photonman

Go to blackbox.com as they have everything you need. Patch panels are like post-it notes, lots of choices and they all work well. The only constraint is how well you can punch the wires down.

My 2014 Mac was in bad need of a refresh so I just completed the disk wipe and reinstalled the OS and then upgraded to Catalina. Just for the heck of it, I bought Bitperfect to try out Apple Music service. I must say, it sounded pretty good, probably better than Spotify. But because I go DAC direct to amp, I do not have good control of the volume, the default level is way too loud so that will not work as my wife thinks I play music too loud anyways. I see no way to adjust the system volume level?

Back to Mac! It really is a decent platform that provides a lot of flexibility to experiment with different software packages and setups and I really cannot discern any SQ degrading even if it is not "optimized for audio" and is a general purpose computer. My current Macbook Pro is a 2014 and apparently the last one with Toslink out.

I synched up a couple of songs between Amazon and Spotify with the Mac desktop players and I could not hear any difference. At least not enough for me to give up the better Spotify UI and playlists. I used Norah Jones "I don't know why" and Leon Bridges "Beyond". Maybe Spotify is secretly pushing out lossless as a social experiment, probably not. The Amazon HD implementation kind of reminds me of when you buy things at Home Depot that say "Contractor Grade" when anyone in the know already knows that adding some badass plastic padding on a utility knife does not magically make it something you can proudly hand down to your grandkids.

Isn't it great to have so many options. I am not the most patient person but I do believe that it is only a matter of short time before some software vendor integrates with Amazon HD and then this drawback is eliminated and the debate can really begin about the sound quality difference. And I gotta believe Spotify might have something up their sleeve too because they cannot stay forever in their equivalent world of cassettes and 8-track tape. I keep going back and forth between all these streaming services and I was content to settle back onto Spotify for all the aforementioned benefits (catalog, superior algorithms, UI etc.) but then Amazon has to rock my world. I find Amazon's curated playlists pretty darn good and the music selection is great but that OCD thing about getting bitperfect has me swaying back to Spotify but I intend to take advantage of three free months with Amazon. I figure if I set my Audio Midi to 24 bit/44.1 i am at least at Tidal level, except for the resampling of the higher rates but Amazon's catalog is heavy on the CD quality stuff. What I find ironic too is that Amazon probably already runs some of their competitors' backends in their data centers so they make money either way. Lets see what Amazon HD evolves to in a year or so. It wasn't so long ago that we were buying our SACD's and Chesky CD's from them so this is just the next chapter of Amazon music.

Yes that is it exactly. The Qutest is connected directly into it via RCA. Speakers are biwired and are still dead quiet with no music. My setup is full of controversy: Class D amp, no pre and biwired. Just waiting to get banned LOL.

Received and hooked it up today. Based on the sound so far, it is a keeper. I have not done any focused listening yet but it sounds pretty good to me and for such a small, lightweight and cool package, I am sold on Class D. My Pass is up for sale.

So how do you like the Bluesound interface compared to the Mac with Audirvana? I have gone back and forth in my head with this exact question too (BlueOS vs. Macbook). How about the remote functionality. The Node 2i has been on the back of my mind for a while too. At one point I had an Auralic Altair which I loved as a one box solution but the software was very unstable and ultimately drove me back to the rock solid reliability of the Macbook with Audirvana.

yes, that pretty much describes me, pop rock and acoustical. I do have a license for Amarra SQ+ I had tried to use with Spotify but it really did nothing good that I could hear. I will try it with Amazon. SQ+ basically swaps out the audio kernal to the Amarra SonicStream one. So if I set the SonicStream to 24-bit/192 Khz that should be better than the core audio I hope.

No, the usual 14 day return policy so I will have to play music 15 hours a day

Anxiously wishing and hoping for a 3.6.0 release that announces "Integration with Amazon HD music service" [popcorn]

I just ordered a Nord NC500 MKII with the Sparkos Op Amps. I am really curious about these amps and after such a hot Summer with having my Class A and A/C working in a push-pull setup, it just seemed so ludicrous. I like the modular simplicity of these Class D's and their relatively compact box. The Pass may be up for sale depending on how this Nord performs in my system. Or I might have a Winter and Summer amp.

This stinks! What if we just set it to 24 Bit 44.1 Khz. I would be happy with that for everything. Or would it have to be 16 bit 44.1 Khz?

On the Mac, we have to set the audio output to 24 bit 192 Khz in Audio Midi so this sounds like we are in the same situation with needing exclusive mode on the Mac application?

I have the "loudness normalization" off and also disabled hardware acceleration.