[stlrman]

I finally have a computer based system!   
 I am out of the gate with 40,000 wav files on an external hard drive.
The hard drive will be plugged into the PS3 . We will be using the iPad to select our music. I have been thinking about this day for a long time.
How good is the PS3 when used as a dac?
Thanks, Todd

[MaxCast]

How will the iPad select the music?

[stlrman]

Sorry. In my excitement I got ahead of myself. I have just moved my digital music collection to a dedicated hard drive.

I can play through my computer hooked to my amp using my iPad to control iTunes.

Or I can hook hard drive up to the ps3. Has anyone tried this and how is the quality? The Advantage is that my laptop will then be free.

[Stu Pitt]

It won't cost much, if anything at all, to hook it up and see.  You may find the sound from the PS3 perfectly acceptable, or you may find it severely lacking.  Either way, you wouldn't have spent a lot of money to find out a DAC wasn't worth your time if you try out what you've already got. 

[94cdnm3]

Sorry I am late to this topic but I am using my PS3 in my home theatre system to listen to my flac files on my pc which I hooked up directly via an ethernet cable and using PS3mediaserver which is found here:  http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/
In my home theatre system which consists of the PS3, the Panasonic SA-XR70 Class D receiver and Paradigm Studio 40V4 the sonics are very good. Not as good as my 2 channel system but definitely involving and musical.

[eclein]

My entrance into sending computer files to my main system was via Mediaserver also....works great but in my case I would loose the connection from my laptop to the server on the PS3....I was using the HDMI output through a SONY 7.1 receiver and it was fun and sounded pretty darn good, then I found AC and read about Squeezeboxes and tried one. Then I got a starter DAC-Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-09 for $200 and started running my SB Duet through its DtoA Converter and the difference was startling good. A couple years later I'm getting another DAC so I can play higher resolution files and my replacement DAC will be a Bifrost from Schiit audio and I'll still be using the first one as a pre-amp for awhile because it has multiple inputs and a tube out and SS out....lots of options....It can be done and it can be done on the cheap...I know...I did it!!!!! Now the fun begins!!!!!!

[Bob in St. Louis]

I'm very impressed with the sound quality of the PS3 when it's being used as a transport, but never thought of using it as the UI or DAC.
Sounds interesting, I might have to try that.

What types of cables are you using? ("type", not brand) HDMI or optical?

Bob