Black

I only disagree in that there are some serious bands out these days who won't get the spotlight like Radiohead--maybe one day if they grind like Radiohead. There's so much great innovative music right now--it's almost too crowded. Radiohead's skill is they're still listening to new bands, they have their ears in tune with a lot of indie bands, and musicians for influence. Every band/musician/producer needs injections of influence, except John Zorn. To ME, I hear Kid A and Amnesiac in everything since. But that's my issue. :-)

I own that CD and it is solid. I guess when someone like him creates a forum to hopefully generate solid debate on any particular LP on any medium, but plays an autocratic despot for anyone questioning his work, AF, or DCC...it shows me someone I would never hire to work or touch an album I was recording. If he was smart he'd ask for samples from of the serious indie labels like Cantora Records, Fat Cat, or Heavenly Recordings...then send them back anonymously and see what they think. I'd love to see how he'd do with some of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard's LPs or Concrete Desert by The Bug and Earth on Ninja Tunes. Anyway, I think it's easier to realize what kind of mastering plan to do with an older popular title (most don't need anything, IMHO), but these kids like Ty Segall are killing it these days on albums that vary from garage to t-rex style rock. When he credits anything he's produced he'll stated "recorded, mixed" and rarely does mastering come in because you talk to him and he feels an album should be done with the mixing and mastering is a cost for the reissues for Dire Straits or Steely Dan's 20th reissue. Times are changing and SH is stuck in all his glory and fan sites. I can't even check out the place due to the dolts who are just now into vinyl. Plus frequenting his fan forum stereo central certainly helps see through a lot that's been deleted. He created a monster....monster is eating him up. I was looking for a Ty Segall production, but this interview blew me away as I have heard the Hawkwind influence and his Bowie-T-Rex sound. But he puts out 1-2 LP's a year and haven't disliked one yet the past 6 years after catching him in SF at...I think Bottom of The Hill?

The Loudness Wars are a bit silly and with some present indie bands they even make fun of it by doing it so LoFi and non-polished it's gotten critic's attention. Electric Studio's Forum (Steve Albini's Studio) has some hilarious but valid pro's and con's. Unless you're listening to "most" music from a reputable label, Production/Recording/Engineering staff it is what it is. It's hard to enjoy music if you know what goes behind it, or you're not hearing a tone stretch out due to it being cut off on the note to ether. That sucks. I hate it. But I also grew up on indie bands on labels that recorded like Pavement's original release of Slanted and Enchanted. I hated Nirvana's Nevermind because it was not the band's sound. It was more glossy than Appetite For Destruction.

I have not been here in a while, saw this and figured I'd reply, but it's pretty old. When was the last time SH worked an album? I'm curious and could check, but I think it was Rage's AF releases? Don't take my tone for being arrogant or dheaded (douchey--maybe?) or vindictive-like. I used to go to the SH forum when it began, but started barfing up as years went by. He's got some Don King in him and the forum was ingenious until he started trying to insert himself in situations he wasn't in, or took a rap to his fragile ego and booted some serious pro's calling him out. Not claiming you're still enamored with him, but I'm surprised people still drink his juice. Sure he had access to equipment at a time when all that was considered like flying a plane, before the curtain of tech was removed. "Golden Ears" is complete BS when associated with him. Golden means money and great, so Vlad must have Platinum Ears? Now Ludwig, Grundman, Stax, and Stan Ricker (RIP) who are true engineers and artists and the output and proof is in the pudding. Nowadays things have changed and there's kids like Alex Gordon, Christian Wright, and Adam Ayan who know how to craft a recording into money and do it incredibly well. SH's best work was on a lot of the horrible sounding MCA releases they needed for CD. It wasn't genius work if you ask any engineer, but for latter L'P's the vinyl remaster Steve did on Stadium Arcadium was solid, but c'mon, you could of sent the Stadium Arcadium master to LANDR and it would of sounded great considering how bad it was completed. My last SH release I bought was Rage Against The Machine's Evil Empire on SACD. Compared to Ludwig's initial version---I'm not sure SH even turned a dial? The only thing I noticed is it's been converted to DSD format. I know Marsh Mastering took a hit on it as they handle all or most of the AF releases. No coincident around this time Kevin Gray was looking to start Intervention Records. I rambled enough, but people need to quit drinking the SH juice. His site and fan sites are ridiculous and his censored forum is an embarrassment to anyone like Ludwig and MFSL to challenge him and be deleted. But keep overpaying for those MCA Best of Polka releases on Ebay or old DCC releases likely sold through a SH proxy. That's my two cents and I know a lot will disagree that's he's an average mastering tech--not engineer. I looked up SH right now on Discogs to see what he's done lately and noticed he took Production credits (In Discogs) on albums he has no business doing so. Bob Marley "Young Mystic"?????? Wow. And an album I have in my hands and his name is not on it. https://www.discogs.com/Duke-Ellington-The-Feeling-Of-Jazz/release/7428974 Nuff said.

