Today, I went searching for Philip Glass' Concerto for Saxophone Quartet, which I wanted to gift to my woodwind-playing daughter. (Btw, I did find that hi-res downloads, including DSD, are available at Cybele Records -- http://www.cybele.de/the-invitation-saxophonquartette-des-20-jahrhunderts -- but I was actually looking for the Rascher Quartet performance; I may end up downloading these as well.)
In the course of my search, I came upon the Glass Engine. This is a novel and enjoyable way
Dears,
Finally I've pulled the trigger and bought Burson HA-160D, OH-MY, This small little peace of Art from Burson is making my speakers (B&W 603 S3's) & Amp, sing like never before. currently I'm using it with my NAD C372 Integrated, and using MacBook 2Ghz/2GB via USB cable supplied by Burson. and my music preference is Female-Vocals, Classical. Musicality, & Jazz,
-AND-
My Quest has Began, hence I'm here to seek your
Hello,
I am not an expert and just a guy who enjoys the music.
I have been at it a long time, and as an avid reader here and all I can find, have at least read it all.
I believe you cannot buy an audio system. I think it is something you learn about and assemble. I see it as a work in progress.
My junk is mostly assembled with used gear and not just because it is cheaper. That is a big part of it, but now I find I can own things that were out of my range years back. I have and
Recommended reading first The reason is that I am not going to reiterate the baseline components and measurements of my test gear already covered in that post.
Here is a high level block diagram of my test setup:
On the left side is my HTPC with both JRiver MC 17 and JPLAY mini installed. The test FLAC file is the same Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Refugee at 24/96 that I have been using for my FLAC vs WAV tests.
JRiver is set up for bit perfect playback with no DSP, resampli
In part 1, I used a null test technique to show that both FLAC and WAV (lossless) file formats are identical. In this post, I have expanded the null test to cover off playing the same FLAC and WAV files dynamically from JRiver and capturing the audio waveform after the Digital to Analog conversion and analog line output stage. Here is a high level block diagram of my test setup:
For playback, I am using the exact same original FLAC and converted (by JRiver) WAV file I used in Part 1. It
User crisnee (whose Album of the Evening postings I appreciate and watch for) has suggested a review-centric version of the Album of The Evening thread:
Original: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Album-Evening
Crisnee: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Album-Eve-Reviews
Also I notice that crisnee has been a catalyst for the CA Scrobble thread:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Introducing-CA-Scrobbles
First, I am a bit nonplussed by CA Scrobbles. It
Lots of discussion on the SQ of software music players on CA. I am a fan of correlating what I hear with what I measure and vice versa. In this post, I am proposing a way of measuring the difference between music players by expanding the “null test” I performed here http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/FLAC-vs-WAV-vs-MP3-vs-M4A-Experiment
Rather than performing a null test on audio file formats, the single unit under test will be the music player, so when one music player is switched fo
I've got everything connected and it is up and running. First impression: sounds really good, but needs some fine tuning. I have to set the digital crossover between signal going to the main speakers and the subwoofers.
The main speakers are the Focal Chorus 826 V with a frequency response of 45Hz - 28kHz, and the subwoofers are the Velodyne MiniVee 8" with a frequency response of 28-120Hz.
So I guess it makes scene to have the crossover somewhere in the range 50-120Hz (the settings are
I was poking around the USB cable thread and saw reference to this, so I went a hunting, and found the following claim:
By applying a two million volt signal to a cable at a specific pulse modulation, and ultra high frequency for an exact duration of time, we transform the entire cable at a molecular level through a phenomenon called Quantum Tunneling. This process is performed on all TESLA Series cables, from Galileo Basik Strings and Au 79 and Magnetic Tricon to Apex, and can be applied t
I derailed this thread by asking whether sharing music helped or hurt the music industry. I decided to do a little research to see what I could come up with.
First off, CD sales are way, way down, and they haven't been offset by on-line purchases.
