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Xbox 360 and CDs

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HeadphoneFan

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I have an amp anyway, that's definitely good to keep in mind. Yeah I knew what a headhphone output was just didn't know what controllable referred to.
 
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Unless you get a really basic entry level model it's probable that there will be a headphone jack on the front fascia, with its own volume control. Now many will tell you these headphone outputs are awful and you must have a headphone amplifier, but in my experience most of them work perfectly well.

That's good to know, I have an amp anyway. I knew what a headphone output was just didn't know what you meant by controllable
 
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It probably uses some version of Windows media player that @amirm had a hand in back in the 90’s when he worked for a living ( apparently) ,,

I’d be careful.

Haha yeah I wouldn't be surprised, I'm still not exactly sure if or how that would affect SQ but worth keeping in mind at least.

Listening to some CDs on my 360 and they seem to be sounding great (this is without the D30). However, I don't think I've ever even listened to CDs or FLACs with my headphones so I'm comparing CD SQ to MP3s lol. Not a fair comparison. Everything is so much more clean and dynamic. A CD player is definitely worth keeping in mind.
 

andreasmaaan

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Hey, I just shared my experience,.
Unfortunately it seems a lot of people here sound like brainwashed. If you are pretty sure that everything sound the same, stop asking people opinions, about audio gear.

Unfortunately a 100$ dac don't sound like 1000$, and a cd player with an ancient dac sounds a lot better than an entry level dac.
As I said get a used cd player, than compare, hopefuly you have not presbycusis, and then get back here..

Which $100 DAC and which $1000 DAC? Which ancient CD player and which entry level DAC?
 

sonci

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Which $100 DAC and which $1000 DAC? Which ancient CD player and which entry level DAC?

You are really brainwashed, are you?
Does anyone here have a cd player and a single disc? Just use them..
 
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OP
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You are really brainwashed, are you?
Does anyone here have a cd player and a single disc? Just use them..

Being skeptical is not equivalent to being brainwashed. Rather, being skeptical is antithetical to being brainwashed.
 

andreasmaaan

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You are really brainwashed, are you?
Has anyone here have a cd player and a single disc? Just use them..

To do what? Be more specific in your arguments and we’ll be able to have a reasonable discussion about them.
 

sonci

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Hello! I hope everyone is doing well. Please let me know if I should modify the title or move the thread to a different area at any time.

I want to start listening to some CDs with my hifi audio setup and was initially thinking I'd use my Xbox 360 to play CDs. Then, I stumbled across this article:

http://www.blog.gartonhill.com/xbox-360-is-not-an-audiophile-music-source/

The author claims the Xbox 360 degrades CD quality because it converts 16 bit 44.1 khz audio to what seems to be the only type of audio it can decode - 16 bit 48 khz. Apparently, bypassing the Xbox 360s built-in DAC will not solve this issue (it is simply digital to digital conversion after all). It seems rather strange that the Xbox 360 would do this. I was wondering, does anyone know why Microsoft would do this? What's the benefit? Also, to what extent will this impact sound quality?I was contemplating buying an external CD drive for my PC, would that be a good solution? Would I even be able to skip/pause CD tracks on PC with an external CD drive?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Have you received your Dac? How does it compare to the xbox cd playing?
 

bigx5murf

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The xbox 360 slim had an optical out, so couldn't you just use that as a transport when playing CDs?

I haven't played CDs much since ripping them all to my NAS. But I recall they sounded fine on my original xbox360, and also through the HD-DVD addon drive as well. I still use my PS3 to play SACD once in awhile. The biggest issue with using these consoles to play CDs imo, is the fact they have extremely loud fans.

I have a decent vintage CD player, a Kyocera DA-310cx. I think it sounds worst than flac files through my SMSL SD192 pro.
 
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Have you received your Dac? How does it compare to the xbox cd playing?

The xbox 360 slim had an optical out, so couldn't you just use that as a transport when playing CDs?

I haven't played CDs much since ripping them all to my NAS. But I recall they sounded fine on my original xbox360, and also through the HD-DVD addon drive as well. I still use my PS3 to play SACD once in awhile. The biggest issue with using these consoles to play CDs imo, is the fact they have extremely loud fans.

I have a decent vintage CD player, a Kyocera DA-310cx. I think it sounds worst than flac files through my SMSL SD192 pro.

