Can anyone verify for certain that the Live Hub will playback 24/96 flac over the optical interface without downconversion???
I have a Live TV Plus and I know it won’t do it. I’d consider giving it away and buying the Hub if it was quarateed to do what I want. My Cabridge Audio DacMagic will tell me if it’s 96 or 48 bitrate (thank god) but will not tell me the bit depth.
I would be picking up a hub tomorrow if I knew it would work for 24/96 flac. So far only HDI Dune seem to be advertising HD audio playback (24/96 or 192) flac.
… My Cabridge Audio DacMagic will tell me if it’s 96 or 48 bitrate (thank god) but will not tell me the bit depth.
That’s funny. If your rely on your DAC to tell you, then it would appear that your ears can’t tell the difference, in which case, you’re tilting at windmills. ;)
Anyway, I’m glad you found a product that meets your needs!
Haa, haa, somebody actually replied!!! Of course it still doesn’t answer the question.
I picked up the new box this morning. Offered the Live Plus to my daughter but she doen’t want it because her DVD player takes a USB drive and plays MKV and AVI so maybe I’ll keep it for video and use the new box strickly as a music server with the high-end audio gear.
Ahh well, it’s back to enjoying music rather than sitting here waiting for a reply.
I picked up the Asus box this morning and initially it was playing my 24/96 files properly (although studdering occasionally as if having trouble transferring the large files from the USB HD). I upgraded to their lastest firmware release and now it’s down-converting my files also!!!
I picked up the Asus box this morning and initially it was playing my 24/96 files properly (although studdering occasionally as if having trouble transferring the large files from the USB HD). I upgraded to their lastest firmware release and now it’s down-converting my files also!!!
Asus has taken down all previous versions of their firmware. A web search found a couple of places that had it but these required a membership. I tried to register with one site but didn’t have much success. There is very little activity (support) over at the Asus O’Play forum. I couldn’t find any documentation on firmware updates or change log etc. Kind of scarry after being use to the great information here.
I returned the O’Play and picked up a Live Hub today. Man!! It is a great little box and nice upgrade from the Live Plus. I wasn’t expecting the UI to be so much different than the Live Plus… it’s really beautiful.
I installed the latest firmware and I’m still have some kind of problem playing 24/96 flac files… My DAC initially shows 96kHz but then immediately falls back to 48kHz. I’m going to do a little experimenting with different file formats.
I love the Hub so much that even if I’m not successful with 24/96, I’ll be keeping it and playing most of my music from it (especially CD rips which are 16/44 anyway). If I come up with an explanation or solution, I will post it here and on some of the Audiophile forums that I follow. A lot of that crowd are using PC’s as their music servers (especially the Mac-Mini) but I think something like the Hub is much more convenient and cost effective if it works.
I have a small 20" 720p LCD television in my music listening area which is dedicated as a monitor for the Media Server (Live Hub). I take the box into another room with larger TV for watching video.
Here are a couple of picks of what I’m trying to do. The equipment is as follows (starting at the silver box on the bottom).
Arcam A85 integrated Amp
Arcam CD-73 CD Player
Cambridge Audio DAC Magic and volume control (passive preamp - bypassing A85 preamp).
DAC Magic has optical SPIDIF input from DVD player and Live Hub
Hi OldEars. I noticed your post. I posted recently about using the WD TV Live Hub 1TB as a standalone music player in my stereo system. I’m in the process of ripping my CD collection into FLAC files (thus 44.1kHz/16-bit) and it’s working out well so far. I am planning a Cambridge DacMagic, but find the stock D-A conversion to be surprisingly good.
Would you mind telling us how your experience with FLAC format using the Live Hub into the DacMagic is going? There have been some concerns in these forums about downconversion or lack of digital passthrough. What sample rates and bit resolutions have you found are working between these two pieces of gear? Did you notice the DacMagic was a worthwhile improvement to the D-A conversion of the Live Hub during a critical listening test?
I’ve tried playing both wav and flac files that were 24/96 and the hub plays them fine but down-converts both to 48 (not sure if it’s 16 or 24 bit). Would really like to know… if someone could confirm that???
What I’m doing these days is taking my master vinyl transfers which are 24/96 flac files and putting them on the Hub’s internal storage. I fugure with 1Tbye I can spare the space even if they are being down-converted. And I want to keep my 24/96 copies incase I decided to setup some other system (probably PC based) that will play the 24/96 rate without down-conversion.
What I have noticed, and I’m not sure eactly why, is that playing the 24/96 files on the Hub through the DacMagic, inpite of the sample rate down conversion, sounds great. I’m wondering if it is retaining the 24bit depth??? Or maybe there is something being gained by taking the 96k, letting the Hub do the down-comversion, and then having the DacMagic up-convering to 192k before converting to analogue???
I really haven’t spent any time listening to the analogue output from the Hub. I already had the DacMagic when I purchased the Hub and have always used the DacMagic.
I use to have a Live TV Plus (which I gave to my son because I purched the Hub under the impression that it could handle 96k without downconversion). I listened to the analoge out on the plus and found it was good but never A/B’d it against the DacMagic.
is 24/96 output to the avr only supported via optical or will HDMI support? I recently loaded 24/96 files and my avr is showing the input source (hdmi) as 2.0 channel 48khz. Thanks.
HDMI works. I’ve been playing a variety of 24/96 (and 192) content via the HDMI and no problem - my Yamaha amp plays it just fine (I’m using a UK Live Hub with current firmware).