Revenue is at the lowest point in 40 years, and it doesn't look like any turnaround is at hand.
But revenue going to artists may be much better off.
This chart is taken from a blog at Times (London, not New York), but the l
I'm relatively new to CA, but think it's a great site.
I notice on the CASH list that the Macbook air is not listed as a recommended product. Is this strictly because it has no SPDIF audio output, or is there more involved?
I look forward to your responses.
Hi everyone!
Yes, the title says it all - I'm getting an Audiolab M-Dac for my Hifi and I'm going to be playing Flac, Wav and 96khz/24bit files through it.
Q1. Would there be any difference whatsoever if I was streaming these files through a Marantz NA-7004 or a Logitech Squeezebox Touch?
I wouldn't be using the Dac in the Marantz or many of its other features, so effectively it will just be used for streaming music.
Q2. Would I be wasting my money paying for the higher priced Ma
It is in the mail, my new DAC/integrated amplifier...the NAD C390DD. I have next week off from work and am really, really looking forward to connecting it to the rest of the audio equipment.
This will be the end of a few years of dreaming and saving money. It started when I read about the NAD M2 and soon after listened to it at the store. Right then I decided to start a savings account, it would take maybe six, eight years to have enough money for the M2, but I always hoped a 'little M2' in
Awareness of a need for better sound may be filtering into the mainstream, as evidenced by this article in USA Today's Tech blog:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-02-04/nashville-sound-quality/52963362/1
The new JRiver Media Center version 17 is not only well configured and beautifully presented, it sounds great too. I play my audio selections from JRMC via my USB port straight to the Music Streamer II DAC, and find that this arrangement makes for a fine, if unpretentious stereo system. But it took some time for me to get everything up and running and I want to tell what I did.
The situation? I have a Dell Latitude E5500 laptop (dual core processor with about three MB of available memory)
It's the music, of course. At least for me.
CA regular wgscott, an interesting fellow whose input has been useful, stimulating and entertaining to me from time to time, poses a forum question asking us to assign a value on a 1 - 10 scale on (interest? experience? not sure what ...) a computer-to-audiophile continuum:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-vs-Audiophile
I figured I had to be around a two (given my 30+ year computer professional background, from computer
I would have posted this with Chris's blog re his appearance on TWIT Home Theatre Geeks but couldn't find it so am blogging here. I guess it is appropriate because it does illustrate my journey into computer music.
I have always tried to listen with good HiFi equipment but I (& especially my wife) could not justify hi end prices. Anyway I got sick of spending hours (slight exaggeration!?) looking for the perfect CD amongst our collection during a party. Took ages and killed the moment.
Seems that one Bartholomaus Traubeck has devised a turntable that will play the rings of trees, rather than conventional vinyl, as reported by HuffPo in this report:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/huffpost-arts-interviews-_n_1247581.html?ref=arts
Years - 'scratching' from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo
With a tip of the hat to wgscott for this idea in lieu of a signature line . . .
Server: "CAPS"inspired: Foobar2000, Zotac Fusion350-A-E, 8 GB Mushkin DDR3(1066), 60 GB Muskin Chronos SSD (SATA III), pico-PSU80, Oyen external enclosure with 1.5 TB WD Caviar Green HDD (using eSATA connection)
DAC: Ayre QB-9
Integrated amp: Ayre AX-7e
Speakers: Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II
Cabling: Cardas Golden, Cardas Golden Reference, Ayre Signature
Accessories: wooden blocks under
I decided to put this someplace other than my sig line.
Source: 2010 Mac mini
Digital interconnect: glass toslink or Halide Bridge
DAC, pre-Amp, (Amp): Peachtree Nova
Amp: Class D Audio 254 X 2
Speakers: B&W CM7R
Sub: Rel R218
Here is how it looks in situ:
Neil Young is speaking out again, contending that Apple's interest in providing high-resolution music has diminished since the loss of Steve Jobs. More here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/31/tech/web/neil-young-apple-high-def-music/index.html