I've owned Jriver for ages, but I'll try this HQ Player out. I started with iTunes, Audiorvana , and just now trying to add some VST plugins (Simple audio analyzer I use from Melda with Logic. But have VST, so it should work.

That's because anyone can be an audiophile. There's no prerequisite except to say you own some components and several MFSL, Audio Fidelity or Stockfish albums...and you overpay for certain CD's (DCC) because a group of non to semi-professional knob turners on SH Forums deemed perfect. The same CD's you could re-master on Ozone 6 and make exactly to your own liking.

Probably right, but Schiit has not had to do much groundwork in R&D compared to Benchmark--I bought a BiFrost when it came out and used for a month and liked it. I'd like to test both side by side for a year and see which one degraded the most in a professional environment. DACs are not that complicated when you remove the transport aspect. Schiit was brilliant and chose the perfect component to market, and sell at a reasonable cost. Their CS is second to none or it used to be.

It is a fine looking and with some nice parts--plus those guys are the most ethical in the biz, IMO. If I ever decided to switch buying my DACS from Benchmark, I may look for Yggdrasil used one day. My Mani and Loki I do love, and for the price you can't go wrong.

Seriously folks...the Jitterbug is on par with the new age folks buying some crystals and thinking it gives them good vibes. That said, if it you think it works, then great. But go to Mouser and just buy a simple USB Choke for $10. It does nothing to help jitter and if it did it's not like you would notice it. Had they priced it at $20 it would still be a rip off. Anyway, whoever got this one in production and marketed it--great job. I'm jealous...since I could of did the same thing but had it wrapped in carbon. Most people don't realize even how or why there's be jitter through a USC connection. Dragonfly already has everything you need as does any device that is utilized through a USB connection. Just go to USB.ORG and learn some. But then paying $50 for a device that does absolutely nothing is considered a deal among audiophiles.

No anonymous sniping. Just someone who only comes here to check on equipment reviews and software reviews. Most when I purchased Audirvana years ago.

What's there to learn? Everything boils down to costs and if buying cables for $1K and up make an incremental improvement that 90% of most listeners won't notice--there's no point. First and foremost it's a business and P&L is what keep things running.

I prefer a producer who's a gear slut an only uses solid top of the line gear and cables. I don't like to hear any in a studio tell me, "none of that really matters". However, most self proclaimed audiophiles are looked down on in the recording scene due to the stereotypes. They're like the very nerdy guy who knows Boba Fet's family lineage in Star Wars and are always in a hurry to let anyone know their opinion on gear, cables, and recordings. And of course they belong to that guy who lowers the volume on all his mastering projects and now seems to have Golden Ears. When anyone in the industry needs a laugh they read posts at his forum. There's even an anti-forum dedicated to this "Golden Eared" mastering guru that pops most of his holier than thou posts.

I bought a Jitterbug on a impulse buy and it might be my ears (which are tested fine) but I can't tell much of a difference. I sold it to a friend for $30 and he seems to like it. Scientifically it should work, but then maybe it's the same as trying to tell the difference between 24/48 and 24/96 on the same recording with all mastering being equal or different speaker wires? Wish I had heard something!

Yeah, it sucks. I'm actually still trying to see if I can get it to work this weekend. We'll see.

I haven't been on here a while but now I have a question on my recently purchased Fulla Schiit DAC/AMP. This thing is so simple and HOW mine doesn't work is beyond me. I'm want to keep it, but I cannot find any tweaks or tricks to get it work on my desktop or laptop Macs. I paid for expedited shipping and that's a loss, and now they asked me to send back and they''ll send me new one--I'm over this Schiit-Y product for now. Troubleshooting I've done: 1. Tried everything on Schiit's FAC page. Tried new USB chords. Even went so far as to try it on my wife IBM. No luck. 2. Maybe it's a dud? I hate sending crap back, because at that point I'm over it and want to move on. I guess I may have to send it back and wait for another one that I'd rather not have and thinking I should just go with the Geek thumb drive or Audioquest. 3. As always, lesson learned---You get what you pay for. Does any have any advice? I'd like to keep the thing so as not to lose money on re-stocking and the overnight shipping I paid for--because no doubt they won't send a new one overnight. I'm more worried I'll get another dud. No slam on Schiit. I've been a believer in al they do since they first released the BiFrost.