NVIDIA Shield Pro with an external DAC - possible?

[Figurative_Speech]

Is it possible to use NVIDIA Shield Pro as a serious audiophile streamer, hooked up to an external DAC or otherwise?

 

[lovinthehd]

Depends what you call a "serious" "audiophile" streamer. It has digital output....and no analog so you need a dac.

 

[Figurative_Speech]

Depends what you call a "serious" "audiophile" streamer. It has digital output....and no analog so you need a dac.

Yes, I know I'd need a DAC. But are the internal electronics of Shield Pro good enough to produce a decently clean digital output, with not much RF pollution? To my understanding, it doesn't matter how good the external DAC is if the signal you feed it isn't of good quality. I really like the Shield, the interface and music apps on it. It would be very cool if it could because the streaming heart of my HiFi system.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes, I know I'd need a DAC. But are the internal electronics of Shield Pro good enough to produce a decently clean digital output, with not much RF pollution? To my understanding, it doesn't matter how good the external DAC is if the signal you feed it isn't of good quality. I really like the Shield, the interface and music apps on it. It would be very cool if it could because the streaming heart of my HiFi system.

WTF is RF pollution? I haven't seen a test of the Shield Pro but would think it's fairly competent. Source material is often more important than the unit playing it, tho. Is video not a consideration or just audio? Will your audio system have hdmi capability?

 

[Figurative_Speech]

WTF is RF pollution? I haven't seen a test of the Shield Pro but would think it's fairly competent. Source material is often more important than the unit playing it, tho. Is video not a consideration or just audio? Will your audio system have hdmi capability?

RF/electromagnetic "pollution" comes to digital audio signal from cheap switching power supplies, WiFi circuitry in close proximity to DAC chipset. High quality streamers have properly shielded internal boards and best ones have all major components galvanically isolated with fiberoptic cables.
Source material is important, eletronics , power supply, cables, everything. I use Shield for music and video but I'd rather stream music from a dedicated streamer like Bluesound Node and use Shield for video only.

 

[Alex2507]

WTF is RF pollution?

From wiki:

"It is of particular concern to radio astronomers."

At first I thought it was 'Rug Frequency' that necessitated those cable elevators ... but I'm learning a lot here.

 

[lovinthehd]

RF/electromagnetic "pollution" comes to digital audio signal from cheap switching power supplies, WiFi circuitry in close proximity to DAC chipset. High quality streamers have properly shielded internal boards and best ones have all major components galvanically isolated with fiberoptic cables.
Source material is important, eletronics , power supply, cables, everything. I use Shield for music and video but I'd rather stream music from a dedicated streamer like Bluesound Node and use Shield for video only.

So it pollutes the 1s and 0s? How so?

 

[Alex2507]

How so?

Must you?

 

[BMXTRIX]

...best ones have all major components galvanically isolated with fiberoptic cables.

That was the most BS statement I've read in a while. Thanks.

The most important part of digital audio is not the transport, it is definitely the DAC. The proper DACs and build quality matter a great deal, if you have the equipment to support the jump you will get from that quality. So, your speakers and amplifier are FAR more important than the DAC. The DAC is far more important than the transport.

So, having CD quality or better audio on your PC. Or from the Internet, that is run over cheap cat-5 cable to your streaming devices will have ZERO impact on audio (or video) quality. What will matter is the device that converts it from digital to analog. Bluesound makes a very solid product for the money and strikes a reasonable balance between cost and quality. I'm not sure I would use a Shield for audio if I had a Bluesound product. It's just an added point of failure. I would just use the Bluesound interface.

But, if I already had a Shield, I would just hook it up to a quality AVR via HDMI and let the receiver do the DAC duties and call it done. On a quality AVR with good DACs in it, you aren't likely capable of noticing a difference in audio quality, all else being equal.

 

[highfigh]

RF/electromagnetic "pollution" comes to digital audio signal from cheap switching power supplies, WiFi circuitry in close proximity to DAC chipset. High quality streamers have properly shielded internal boards and best ones have all major components galvanically isolated with fiberoptic cables.
Source material is important, electronics , power supply, cables, everything. I use Shield for music and video but I'd rather stream music from a dedicated streamer like Bluesound Node and use Shield for video only.

If you hear continuous sound form the Shield and it doesn't contain glitches, the signal is good enough for all practical purposes. RF is all around us, constantly. If more shielding was needed, it would be used. One critical detail- how far from the RF source is the Shield located? If it was really a problem, would this not have a metal cover with some way to ground it better?

 

[panteragstk]

I just tell my shield to output whatever the audio stream is to my AVR. It supports up to 192khz so I'm covered.

Works great for the apps that support that functionality (I'm looking at you Plex).

If you have a DAC that the Shield supports then it should work just fine depending on the app you're using. I don't see the point though.

