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I am presenting the new Tonal app (the old one here), which defines a better way to build and experience your audiophile music collection. To structure Tonal’s specifications and features in a compact yet engaging way, I am listing ten opinionated principles for good (software audiophile) players. I want to keep the post as short as possible. TEN PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD PLAYERS 1. GOOD PLAYERS ARE INNOVATIVE Tonal introduces a new audio file format, a feather-light playback engine, and a groundbreaking music metadata solution. Built on these foundational innovations, Tonal creates its category. 2. GOOD PLAYERS ARE PREDICTABLE Tonal collects music into .tonal audio files — a lightweight audio format containing pure PCM or DSD data of a complete disc in a standardized encoding. The effects of different codecs and/or parameters are completely eliminated before playback. 3. GOOD PLAYERS HAVE CONSTRAINTS Tonal rejects lossy audio and incomplete discs. Red Book discs must be AccurateRip verified. Don’t worry, CUETools is included to fix broken rips automatically. Remember, we’re curating, not just collecting. These constraints make the playback even more confident and predictable. These constraints, in the end, set you free. 4. GOOD PLAYERS ARE ACCURATE Tonal is always bit-perfect. The whole app is engineered bottom-up from an audiophile engine that is canonical and featherweight —— only 4 SLOC in C (the theoretical minimum code footprint). Tonal also offers fine volume control at your DAC’s native resolution, enhancing your Mac’s native experience. 5. GOOD PLAYERS REQUIRE NO CONFIGURATION Tonal has preferences, but no settings, not a single. No need to tweak checkboxes, pickers, or sliders for optimal audiophile performance. Tonal automatically measures and optimizes all parameters on your Mac before the first note is played. Discuss the music and the sound with your friends, not the settings. 6. GOOD PLAYERS MAKE DURABLE COLLECTIONS .tonal audio files contain no music tag, making them absolutely stable once created. Collectors always hold bit-identical .tonal audio files for the same audio disc. Also, there is no duplicate music on your storage. 7. GOOD PLAYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE Indexing your music collection using proprietary metadata sources is irresponsible: they may not last long. Tonal relies on only one metadata source: the Tonal disc catalog. Edit metadata easily in the browser-based Tonal Editor, which syncs your collection in real-time. The catalog is licensed under the (not revocable) CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Your collection and the metadata must outlast Tonal. 8. GOOD PLAYERS EMPOWER COLLABORATIONS Collaboration is the spirit of our community. The Tonal disc catalog is contributed solely by Tonal users —— community collaboration on music metadata is finally real. Improve data quality, or establish a style guide, there are many things you can do! Imagine a published discography of [name your favorite pianist] with your name on it —— only Tonal can make it happen. 9. GOOD PLAYERS ARE LOCAL Tonal is local first. You create no account to use Tonal. You can play and explore all your collections without a network connection. You can migrate or rebuild your entire library even without Tonal backend services. Tonal is subscription-free. Buy once and use forever. Apple wants developers to switch to a subscription model, which simply does not align with Tonal’s philosophy. 10. GOOD PLAYERS ARE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE Tonal does not treat the UI like a bazaar, letting recommendations, portraits, biographies, audio metadata, and various controls compete for your attention. Tonal is just 25 MB (universal build runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs). Tonal wants to be a tool —— a simple, precise, predictable, and working tool. “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart -- and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. Tools are just tools. They either work, or they don’t work.” —— Steve Jobs BUILD YOUR AUDIOPHILE COLLECTION THE HARD WAY A Plex-like app that monitors your folders and grabs music metadata automatically works well until it fails. No commercially available music metadata source meets Tonal’s standard, especially for classical music. You need to do it yourself. You also need to learn a new language (see the complete user guide to learn more). Seriously? Why? As an Asian, organizing (think Marie Kondo here, not MBA courses) is deeply rooted in my mind and body. When practicing organizing, my philosophy pivots around two points: Good methodologies are usually hard to get started, a great one may be even harder (if not the hardest) and demands a lifetime commitment. Measure the entropy (as in information theory, represents uncertainty) and reduce it to the minimum. You need to fight hard for this, at all costs, for all the time. Building a music collection, at the essence, is all about organizing. I don’t want to preach on intangible things. Once you understand how Tonal works, you will never look back. Tonal is neither for everyone nor for every audio file on your disk. Please read the complete user guide, at least twice. I am glad to answer any unanswered questions here. CODA The new Tonal app is available for pre-order today and is expected to be released on June 30. The introductory price is $99.99 (50% off the regular price). You won’t be charged until the day Tonal is released for download. Please read the complete user guide. The website may also help you understand Tonal’s purpose. There will be no free trial during the introductory period (no plan afterward). I prioritize finding people who just know Tonal is their long-awaited missing piece and helping them onboard. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Chris Connaker for offering me a great place to launch Tonal (for the 2nd time). Gratitude to David Bryant (WavPack), Matt Ashland (Monkey’s Audio), and Grigory Chudov (CUETools) for your wonderful work and kind support. Thanks to Mr. Spoon (dBpoweramp) for allowing Tonal to access the AccurateRip database. Thanks to Grigory Chudov, again, for allowing Tonal to access the CUETools database. Thanks to David Chesky for keeping me motivated and confirming “The sound is really nice.. !!!!”. Thanks to Kirk McElhearn for being the first user while he was busy reporting WWDC. This is my 20th year working on the classical music database I dreamed of, my 10th year working on Tonal, and the epoch year of the new Tonal. Thanks to music! Thank you all! PS The initial launch covers Canada, the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The reason is simple: users collaborate on one single music metadata database (currently English). Please give me enough time to think about how more languages should be added. The playback quality of the old Tonal was well received, I also found a post on Roon’s forum praising its playback quality. The new Tonal shares the exact same renderer (only 4 SLOC in C). FYI.
