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brlawyer

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  1. Am looking for a new pair of headphones comfortable enough to listen to for a few hours without feeling a headache; preferably with a warm(ish) and wide soundstage good for heavy metal, electronic and classical alike. Which of the three models above would you get?
  2. Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but my question is fairly simple. Here is my setup: - iMac 27" 5K 2015 with mostly lossless music (ALAC) on iTunes/Audirvana; - Marantz HD-DAC1 DAC; - Denon DRA-F109 amp/receiver (connected to B&W stereo speakers and Planar turntable). I am about to purchase new (most probably open back) headphones, probably the Beyerdynamic DT-1990, or the closed back B&W P9. I could not find the exact answer on Google, so here it is: WHERE should I plug my wired headphones, particularly if they are of high impedance? To the DAC directly, or to the Denon amp? So far I have used them directly with the DAC, but realize that this may not be very convenient, as the amp is the end device for all other outputs... Tks!
  3. The other day, weijore sent me the following message (all credits go to him, of course) - hope this is helpful to you: "You've probably tossed your subwoofer by now, but I have the same problem. But I was able to remove the outer nine screws to remove the box that holds the PCBs. I just used a screw driver to pop the box out. I removed the connections to the LED and woofer, then opened the box by removing the four outermost screws that remained. (There were still a bunch of screws left in the panel that are holding the PCBs and other components so I left those untouched.) Once inside the box I found that there was no fuse. I looked for popped caps but found none. Eventually I found a burnt resistor (R23) in front of the amp. It's a large 1W 100ohm 5% resistor that was discolored and the coating had flaked off. I removed the PCB from the front panel and removed the resistor. I'll be replacing it when I can get a replacement part. I suspect that you may have had a similar problem. Hopefully you've already figured this all out or resolved the problem some other way. Either way, I thought it might be interesting for you to know the solution I found."
  4. I absolutely share the same feeling, particularly since iTunes is ALREADY the main platform for movies, TV shows and iDevice sync actions - besides, it never crashes and deals well with my relatively large library (in fact, the only bugs seem to be related to A+'s integrated mode). Quite frankly, I will only move away from it if the alternatives are REALLY compelling.
  5. Absolutely no performance difference - but the new tagging window is DEFINITELY better than before (and almost the same as the one used in previous versions) - kudos to Apple for listening to customers' comments..! Can't comment on A+ 2.0, since I still use 1.5.12 with integrated mode.
  6. I used to do the same, but simply decided for the ALAC format which, in the end, is lossless like the others.
  7. Tks a lot for this, but that is exactly my point: I do not feel like dispensing with the integrated mode just yet, UNLESS there is a compelling stability/quality reason to do so - but so far, everything I've read points to the main advantage being A+'s new iTunes-like window. That being the case, I will probably stick with 1.5.12 a little longer...
  8. Dear All, My apologies if this has already been addressed in the 70+ page thread on A+ 2.0 - but my question is really simple, as a current user of A+ 1.5.12: Is there ANY noticeable sound quality improvement in version 2.0 or is it just about the music management window? I do NOT want to stop using iTunes integrated mode, especially considering that I have more than 10000 songs properly tagged and artworked. However, I have seen a few bugs under Yosemite, particularly when it comes to re-activation of audio in other apps under Exclusive Mode and the odd crash here and there...any improvements under 2.0? In summary: Any stability or sound quality reasons for upgrading? Thanks a lot!
  9. Superdad, tks for your additional considerations - but just to be clear one more time: - I am a licensed user of A+ and am, so far, happy with it (even though I admit still having a hard time noticing the "wonders" that other people talk about when referring to vastly superior sound quality); - My concern here is that NOWHERE in the A+ manual is there a reference to improved SQ under the PL mode - besides, all representations made by Damien in the A+ documentation/white paper make absolutely no reference to that possibility - they simply say that, under IM, there is absolutely no audio interference from iTunes as the whole playback is captured by A+ under direct/integer modes; - I have no idea what Jud is talking about when he asserts that "the fact that not using iTunes integration improves sound quality is referenced in the UI itself." NOTHING under the UI or A+ Preferences says that, and I am already using all of the optimization settings recommended by Damien (including deactivating iTunes playback completely, which is NOT the same as Playback mode) - I am ready to stand corrected, of course; - My simple request: that Damien explain whether/why/how this SQ difference may be true, that's all; and that in future versions of the documentation, he CLEARLY indicate that. Because if he DOES so, I will be more than willing to try out PL mode just in case. Having said that, in my own testing with the B&W 685s, Icon HDP DAC and Denon amp, no SQ difference has been noticed so far; but my ears may be failing me anyway. Thanks again.
  10. I will try to keep a respectful tone here and avoid engaging in flame wars - I am talking about the Oxford definition of "advertisement" as follows: "anoticeorannouncement in a public mediumpromoting a product, service, orevent or publicizing a job vacancy" Its thesaurus also refers to it (and this is more in line with what I mean here) as "announcement, notice; commercial, infomercial,promotion, endorsement, blurb, write-up; poster, leaflet,pamphlet, flyer, bill, handbill, handout, fact sheet,circular, bulletin, brochure, sign, placard, junk mail" So your not-so-disguised irony or perhaps intended "correction" is not necessary here. In fact, it may be that you're not at all familiar with the concept of "misleading advertisement", especially if you come from the US where statutory consumer rights are not exactly the norm. In summary, I am simply saying that, whenever talking about IM, Damien has always stated that audio control remains completely with A+ (particularly under Direct/Integer modes, of course). In fact, nowhere in that manual does he state that Playlist improves sound quality, nor is this mentioned in its tips for improving quality such as SysOptimizer, iTunes and Setup. IF that is the case, he must clearly admit that possibility and stop telling its customers that IM refers only to library management...that's all. P.s.: by "related documentation" I meant his paper entitled "Beyond bit-perfect (...)", where he explains the advantages of Integer Mode (which, once more, is active in both IM and non-IM scenarios).
  11. If you are a fellow attorney, you should at least think before posting such careless remarks. Just read the damn A+ manual as well as any other related documentation on it which says, and has ALWAYS said, that audio treatment under IM is exactly the same as PL mode, with the only exception being library management access - in other words, audio is completely taken over by A+ even under IM. If the above (same quality in both modes) is NOT true, then we are simply talking about misleading advertisement. I look forward to hearing Damien's explanation in this regard. Edit: Just to be clear, I am talking about Integer Mode in both cases.
  12. This has absolutely nothing to do with one of my own posts - what shocks me (and reeks of misleading advertisement) is that what has always been said about Integrated Mode is simply untrue, then. I look forward to hearing Damien's own explanation if there is, indeed, any difference in sound quality between IM and non-IM. The thread you linked to is NOT conclusive about that - in fact, people seem to report different results based on different software versions. P.s.: I have just tested both modes and can't hear any difference for now - perhaps the issue is NOT that non-IM is sonically better. It may simply be that Macs with relatively lower processing power may struggle to deliver the expected quality under IM if subjected to some processor stress...since my iMac has an i7/16GB of RAM and never goes beyond 3% of processor usage under A+, I may not be able to hear any difference at all.
  13. How is that even possible? A+ has ALWAYS advertised that Integrated Mode simply uses iTunes for library management, but that the sound playback is totally done outside iTunes. I call this BS.
  14. Another bug that I've noticed - when trying to play a physical CD, A+ displays the following message: "Error: Unable to grab exclusive access OSError=!goh" This has never happened before - what gives?
  15. Salut Damien, Any fix to iTunes DJ mode with A+? The song selected under iTunes DJ is never the same actually being played by A+ in Integrated Mode.
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