Audio quality with different products

Community Archives WD TV Play Discussions
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I have a WD HD Media Player that is many years old, and still working like a champ.  I use it almost exclusively for playing FLAC audio files (organized by M3U playlists) from an external drive, with an HDMI connection to my receiver.

My question is:  would there be any audible benefits to moving to a newer WD product, like the TV Play?  The current Sound & Vision magazine review mentions the benefits of audio quality when streaming.  But, for playing from a hard drive and using HDMI out, is any WD product going to be taking in a digital file (FLAC) and pushing out equivalent, un-converted digital data through HDMI?  Is there any kind of FLAC to HDMI chipset, or firmware, that improves in quality over time in newer WD products, or is the process of reading in a digital file and sending it out something that does not really change at all over time?

Does all DAC processing happen in the receiver in this case?  

Would there be any difference at all if I were to use the digital fiber optic out connection instead of HDMI?  

I’m trying to get an understanding of what happens inside any WD entertainment product that may or may not have an effect on audio quality when I have local digital data coming in via USB, and out via any one of the digital output connections.  I know that the TV Play has other features that I would like to have, but my main question concerns getting the best results when playing music.

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Can only answer a little of this, but most people would say that HDMI will give you better sound quality than Toslink optical, though very minor for stereo music. Less subtle for some of the more advanced 5.1 audio for your movies.

The quality of your AVR and Speakers will have the largest effect on your  sound as long as the original FLAC is high quality. 

A lot of this stuff is very subjective. I have all my music in FLAC and find the WD devices very capable of excellent sound with the rest of my setup, no noticeable difference between the original CD and the Ripped FLAC copy on my network.

of course YMMV, based on your equipment, speakers, subwoofer, placement, room treatment etc. It never ends…

-P

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I wouldn´t recommend you Play for other reasons,

but in general nothing changed in processing of audio since first WD TV HD Media player.

4

The poster of this thread sounds like a person looking for “the best” and since the WD Play is a bottom of the line product, I think if he bought it he would not be happy because it is not anywhere the feature-filled product as his present WD player.  He should get a SMP or Hub.  The WD Play may be the newest model, but it is not top-of-line by any means, and not intended to be.