Some question about WDTV live Audio.. Options

[sonixmedia]

Hello all.. this is my first post here.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I have all my audio CDs ripped into flac and store into my external HDD which is connected directly to the WDTV live. My question is...
1) Is WDTV considered a good audio player (base on sound quality)?
2) Will there be much different in audio quality comparing "sound output through RCA direct to AMP" and "through Toslink -> external DAC -> amp"?

Thanks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[n3mmr]

If you can find a DTS-recorded CD, rip that as if it wasn't DTS at all, i e rip the DTS encoded bits to a file as if it were an ordinary CD track, and then play it back thru the WDTV and into a DTS decoder such as a home theater receiver, you can settle the "via the SPDIF" Q. If what comes out is decoded DTS audio, the SPDIF digital output is a bit perfect copy of the input stream from the media file.

Then the audio quality will only depend on the external D/A converter used.

It is unlikely that the built-in D/A converter in a WDTV Live is top notch. Expect a rolled off low end, at least.
You can test it via the facilities of the RMAA audio device test suite.
It is likely that the built in D/A is OK, but it may be sensitive to load impedance or HF interference. Which is the usual set of problems with low-price devices, since most of the basic chips available for inclusion in playback devices can all be made to perform very nicely, these days.

I only just bought mine, and haven't had the time to test audio quality, and I may never bother.
If it turns out I can get my serviio.org DLNA server to work well with WDTV Live for playing back lossless compressed flac audio, I may decide it's worthwhile to test.
This since there is an iPod WDTV remote control app that will enable finding and playing DLNA served music w/o having to start up the TV.