Ultra High End Digital Music Player - Page 2

Edorr, I don't know if the server is making the difference, but in my install Twonky seems to be better. Like you, I am egerly awaiting the TnP Server from PSA.
Since I had to convert all my WAV Files to FLAC, and then tag them, I'm just getting down to serious listening. For some reason all my WAV songs had the correct file names, but the tags were left off of Track 1 on about half of my CDs so I had to hand type Track One info on all of those CDs into Media Monkey to get each CD tagged correctly for use by the Bridge. A daunting task. That put me behind time wise, and Football has been calling (including attending about 20 High School Games.) Also I went to RMAF & CO for a couple of weeks, and ski season has started early this year in CA. We have about 10 feet already at our mountain, and they are predicting 10 -15 feet more by next Wed. What I'm saying is, I don't have the full measure of the PWD & Bridge yet, but I love its functionality. I also want to compare it to the Marantz UD-9004 both with SP/DIF into the PWD and Analogue to the Six Shooter. Regards, Norm

The Linn DS series should also definitely be included in the list of options.

http://www.linn.co.uk/digital_stream_players

How to you playback CD's with this? Isn't this box just for music streaming? Also do you know what the difference is between the Squeezebox and their more expensive Transporter?

Thanks,
Ken

Yes, I rip first my CDs now before playing them.

It was a hard work initially, but ripping new ones has become a fairly easy routine.


No idea, sorry.

[quote=robena;19673092]Yes, I rip first my CDs now before playing them.

It was a hard work initially, but ripping new ones has become a fairly easy routine.

What I meant is the process. Is it a simple as hooking up a NAS drive to it?
Ken

It works with a server running on a PC, that is controlled using Firefox for example.

You rip the CP, click on a button displayed on Firefox to rescan, and it's ready.

Thanks!
Ken

The Transporter was pretty nice in that it had a good DAC, the AK4396 and balanced AES/EBU connectors along with the other sort of standard fare.
It had 120db S/N ratio, -106dB THD+N and 120db dynamic range, if I recall correctly.
My son had one so a few things had stuck in my head. It also had analog VU meters, if that is important to you but I don't think it's being made anymore.
When it was new, I think I had read a thread about it right here on AVS, the designer had participated in it so there was alot of good info. If I recall, he'd said he did something a little bit unique with it's volume control but I can't remember what he said. If you have any real interest, you might wanna look that old thread up.

The other major diff. between the Transporter and just about everything else is that it had Coax, optical, BNC, S/PDIF, and balanced AES/EBU inputs so that you could use the internal DACs with just about any other thing. Pretty cool machine for the price.

A Squeezebox Touch is out now and the company was sold to logitech since the original Transporter design. It has your typical stereo analog (RCA), digital optical, and digital coax output. No idea what they use for DACs or what they claim for specs.

I rip flac from dbpoweramp on my pc to a RAID 1 drive. I copy everything from there over to a RAID 1 NAS drive (ReadyNAS) that sits in a closet. I stream from the closet NAS to where ever I want to hear it. For critical listening in a dedicated room I use a squeezebox server located on the closet NAS to connect to a local squeeze player that converts the flac feed to digital out for a local DAC and out to my system from there. Control is handled through the logitech remote or my smart phone using a browser. In another room I use the same mechanism but my out is to my AVR and then to the den/kitchen or outside zone 2 speakers. I also have the music on the ReadyNAS as MP3 (using the music converter function of dbpoweramp) so I can feed music to any PC or TV in the house that wants MP3 as well as copy over to USB and ipod for my car/phone/etc. My only extra cost was the logitech stuff since all the other gear is my normal household pc, audio, AVR and car stuff. Yes, ripping to flac and converting to MP3 is an initial pain but it is worth it once it is done. Additonally you can place the money on the objects in the areas that matter the most to you... DAC/preamp/amp/speakers/avr/etc. each at your choice.

I am thinking of giving this new product a try for streaming:

http://us.marantz.com/Products/3224.asp
Ken

I am "listening". I have the bridge installed but I have yet to start ripping CDs, etc and put together my system for this. I am "watching" you guys get the kinks out and hopefully will get to this within a few months.

If you are in no rush I woud recommend waiting for PS audio to get the kinks out for all of us and release their turnkey solution. This will be a dedicatated NAS with their own (currently in pre-beta) UPNP server.

I have heard of users that have had absolutely no problems getting it up and running and stable operations on the one hand and a guy that is completely desparate on the other. I am personally satisfied but mildly frustrated, and have to say the product is definitely not industrial strenght.

Exactly why I have not been in a hurry on this!

