[touser]

I'm curious, just how bad is software audio decoding? I have a 2.1 speaker setup attached to my pioneer sc-65 receiver, with my xbmc pc attached via hdmi. Because i'm running pulseaudio I believe xbmc is doing the audio decoding in software, correct? Is the audio quality severely worsened by this setup?

[Ned Scott]

Not bad at all.

It's less about "software" vs "hardware" and more about where the digital-to-analog conversion (where it becomes actual sound that can be amplified) takes place. It can also be easier to send multichannel audio by using "passthrough" options, so that the audio receiver handles that conversion directly to the speakers.

Some people believe that keeping the audio signal digital up until the audio receiver increases quality. This is sometimes true, especially if there is a lot of electrical interference in the area. The digital audio converter in some receivers are also of a higher quality than what you will find on a typical motherboard.

For example, I had a computer with a bad power supply that caused very faint chirping sounds on the analog audio port. If I used passthrough or a digital signal directly to an audio receiver, I would prevent the chirping from coming out of the speakers.

This is just a few very simple examples. There are various situations where it can make a big difference, or it might not make any noticeable difference at all. There are also a lot of people who have different opinions when it comes to high end audio quality.

For a simple stereo setup like yours, I wouldn't worry about it unless the audio actually sounds off to you.

[jmarshall]

If it's via HDMI then the A-D is done on the receiver anyway.

Thus, it's "software decoder of DTS/AC3" versus "hardware decoder of DTS/AC3" in the receiver.

There might be a difference in any downmixing that was applied after the decode. I suspect it's unlikely that you could tell the difference, however.

If it sounds fine, don't worry about it

Cheers,
Jonathan

[touser]

I really appreciate the thorough replies, you guys are great! I haven't been able to notice any difference in quality but i have yet to do any serious A/B testing. It's good to know that there probably isn't much of a difference at all.