I'm really not one to draw attention to myself. I know that sounds a bit odd as I publish another link to an interview I've just completed. Please keep in mind I didn't start CA to direct attention to myself. CA is all about the readers, contributors, community, new friends, and the next phase in high end audio reproduction. The more opportunities I have to get the word out about what's going on here at CA and in computer audio playback the better it is for everyone interested in high end computer audio. The following interview was conducted by Dagogo's Laurence Borden. It touches on some beginner topics, CD ripping, file formats, and more advanced subjects like asynchronous and adaptive USB. Here's a link to the compete interview over at Dagogo
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My recent interview on Leo Laporte's TWiT network about computer audiophilia has been posted on the Ultimate AV Mag site. The video is just short of one hour and covers many topics discussed here on CA including, "the basics of high-resolution computer-audio files, including file formats and compression, adaptive and asynchronous USB DACs, ripping physical discs, online sources for high-res music files, the Simple Design Sonore Linux-based music-server appliance, cloud-based systems, using a preamp/processor with high-res music servers, local-area network streaming, answers to chat-room questions, and more." Here's a link the complete video of the show from June 27, 2011.
Last week audio consultant Jim Smith sent me a copy of his Get Better Sound DVD. The DVD is a companion to the 300 page Get Better Sound manual. Over the weekend I watched the three DVD set from start to finish. Plus I replayed a few chapters that really piqued my interest such as chapter 35 addressing computer audio. Most of the five hours of audio education don't directly relate to computer audio but I pulled a few quotes that may be of interest to the CA faithful.
Computer audiophiles using Windows 7 based music servers have a plethora of configuration and application choices for music management and playback. A quick look at Wikipedia's list of applications, Windows, OS X and otherwise, can overwhelm anyone. Over the years I've tried more operating systems and applications than I can remember. Many of these have show stopping flaws that rule them out as contenders immediately. Applications that can't play certain file formats or all required sample rates don't receive much attention from me. That was the case over one year ago with J river Media Center 13. I tried to play some of the Reference Recordings HRx 24/176.4 material and had nothing but problems. No doubt the problems could have been worked out, but with so many options available elsewhere I didn't see any reason to spend time with the application. Since this initial underwhelming experience J River has released Media Center version 14. In addition many colleagues in the industry have encouraged me to give it another serious look. One colleague even backed up his suggestion with measurements showing JRMC's playback bit transparency. I started to see the light at CES this year and realized it was finally time take another look at J River Media Center as well as time to get serious about Windows 7.
Recently the validity of USB as an audio interface has been called into question by some audiophiles. Adding to this was an all-encompassing statement in The Absolute Sound professing that USB interfaces are inferior to S/PDIF interfaces across the board. This had much of the computer audio world understandably bent out of shape. Instead of a disservice to the audiophile community I will attempt to provide accurate information based on facts and discuss different USB implementations. I'll focus mainly on the two different types of USB implementations asynchronous and adaptive. In my opinion any USB, Firewire, S/PDIF, or AES/EBU interface is capable of outperforming the other interfaces on any given day. None of these interfaces is inherently better or worse than the others. It's the implementation of the interface in each product that separates the men from the boys.
The Computer Audiophile Academy is back in session with a little series about moving iTunes libraries and music from an old computer to a new computer. In addition to moving the library and music is a little primer on what the iTunes LIbrary is and how it's different from the iTunes music files / folder.
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