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- classical music
- bit-perfect
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A small application for testing audio components based on professional recordings of the Norwegian studio 2L in broadcast mode, with the exception of zip files that are downloaded and unpacked before playback (single operation): https://clearsound.club/data/variations/StreamHR.7z
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Published today on the web. Will be in the 8/24 NYT Sunday Magazine with the headline "Sound and Fury". Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music He says low-quality streaming is hurting our songs and our brains. Is he right? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/magazine/neil-young-streaming-music.html "When you hear real music, you get lost in it, he added, 'because it sounds like God.' Spotify doesn’t sound like God. No one thinks that. It sounds like a rotating electric fan that someone bought at a hardware store."
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- neil young
- pono
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Hey guys, just wanted to drop by to let folks know that I'm running a blind test of MQA Core Decode vs. original hi-res... It's a way to compare what MQA decoding sounds like with your own DAC especially for those of you who don't have TIDAL and may be wondering about the difference between a stream that's MQA Core decoded compared to say a non-MQA 24/96 stream. After you listen, I would of course love to know your perception of differences. The tracks are randomized and "blinded". Tell me which you prefer and how much difference you perceive! Test instructions and files can be found here: INTERNET BLIND TEST: MQA Core Decoding vs. Standard Hi-Res Audio Thanks all, have fun... Arch
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I am having problems with hi-res files from 24-96 and above. but not DSD. Then it gets heavily distorted. My setup is as follows : MacMini late 2012,16 MB ram, connected to xCore USB Audio 2. Sound is excellent 44,1 - 24-88. I have tried all kind of adjustment also on the Mac which is now set to 2channel 24-bits 96,0 kHz. Regarding Audirvana all kind of settings have been tried Can anyone help to set it up right? Thanks in advance.
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Hey all,Glad to be done the MQA Core vs. Hi-Res blind test series and basically end off with a summary of sorts:Part I: ProcedurePart II: Core ResultsPart III: Subgroup AnalysisPart IV: Subjective ImpressionsMQA: "Final" Thoughts... On Politics and Paradigms.Many thanks to all the folks here who participated in the testing and submission of survey results! It has been fun "work" getting this together with your help and I think over the years we can recognize that the only way to change the nature of this "hobby" is to try it ourselves. Sometimes there is a need to create a narrative that can be coherent and based on scientific and engineering principles rather than claims and vague impressions of the industry that might or might not be on the same path as consumers. I know that these thoughts may be uncomfortable for some as it intrudes into the "politics" aspect of the hobby... But I trust that if we can be gracious, communicate what we're doing and be transparent in intents, the ensuing discussions, controversies, and debates lead us to progress as we all explore the concept of value together. Whether it's in the "formats" we might prefer or the gear we buy...Cheers!
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qobuz Qobuz USA launching soon!
left channel posted a topic in Networking, Networked Audio, and Streaming
I just ran this news through Google Translate and it does indeed say what I thought it says: the Qobuz hi-res streaming and download service is preparing to launch in the USA next year! https://www.rtbf.be/culture/pop-up/detail_qobuz-prepare-son-arrivee-aux-etats-unis?id=9772232 Many have signed up from outside the current service area via VPN (then streaming without VPN once set up), but this will make it official. -
My top 3 music for December 2017; Linn has a 3 for the price of 2 offer through out December :Linn Sound Liaison has released a magnificent follow up to the 1st Enghave Barok download, with a sublime recording of one of Bach very best cantatas the Bwv 39. Sound Liaison The download is on special offer for $/€ 10 this month. That is steal for that kind of recording quality.
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DSD Native 10% off on all downloads https://www.nativedsd.com Hd tracks 15% off on one download http://www.hdtracks.com/ Sound Liaison 50% off on 6 downloads https://www.soundliaison.com/
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hi, i'm looking for hi-res headphones for listining to hip hop music. so looking for a good bass headphone.(but not too exaggerated bass).price max €360. it is for home use,i got a dac/amp.do you guys have recommendation?
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What is your nomination for best hi-res audiophile recording or recordings of 2014? May I start out with suggesting the new group Batik;The Old Man and the Sea. This album is so beautiful written and played that I have played everyday for the past 2 weeks. And the sound stage is stunning, maybe the best engineered Sound Liaison album so far or at least as good as the Carmen Gomes albums or the Paul Berner album from the same label. It is available as flac and wav, flac being cheaper for some reason $15 vs $20. BATIK (WAV)
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I think these 2 magnificent sounding downloads will be hard to better as the year gets older, but lets see. Please post your suggetstions. Doug McLeod ''Exactly Like This ''Téléchargement de musique en haute qualité. Ecoute en streaming. Tony Overwater&Bert van den Brink; ''Impromptu''Sound Liaison Music Shop
- 226 replies
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- audiophile 2496
- hi-res
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Like new DAC / Streamer. First owner from a pet and smoke free environment. Serious buyers only. Pickup welcome in Toronto. Shipping anywhere in North America for the asking price. Buyer pays paypal fees. The unit is in rare silver finish and comes with the MiND streaming board with the latest firmware updates. Please check out the link for more info. Many reviews are available online. Non serious and tire kickers will be politely ignored. Not looking for trades. Thanks for looking. Original box, papers, remote. $3400 USD