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.
One of my daily routines is listening to The Adam Carolla Show podcast while reading and responding to email each morning. Last Friday Adam interviewed well known recording engineer of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and artist Alan Parsons. Alan discussed his work for EMI during The Beatles recording sessions at Abbey Road and his disdain for the original release of Let It Be. The whole podcast is pretty interesting but the gem mentioned by Alan Parsons is his new video series called The Art & Science Of Sound Recording. At first blush this may appear irrelevant to audiophiles but upon further investigation most Computer Audiophile readers will find many nuggets of information that enhance the listening experience. From Edison to iPod to file formats, sample rates, and training oneself to how to listen. This video series has value for those in the music industry and those of us who consume the products of the industry. After the introduction a twenty-six minute Digital Audio & Computers video is recommended. Alan and very respected engineers discuss using the best Analog to Digital (ADC) and Digital to Analog Converters (DAC) when the budget allows and how acute Sheryl Crow's hearing is while recording.
The Computer Audiophile CD ripping strategy and methodology article has been one of the most popular writings on the site to date. Some readers have implemented the methodology exactly how it was written while others have put their own spin on it by changing file formats and the number of file copies. Other readers are still searching for a less time consuming way to rip their music collections. Over the last few weeks I've been using a CD ripping approach that's likely to satisfy those who want to get the job done but don't have a couple months of free time to rip 3000 CDs. The approach consists of an automated ripping robot in combination with Get Digital Data's Encode Center and GD3 Tagger software and its GD3 database. The experience was actually enjoyable from beginning to end. I'm willing to bet few if any readers have ever enjoyed ripping CDs.
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.
In the second part of this series I discussed pushing music from a music server to another location in a residence using Apple Airport Express units. These work wonderful for playing the same music in every location as the Airport Express only follows the lead of the main music server. Playing different music in each location of a residence is a little different story, but it can be accomplished in much the same fashion. Substituting AppleTVs for the Airport Express units allows a listener to either push music from the main music server, the exact same way as an Airport Express, or pull music from the main music server independently of what's playing on the server. Plus, using an iPod Touch or iPhone this can all be controlled from a single location.
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In part two of the wireless music distribution series we get into the actual configuration of an Airport Express and iTunes to distribute music from the music server to another zone / room with AirTunes. Unfortunately the word configuration has a bad connotation when it comes to computers. Much of the time when people read the word configuration they immediately tune out and look for a canned solution that's plug n' play. Fortunately when working with most Apple components and applications the word configuration really means putting a check mark in a box and clicking OK. I'm happy to report that this is the case when enabling AirTunes. Here are some instructions and a video showing exactly how to complete this simple configuration.
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