I would start ripping CDs though. I was personally planning an paying a local teenager to do it over a holiday until someone volunteered to do it for free. Once ripped, you still need to do a lot of tagging and album art lookup.

I personally use exact audio copy for ripping and mediamonkey to manage the library. Using the slow drive in my laptop the whole process from start to finish takes about 10 minutes per CD. Do the math - depending on how many CDs you have, this can be a monumental effort. (If you have 1,000 CDs and your billing rate is $300/hour, the opportunity cost for you to do it yourself would be $50,000)

I'm one that has had little to no problems with the Bridge. The pre-beta version of the eLyric server software is what it is but it works quite well (at least on a Mac). Twonky server also works very well but the features of eLyric are really coming along. Although it may be related to my specific wireless setup in the house, I did find it more reliable to connect the Bridge and my Mac directly to the same Ethernet switch. I used iTunes and ALAC to rip my CDs; it worked very well but it does take time. I only ripped about 500 CDs.

I was looking at the Request "F" series. To burn CD's, you put the CD in the draw and it copies to a WAV file. I was curious though is there any difference in terms of audio quality in burning CD's with this method as opposed to using any other software for burning?

Thanks,
Ken

I use a first generation AppleTV and use its optical out to my amps DACs.
Music is ripped with dbPowerAmp to Apple lossless and stored locally on the ATVs HD, control is either with the TV or the newest iPad remote software. Sounds great, works like a charm. As an added bonus it supports playback on remote speakers, genius support, and video too.

AppleTV $180 (you can find them used pretty cheap too)
iPad $500

Ken:

One of the very many things that I like about using dBPoweramp is that it compares the rip that it makes on your system to the rips that others have made and reports back in real time so, in this way, you know that you have a bit-for-bit perfect rip...this is one of the many reasons that I like open systems which allow for this type of certainty and checking...

There are other advantages to dBPoweramp such as rich metadata, easy editing of metadata, etc.

Should you like to discuss this more simply let me know...


Joel

PS. If you want truly high end CD playback I would suggest you get a good NAS drive, rip your CDs using dBpoweramp and then get a high quality DAC rather than a proprietary all in one solution...this gives much more flexibility and control...

An important thing to keep in mind as you go down the computer audio path is that as long as your are using WAV format, all metadata, album art and tagging is NOT part of the actual WAV file, but stored in the libary file of whatever program you are using.

As a result, this metadata is not "portable" between programs. So if you have been happily using program abc and switch to xyz, you may end up having to redo a lot of tagging and organizing of music files. The way around this is to use flac, which physically includes the tags in the flac datafile, making it portable. Problem is with some programs flac is supposed to sound a little worse than WAV, but with the PS audio bridge this is not an issue.

True enough...that is why it would be best to use Apple Lossless, FLAC or other lossless method...

yes but Apple will not recognize FLAC files (last time I checked)

I burn everything to FLAC and have tried several programs/ hardware to transfer FLAC files from the Olive 4HD with varying levels of success: and I am not about to spend time converting the files from one format to another

Has anyone proven that burning CD's with specific software produces better sound quality than say using a unit like the Request? I am referring to burning a CD from a CD and not copying streaming music.

The upside of the Request is the cataloging etc and being able to see everything on my AMX panel.
Ken

No idea, but the two alleged most accurate ripping programs can also be used for burning. They are exact audio copy and dbpoweramp. Most computer audio users are concerned with getting data from a disc to a harddrive accurately and not copying anything back to discs, so answers may be hard to find. To make bit for bit exact copies of CDs you can also use Nero software, but I am not sure this is what you are after.

I have had excellent success using dbPoweramps batch conversion utility when converting between lossless formats...in fact, you can have it convert an entire library in a few mouse clicks...

Ken:

I would bet that there are a number of ways of doing without using the Request...for example, I am using a Creston application to do just this with my SONOS system...look for vendors who have written and available AMX modules..

Hope this helps...

You got that right...an exact copy is key!

That's a thought but I'm not really sure what all the extra work gets me, as opposed to a neat and simple solution as the Request. The only reason to lok elsewhere is if I will here improved audio. How would I know?
Ken

Toslink Optical is a decidedly mid-fi transmission protocol. I wonder what the jitter from an A-TV is. The solution is nice and reliable though.

I assume you mean transmission to the DAC via USB. If so an Asynchronous DAC is a must, otherwise the clock of the computer is going to send jitter over the top. Ayre, Aesthetix, DCS and Wavelength have such DACs which sound excellent with USB. Norm

Yes, this is indeed what I mean...