I got my D30 a while ago and have played several CDs on it for several hours. CDs definitely sound cleaner to me when played through the DAC, and it is easier to spot details. I was pretty surprised at how much of a difference it made. I also use it for gaming, sounds amazing. I have the Xbox 360 E which has 3.5mm output but it still feeds digital audio to my TV via HDMI so I just connected my D30 to the TV and then used the RCA male to 3.5mm male cable to connect to my Xtrempro M1 amplifier. I also game on Wii and am able to bypass its internal DAC and AMP via the $10 Wii to HDMI adapter I bought and my audio equipment.

The 360's fan can sometimes be an issue, although I find its significantly louder when I'm playing busy FPS games as opposed to CDs. Most of the time I don't really notice it but I can see how it would bother some.

The D30 is nice but I feel like I should probably upgrade from my Philips SHP 9500 headphones and M1 amp if I want to get the most out of it (considering getting a Sennheiser HD 598 and Topping NX3). The only thing is that overemphasis in my headphones' FR has become more apparent since I started using it (voices sound more sibilant than before, for example).
 

bigx5murf

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I got my D30 a while ago and have played several CDs on it for several hours. CDs definitely sound cleaner to me when played through the DAC, and it is easier to spot details. I was pretty surprised at how much of a difference it made. I also use it for gaming, sounds amazing. I have the Xbox 360 E which has 3.5mm output but it still feeds digital audio to my TV via HDMI so I just connected my D30 to the TV and then used the RCA male to 3.5mm male cable to connect to my Xtrempro M1 amplifier. I also game on Wii and am able to bypass its internal DAC and AMP via the $10 Wii to HDMI adapter I bought and my audio equipment.

The 360's fan can sometimes be an issue, although I find its significantly louder when I'm playing busy FPS games as opposed to CDs. Most of the time I don't really notice it but I can see how it would bother some.

The D30 is nice but I feel like I should probably upgrade from my Philips SHP 9500 headphones and M1 amp if I want to get the most out of it (considering getting a Sennheiser HD 598 and Topping NX3). The only thing is that overemphasis in my headphones' FR has become more apparent since I started using it (voices sound more sibilant than before, for example).

I'm thinking of picking up a d30 as well to replace my smsl sd192. Part of it is due to the extremely high praise of the d30 here, and how even though I've been happy with the smsl, it's been discontinued and there's literally no 3rd party info on it anywhere. My wii is using RGB component, and analog stereo connections to my AVR, because I have an older AVR that has limited HDMI ports. I'm hesitant to replace my AVR because even though its 9 years old, it's a TOTL model that would be extremely expensive to replace with a comparable modern model (yamaha rx-z7). My ps3 and xbox360 are both connected through HDMI. I mostly only use the PS3 as a bluray/SACD player nowadays. My wife still likes the wii and xbox360 for her dance games.

Fan noise bothers me because I listen to a lot of jazz, with quiet passages. That's why I have a separate 2 channel system.

I also own a pair of SHP 9500, they're extremely easy to drive, and don't really need an amp. My current go to headphones are mayflower t50rp, I have not had any urge to upgrade from them.
 
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Never heard of the sd192 so not sure if the D30 would be an upgrade. All I know is that it's well-reviewed and I'm impressed with how much of an improvement it was over the 360's built-in DAC. In your case it's more than likely not worth the trouble to buy an adapter and bypass the wii's external DAC.

Ah yes I can see how fan noise could pose a problem for a critical jazz listener.

Yeah the SHP 9500s don't really need an amp I just bought an amp to improve SQ and allow me to upgrade to a better DAC or some harder-to-drive headphones. At the time I couldn't stand playing games like Super Mario Galaxy with my headphones due to the Wii's noisy internal amp. The T50rp looks interesting.
 

bigx5murf

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I had a schiit modi optical before the sd192, and comparing the two, the schiit seemed to suck out the bass, so I sold it.

Looking at how much mayflower raised the price on their modified t50rp. If I were in the market today, I'd probably just buy regular t50tp mk3, and modify it myself. Or just get the Dekoni modified version https://www.amazon.com/Dekoni-Foste...8&qid=1544833250&sr=1-2&keywords=dekoni+t50rp
 
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