andrewhollo

It's a decent audiophile grade product. I listen to my phantom more than I do to my system that's worth $30k. I'm going to upgrade to a stereo pair and ditch the expensive gear. Andrew Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know this is technically an Apple issue, but I thought someone here might know what to do! Since I've bought a new router, I've not been able to connect my iPhone with iTunes via the Remote app; formerly it worked just fine. iTunes recognises the iPhone and asks for the four digit passcode, but then stalls. The iPhone connects to my wireless network just fine; iTunes runs Airport Expresses through the same router just fine. I'm desperate to sit down and listen to my hi fi in my new lounge room with my new DAC! Jumping up every few minutes to the computer to change tracks reminds me of the bad old days of vinyl! Cheers, Andrew

http://www.last.fm/user/andrewhollo 45000 plays scrobbled to date. I spend at least 50% of my 'terrestrial' listening on last.fm; I find it sends me down pathways that I'd never discover myself. I'm pretty adventurous musically and it seems to accommodate some pretty 'weird' preferences. In terms of giving up my playlists and listening habits for the 'public' to see, I don't have a problem with this at all. In fact, some of my best listening has occurred because I've found people with whose tastes I'm highly compatible and then I listen to THEIR playlists. I've not tried blip.fm . . . I'll check it out though. Andrew

I've just reassembled my gear after completing renovations and I'm noticing that my AE 'reception' kicks in and out irregularly. Sometimes it'll last OK for an hour, sometimes just a few seconds. Is it a location question? The setup is as follows: 1. iMac connected wirelessly to Belkin router; 2. 2 x Airport Expresses in the house: (i) hooked up to a small Tivoli Audio stereo in the kitchen (about 12m and 2 rooms away) and (ii) hooked up to a Cambridge DAC, then Musical Fidelity pre-amp and a Golden Tube Audio valve amp in the living room (same room as the computer, about 4m away). Both usually stop working at the same time, which suggests to me that it's something at the router's end. Am I right? In the new setup, the router is in a wooden cupboard; should I experiment with it location? Any advice much appreciated, Andrew

Thanks for this Chris; working perfectly right now!

Using iTunes, how do I convert AIFF files to ALAC?

I've got several computers (iMacs at home and in the office, also my MacBook Air and an iPhone) and want to listen to music that's stored at different locations . . . I've recently come across Simplify Media (http://www.simplifymedia.com), which lets me bring ALL my music files together simply (hence the name) all within iTunes. And it's free. Only downside is that won't recognise my AIFF files; it'll play just about everything else! Does anyone else use this? Andrew

Well I bought my second DAC in a week as it turns out the CArat UD1 doesn't have an optical in ... So it won't play at all with Airport Express! So now I'm sitting here VERY happily listening to Miles Davis through a Cambridge Audio DAC ... It's a revelation! It's the digitally remastered disc ripped to Apple lossless ... If I knew that spending a few hundred bucks would make this much difference I would have done it ages ago .... Andrew

Thanks TJ . . . got USB out working just fine . . . listening to headphones . . . very nice! And, yes, I need a TOS adapter, so I'll get one of those online . . . or re-visit my audio dealer tomorrow . . . Cheers, Andrew

Thanks for your reply . . . Hmmm. The dealer definitely said that it'll connect via USB from my Airport Express to the pre-amp . . . however, I've looked at a couple of websites and what you say seems to be the case . . . . so, now I'm confused . . . Anyway, if I need to buy an optical cable, what do these look like? I'm guessing I can just go to any electronics store and buy a Toslink cable? At any rate, should I at least be able to connect USB from a laptop and listen through the DAC with headphones? Because this doesn't work either for me either . . . Andrew

I bought my first DAC (a Styleaudio Carat UD1) yesterday and attempted to connect it to two different Airport Expresses. In both cases, I get a message from both the Airport Utility and iTunes saying, "Airport Living Room not connected to speakers". I am using USB to connect the DAC to the inputs of an AudioFidelity pre-amp. I've previously used both AEs with the 3.5mm jack successfully; also I've tried changing the input channels on the pre-amp. No luck. Any advice here; the dealer's closed today, as it's Sunday . . . and I'd like to listen to some music! Andrew

