does matter.
 
Optical connections are limited to 24/96 while coax and usb are greater. In addition optical does not carry a ground connection. Whether that matters or if you can hear the difference is not likely. But it is very important what formats you are trying to stream (ie SACD) as the connection does matter.
They are typically limited to 96khz, but there are some devices that can do 192 kHz over TOSLink I believe. I don't know if it's in the standard but I've seen devices that claim to support it.
 
What tv offers output above 24/96?
 
They are typically limited to 96khz, but there are some devices that can do 192 kHz over TOSLink I believe. I don't know if it's in the standard but I've seen devices that claim to support it.

of course, but they are exceptions and the buyer needs to look for them as they are not the norm
 
If you're talking about two channel stereo the sound quality from the TV optical output should be perfect. At least as good as coax or any other connection.
 
What tv offers output above 24/96?
TV output is 48k and probably 16 bit.
The main problem is unless the DAC has built in EQ, the user will not have EQ.
 
Ive been around this merry go round plenty. TV's as a source is very common for non-audiophiles, but there is no reason a TV can't be a good, solid source for a music system.

Max output from any TV source (provided it is actually a TV station, APP or net streaming source and not, for example, a DVD player connected to the TV ) is going to be 48khz/24bit/x amount of channels. So stop worrying about your optical needing to do 192khz. Forget it. You wouldn't hear (48/96 to 192khz) anyway.

Most (all?) modern smart TV's have a DSP - and yes -in some cases it is applied to the digital outputs as well. So, O.P., watch out and look through the TV's sound settings to make sure everything is as close to "flat", "standard", "normal" as possible and nothing is set to (e.g.)"speech", "cinema" or "night", if you want standard output. I have had good success with music streaming apps and TV's as sources to 2 channel DACs as long as all the sound settings are flat.

IME, Most modern digital built in TV tuners and Streaming services will broadcast either an uncompressed 2 channel 24bit/48-96khz from the station or a compressed 5.1 signal. I see lately there is some ATMOS stuff coming over Netflix. TOSLINK Digital Audio Output need not apply for atmos. There is a problem here when the TV is receiving a 5.1 sound signal and set to Digital Audio Out via TOSLINK. The TV must be told to output PCM audio only (to work correctly with a 2 channel DAC) to downmix the centre and rear channel vocals to the Left and Right channels of the DAC at the receiving end. This can sound pretty bad with netflix for example.

TLDR - for absolute best audio output from a smart TV, for the love of god - use an AVR with an HDMI eARC connection - and let the AVR do the legwork with the signal from the station/app. This will ensure you are getting all the sources audio properly dealt with. Whether you use 2.0, 5.1 or 7.2.4 with the AVR. The AVR will downmix or upmix better than the TV or the TV app will, fo' sho'
 
Assuming your DAC does not come with Dolby or DTS, you would have to feed a 2-channel PCM audio signal thru the TV's optical output, as your DAC will not work with a Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 (compressed/encoded) audio.
TV has 2 channel output option
 
As others have pointed out, the question is more what the app on the TV and the TV itself does to the signal and most apps on smart TVs are probably going to convert everything to 16/48. If that conversion is "good" - no reason to not use the option if most convenient. Watch out for hidden settings/ DSP as others have pointed out. If for example volume levelling is switched on in the app on the TV, ouput may be quieter than the feed into the DAC from a different source. In the absence of OP having an analyser, worth comparing to the alternative options on hand.
 
Would there be a noticeable loss going from HDMI in to optical out when compared to a more “dedicated” source? I have a PC and PS5 going into my TV via HDMI. Then I have optical out (PCM) from the TV going to my DAC (schiit modi multibit).

I’m interested in getting a better DAC (maybe with a built in LAN streamer) but am wondering if it would be a waste of money if my TV as the secondary source already sucks. Thoughts?
 
Thoughts?
The only thing you're going to lose for optical vs. HDMI is certain types of multichannel support. If you are running stereo, it's unlikely you will hit any new audible problem over toslink. The only common issue is that some TVs have such noisy output from their optical outs that it causes dropouts in the DAC. If you don't hear any, you don't need to worry.

I have a very similar setup in my living room and it's aces.

BTW - upgrading your DAC or LAN streamer in pursuit of better sound are the 3rd and 2nd-worst uses of money for system upgrades, the first would be fancier cables.

Despite what many, many people on Youtube and various forums will tell you - The nice thing about digital sources is they don't really suck or not suck. You either get all your bits into the DAC and converted to analog, or you don't. In the latter case you will hear glitchy audio. There isn't some more subtle, nuanced form of sound quality hiding in the bits. Some people have a profound misunderstanding of digital audio and go around saying "bits aren't bits" and you should ignore those people.

These days, even mediocre DACs deliver better sound quality than good amps, so your limiting factor in a modern system is rarely if ever the digital stuff.

TL;DR buy better speakers if you buy anything, keep the stuff you have if it's working.
 
The only thing you're going to lose for optical vs. HDMI is certain types of multichannel support. If you are running stereo, it's unlikely you will hit any new audible problem over toslink. The only common issue is that some TVs have such noisy output from their optical outs that it causes dropouts in the DAC. If you don't hear any, you don't need to worry.

I have a very similar setup in my living room and it's aces.

BTW - upgrading your DAC or LAN streamer in pursuit of better sound are the 3rd and 2nd-worst uses of money for system upgrades, the first would be fancier cables.

Despite what many, many people on Youtube and various forums will tell you - The nice thing about digital sources is they don't really suck or not suck. You either get all your bits into the DAC and converted to analog, or you don't. In the latter case you will hear glitchy audio. There isn't some more subtle, nuanced form of sound quality hiding in the bits. Some people have a profound misunderstanding of digital audio and go around saying "bits aren't bits" and you should ignore those people.

These days, even mediocre DACs deliver better sound quality than good amps, so your limiting factor in a modern system is rarely if ever the digital stuff.

TL;DR buy better speakers if you buy anything, keep the stuff you have if it's working.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!
 
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