 

[Eppie]

I also run my Shield via HDMI to my AVR. Denon has good quality internal DACs. I have not noticed any issues with the Shield's power supply. Bad supplies can affect lower power devices like a Raspberry Pi with a DAC HAT (as the Pi tends to come with a cheap power adapter), but the Shield comes with a quality power supply and has no noise issues that I am aware of. If you are concerned about the digital to audio process, look up what specific DAC chip is used in your AVR and read up on it. You may find that it is more than capable. As to the Bluesound Node, I agree that it is very capable and the cost reasonable. Depends on whether you prefer the interface on the Shield or Blue OS.

 

[jakkedtide]

It's also time that nvidia releases an updated shield. It's been way too long

 

[graymatter]

Am I correct in understanding that the music streaming on Tidal on the NVIDIA Shield Pro is passed along as an original digital source and the Denon AVR is serving as the DAC in this scenario? I ask because I'm in this boat and I'm trying to figure out if there is a good reason to buy something like a Blusound or Roon player and connect it to my AVR, or just use my phone apps and Cast to the Shield to use the Denon DAC.

I tend to start and control all of my music sessions through my phone anyway, but would like the quality to not be diminished (at least not from the source or DAC side) and user interface to be enjoyable.

 

[Trebdp83]

Am I correct in understanding that the music streaming on Tidal on the NVIDIA Shield Pro is passed along as an original digital source and the Denon AVR is serving as the DAC in this scenario? I ask because I'm in this boat and I'm trying to figure out if there is a good reason to buy something like a Blusound or Roon player and connect it to my AVR, or just use my phone apps and Cast to the Shield to use the Denon DAC.

I tend to start and control all of my music sessions through my phone anyway, but would like the quality to not be diminished (at least not from the source or DAC side) and user interface to be enjoyable.

Are you using a Denon equipped with HEOS? You don’t actually need an external device to stream from Tidal using HEOS. It will support hi-res FLAC streams but will not do the second “Unfolding” of the remaining MQA tracks that have not been changed over to FLAC. Dolby Atmos tracks will also not be supported using the HEOS app but are supported using the Nvidia Shield Pro.

 

[graymatter]

Are you using a Denon equipped with HEOS? You don’t actually need an external device to stream from Tidal using HEOS. It will support hi-res FLAC streams but will not do the second “Unfolding” of the remaining MQA tracks that have not been changed over to FLAC. Dolby Atmos tracks will also not be supported using the HEOS app but are supported using the Nvidia Shield Pro.

Yes, I am using a denon AVR-X4800H, but I loathe the HEOS app user interface. It doesn't allow music discovery very well like you get natively in the streaming services it supports. I'd prefer to use those services' native apps. I'm looking at the WiM Pro Plus, but I'm not sure if it's necessary or if the Shield can serve this same purpose. I really like the idea of Roon for music, but I don't think I'll want to pay the monthly service.

 

[Trebdp83]

The Wiim supports Tidal Connect so you can use your phone app as the controller and audio will be sent from Tidal directly to the Wiim. The Nvidia Shield Pro does not feature Tidal Connect. You would need to use its Tidal app or be limited by the signal specs of Airplay 2 or Chromecast when casting to it from your phone.

 

[panteragstk]

The Wiim supports Tidal Connect so you can use your phone app as the controller and audio will be sent from Tidal directly to the Wiim. The Nvidia Shield Pro does not feature Tidal Connect. You would need to use its Tidal app or be limited by the signal specs of Airplay 2 or Chromecast when casting to it from your phone.

I just use the Tidal app. It's not the best, but it does pass through to my AVR without issue.

 

[Trebdp83]

I just use the Tidal app. It's not the best, but it does pass through to my AVR without issue.

I could swear I was able to get some MQA tracks to output 24/96 using the Tidal app of an Nvidia Shield Pro. Does it output 24/192 when playing their new 24/192 FLAC tracks?

 

[Eppie]

I also have the X4800H and I use the Plex app on the Shield or I use Chromecast on the Shield and stream via Roon. Chromecast is fine unless you are heavily into multi-channel audio. For multi-channel audio you need to delve into Kodi. The DAC on the X4800H is good so I think it comes down to what interface you prefer. Plex is fine if you have a media library but I don't use it for streaming.

Roon has the best interface if you have media files and use streaming services. It integrates both together well and the genre matching is excellent. It also supports multiple devices and you can control each device from your phone and even synch devices so that they play the same content. They added an app that lets you access your file library remotely over your phone. I use my PC, Shield, a Raspberry Pi and phone to play music and Roon connects to all of them. For accessing a variety of devices and synching them, Roon is one of the best platforms. My one beef is that there is no native Roon app for the Shield that use their RAAT technology and supports ATMOS.

For a single device for music streaming I would say that Roon is overkill. You can try it out and maybe pay for 1 or 2 months or then get the lifetime subscription, but it's one of the most expensive software solutions. Many like the Node and Blue-OS but there are cheaper options like the WiiM Pro.