This is probably not the place for it, but here it is for 20 Euro: http://www.audio-archives.com/en/catalogue/fiches/e_Jazz_449.htm I'm a big fan of Ibrahim; for years, I'd used a track from Mindif as my 'audiophile' test disc: the delicate piano and the brush work on the cymbals sure separated sheep from goats! Andrew

I'm only new here, and I'd not stopped to consider that an audiophile quality download of a single 10 minute track might be half a Gb in size. I'm in Australia and while we've got pretty fast broadband (at my place it runs about 12Mb/sec), we don't have limitless ISP plans. Mine's pretty big by AUS standards and it's only 150Gb per month. I chew through that reasonably easily, without having even started on the audiophile download journey! Right now, though, I'm in Indonesia, where my internet flicks between 3G (at about 100kb/sec) and EDGE (about 10kb/sec) . . . plainly impossible for large files. So my question: how long before the world catches up to high-definition / audiophile formats and enables seamless digital delivery? Andrew

OK, I'm new here. I'm vaguely computer (Mac) literate, and I'm slightly audio-literate. Just not computer-audio literate. So let's use my focus of group of one to test Shenzi's suggestions: 1. Mac or PC? (Pros and cons of both) NOPE - already a committed Mac person 2. Starting out with an older computer (repurposing - is it worth it, what's the minimum spec?) NOPE - see above 3. What connects to what? (Literally, how do you get the 1s and 0s as far as the speakers) YEP - definitely 4. Do I need a DAC? (how good is computer output? Do I have one already in my receiver?) YEP - definitely; in particular, I wanna know whether I should follow the advice of getting something cheap and cheerful (like a Beresford) or something mid-range (like Musical Fidelity or Cambridge) or save my pennies and splash out . . . 5. USB, Firewire, optical, wireless or coax? Maximum lengths. Pros and cons (technical not subjective!) YEP - this is a total confusing mess for me at the moment. (I grew up with Monster Cable, so I figure something big and thick is the way to go.) 6. Recommended software for ripping (per platform) plus anything else suitable for beginners (album cover widgets) YEP - although it seems "get iTunes" is the mantra here. I've never used anything else, so that works for me. 7. How to do bit-perfect YEP - . . . um . . . never heard of this, so I guess I need to know about it. I'm assuming it isn't someone being modest, "You know, I'm not perfect, I'm just a bit perfect . . . " ; - ) 8. Settings for iTunes (and PC recommended music thingie of choice) YEP - for sure; I've got all these CDs just waiting to be ripped! And those I've ripped . . . do I need to do them again? 9. Backing up YEP - I wanna know how to juggle a Mac Mini's paltry 120Gb drive with a 500Gb/1Tb backup . . . and, what about off-site backups for when the house gets burgled / burned down? 10. Remote control and browsing from the armchair YEP - although I second what everyone here seems to say, "Get Remote onto your iPhone or iPod Touch"; this is my friend at breakfast time in the kitchen, with the cat on my lap as I sip my coffee. 11. What else can go through the DAC (digital radio, sat tv) YEP - in particular, what effect does the the DAC have on audio from different video formats which the Mac Mini streams to a monitor? 12. Internet radio MAYBE - although I'm a big last.fm fan . . . So, a big thumbs up from me for Shenzi's list: my score would be 9.5/12 . . . I'm a reader and occasional contributor to a Mac forum in Australia called MacTalk (http://www.mactalk.com.au) which has a superb set up for newbies in its forums. They have a Q&A for people switching from PC to Mac and a forum especially for 'stupid' questions asked by newcomers. Very valuable. The 'old hands' hang out there and I know from experience that you get a response very quickly to any queries. Much better than visiting a shop or googling! OK, that's my $0.02 worth . . .although with the AU$ sliding its way into oblivion, that's about a week's salary over here (!) Andrew

Hmmm. Not a bad idea, given that only 20% of my 1500 discs are ones that I really love and want to keep as entire discs. Having said that, I figure that music is rapidly moving toward a place where everything will be accessible at higher and higher quality . . . so maybe the notion of ME holding the "archive" is a waste of time and space. (Having said that I've got two enormous boxes full of vinyl which are unlistened to now for about 15 years!). Andrew