PS3

[axle_69]

One day my daughter started to make too much noise in the living room, scratched my CDs and broke my Audio Analogue Paganini MkII CD player. That's how it started...

I ended up buying a DAC with a good headphone amplifier (AQVOX MkII) and ripping CDs to WAV on my laptop. I was surprised with the results. Unfortunately my laptop's fan is very noisy and I can use it as a source only when listening through headphones. My wife gave me a PS3 which runs relatively quiet, so I decided to use it as source. First, I just copied the files to the PS3 hard disk but WAV files are kept on a single folder, later I changed the hard disk and installed Ubuntu but required too much trouble to access the media player. I ended up connecting an external hard disk to the PS3 and in this way all my ripped CDs are organized in folders.

I was a little worried with the toslink connection (PS3 doesn't have coaxial 75 ohms) but using a Wireworld Super Nova 5+ (1m) sounds the same as connecting the laptop through USB with a Wireworld UltraViolet USB cable (2m).

Did anyone try this setup? How does it compare to a dedicated music server?

 

 

[peter73]

I did have the PS3 and there were 2 things I didn't like about it - noise and the fact that it requires a monitor to operate. Other than that it is perfect, especially if you don't bother about WAV being a waste of space (I am not sure, but PS3 does not support FLAC) and power consumption being a bit high.

 

[JamesF]

I have tried a similar PS3 setup prior to switching over to a laptop running mediamonkey. I still have my ps3 hooked into a PS Audio DLIII DAC along with the laptop, the ps3 is connected with a Chord Optichord and the laptop via USB; I ripped CD's to the PS3 hard drive initially into WAV, and then into AAC.

It does sound very good, much better than expected, although I couldnt tell if wav or aac was a more accurate sound.

However after much praise for MM off this site I hooked up the laptop and ripped cd's into FLAC to find the sound is more dynamic and much more 'HiFi' to my ears! My point of reference for sound quality came after using a Cyrus CD8x cd player for a year prior, which as you may know is a comparitivly high end machine and well regarded. Im pleased to say the laptop, MM, DAC route sounds much better, IMO of course, although the ps3 is very good indeed, just no flac support and the MM interface is more versatile.

 

[Tonto]

I second the last two replies. The main barriers seems to be no FLAC/lossless support and Clunky music interface. I'm hoping for a update in the future-they have an offshoot browser for photos now for instance. All I can say is if you are interested in using a PS3 for music playback vote with that email to your nearest PS portal!!!! They won't do what they don't know or feel is insignificant.

In regards to monitor only playback I currently uses a PSP handheld to use the PS3 remotely* (i.e. grabs full control over wifi and shows whats happening). That will only work within the PS3 Operating system though and not any Linux install. However with new apps like Songbird coming out and I'm sure at some stage Amorak, they both support open source plug ins and I know there is definitly an iPod Touch Remote funtionality coming soon if not already for Songbird.

The more I dealve though the more I see an AE behind one of my speakers with a Apple Mini and HD in another room. But I always like to go for the equally good (IMHO) cheap/free make the best of what you have solution first.

 

* The PSP will wake up a PS3 on standy anywhere on the world via interenet connection. This may seem pointless but imagine being able to listen to some music from your home server (without storing locally) and video you have stored there. No digital out I'm afraid but a good gap filler while waiting for that connecting flight or listening to music doing the dishes while wifey is watching TV (Ok too much real life ;p)

 

[Fyper]

There is possibility of having the PS3 read FLAC and other lossless files if you use a PC/Mac server or even a Linux NAS:

You just have to use this free software here :http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/ called PS3 Media Server and you can read pretty much any existing video and audio files.

 

Then, as mentioned, there is the possibility to drive your PS3 via a PSP. If you play Flac files, the PSP will show the tags, covers, etc.

 

I didn't take the time to compare the quality of the sound out of the optical output, but I'm sure it's at least ok and maybe excellent, worth a try.