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Why a digital media player instead of a dedicated computer?

I’ve been trying for some time now to better understand the value of adding a digital media player to one’s system. This is of interest to me because I listen to music entirely from high-resolution digital files. I keep reading glowing reviews of digital players like the Bryston BDP-2 but I must be missing something, because if you have a computer and a good piece of software I fail to see what the media player adds to the equation. But if there is some kind of advantage to be had, I’d like to know!

I currently store all my high-resolution music files on an external hard drive, which I then connect to a dedicated Macbook Pro running Audirvana Plus. The Macbook outputs the files to an external DAC via USB, then on to my preamp and the rest of my system. I’ve been very satisfied with this arrangement, and it can handle almost any type of file I throw at it, from 16/44.4 to DSD 5.6.

Other than being able to control the playback wirelessly, what would be the advantages, if any, of using a digital media player instead of a dedicated laptop? Is there any sonic improvement to be had over my current arrangement? Or is this simply a matter of convenience and not having to tie up a computer in my music system?

Thanks!
zm
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Because standard computers use large amounts of electricity and generate large amounts of noise. Many processes running on your computer degrade sound quality of the signal that you send to your DAC. RFI and grounding issues only complicate matters.

Single purpose low power devices, especially those running smaller operating systems(.e.g. Linux) tackle some of the problems. If your music is stored on a network drive in another room and connected by ethernet you also get galvanic isolation resulting in lower noise floor.
IMHE, getting rid of Audirvana+ was a big improvement in stability and improved user experience.  

The main reason to stick with a regular computer is if you want to run HQ Player and do upsampling to quad DSD or do DSP equalization.

There is another computer and audiophile related site where plenty of folks more expert than me cover these topics in gory detail daily. I'd suggest reading there too, although many of those folks don't have too much experience with audio gear once it gets converted back to analog. Cheers,
Spencer
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,432 posts
 
When you use asynchronous USB you don’t transfer music but data. Timing is created inside of USB DAC. For that reason computer speed, amount of RAM or even playback program are unimportant as long as it delivers required resolution and does not do any processing, like upsampling. It is also not important if you run other programs at the same time (it does not have to be dedicated computer). With S/Pdif connection (Toslink or coax) situation is different. Different programs, computer speed or amount of RAM can affect timing that originates in computer resulting in noise added to music.

Electrical noise produced by computer is always unwanted and it should be minimized, by placing computer away form the audio system, plugged to different outlet (another phase if possible). Ideal USB cable would have good shielding and would be missing power wires. Power line filter for the audio can also help.


The main reason to stick with computer, at least to me, is convenience.

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,256 posts
 
I use a computer, but many people (reviewers and users) have recently commented that dedicated music servers can sound better than computers.  It's plausible.  The downside is that these dedicated computers are relatively expensive.
hew's avatar
hew
159 posts
 
A ready-made media player makes sense if you aren’t computer savvy. Setting up a cutting-edge computer solution can be quite challenging for the casual computer user even with assistance from a competent tech. Such a setup is highly tweaky and may consist of diy dual low-power fanless PCs with high quality usb cards, high-end sata cables, low latency memory, individual linear/battery PSUs for cpu, SSD, sound card plus emi/rfi shielding, vibration control and other measures. Some also utilize additional extreme software measures to reduce noise and jitter by eliminating or tweaking processes by using Windows Server 2012 os in core mode (i.e. no GUI), Jplay for streaming and rendering, Audiophile Optimizer and Fidelizer, Process Lasso, etc. The advantage is that such a setup can be very cheaply accomplished, be continuously upgraded and I have heard several that competes with world class analog setups. However, I’d never recommend such a setup to the casual user.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
hew, although I've been in computers since 1959, the new operating systems require too much use of symbols and placement that I find counterintuitive to want to bother, I have learned enough to have a music server running JRiver MC-21 with the onboard computer with absolute minimal things other than playing the music. This achieves the lowest latency and the best music.

I had used a Mac Mini prior to this but this is clearly better.

I do wish those who do these programs were to include some intuitive symbols and locations for finding them.
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