simonc

thanks souptin, will have a play

thanks everyone, i am new to mac world but found the applications folder and have reset the sample rates and the belcanto is now displaying the correct sample rates. just one last quick question if i may, amarra offer amarra and amarra hifi, i will only be using to play from i tunes, can anyone enlighten me to the differences apart from the 'mastering algorithms' or, to put it simply, does one sound better than the other. many thanks.

hello everyone, just curious as to why my new mac mini always outputs 192 to my bel canto ref link. i have ripped some standard redbook cds (16bit 44.1) into aiff. i am using raw itunes that has no (as far as i can see) options in terms of output sample rates. so, my question is does the mac/i tunes always upsample as standard?, is this a bad thing? i have looked at other threads where people are struggling to get 192 where i, can get it with no effort but wondering why. any help would be much appreciated.

sorry for the late reply, been away for a while. i have purchase a bel canto reflink usb to spdif converter and could not be happier, its one of those wow factor components that have you trawling through your library again to see what youve been missing. thanks for all the advice

i have been away for a while, thanks again everyone, really helpfull

thanks for the answers you helpfull lot. will continue on my quest.

just to throw my bit in. i have owned atc , genelecs and b&w (still own the latter 2). they are all excellent speakers but, quite different. i use atc and genelec in my recording studio. they are amazingly transparent but brutal. this is especially true imo of the atc's. feed any atc an inferior source either by substandard kit or (more often) inferior recordings and they will sound horrible. feed a good source and it does'nt get much better. this is just what you need to hear the truth in a recording studio but, can be unpleasant when you simply want to enjoy. the b&ws i find are more enjoyable as they 'cover the cracks' very well whilst maintaining all the attributes a good set of transducers should. check out the pmc range also. i would not recomend any above the other as it is soooo personal and is relient on your existing kit, you room, the music you listen to, the mood your in etc etc

thanks for the reply everyone. i did try a passive preamp once (albeit in a purely analogue system) and i was not impressed. it was a much more expensive music first copper version. i agree with brightonjel that i am adding additional components within the signal path with an analogue pot so, was hoping for a digital solution. i would not be against selling the bryston and getting a dac with a digital volume control but, was wondering if there was a more cost effective solution. man many thanks

happy new year everyone. can someone recomend the best audio quality way of adjusting volume without a preamp. i have a pc based system, bel canto ref link and a bryston bda 1. i can obviously adjust the volume in software (using j river at the mo) but have been told this is not the way to do it. do i have to ditch my dac and get one with a digital volume control or is there another trick way??. many thanks

thanks again everyone, will try jmrc and foobar as suggested and, as you say John, just listen and enjoy myself. good advice

thanks for your answers guys i guess i am looking for the perfect world here. are you all saying that xx highend, jriver, foobar will sound better correctly tweaked than i tunes????, i do have a revealing system and i am confident it would show them. tried xx highend but found that extremely un-intuitive

hi, thanks for the reply, can anyone else help with a pc based system?????, many thanks.

hello and seasons greetings. i am looking for advice on playback software. having tried j river, media monkey and i tunes, i personally prefer the latter as it is more intuitive to me (software is a weak point of mine) and i prefer the gui. i have looked at the settings and, well, there dosent seem to be much to tweak. does this means it loads the optimum settings automically and i need'nt worry or, am i missing something. some newby questions: is amarra for mac only do i have to load quick time as well to tweak settings (as per online advice on another forum) do i have to tweak anything in windows 7 sound device manager do i have to load an asio driver, if so, where? one frustrating thing i have found is that my setup does not alter the sample rate of the source music in my library. i have material currently from ripped cds at 44.1 and also 96. i can alter this each time in windows device manager but this is obviously a pain. it suprised me to find that i could get 192 out to my usb to spdif converter. i take it then the pc is upsampling, is this a bad thing? many thanks for your help.

thanks again everyone for your inputs. i will indeed try the usb to spdif converter first.

thanks for the reply musicophile and elberoth. it seems a thumbs up for usb to spdif then. is this because of the bryston in my set up. the reason I ask is that i am looking at purchasing a different dac, possibly a belcanto in the near future. are the belcanto better fed by a different source or, does usb to spdif apply also. finally, is there a difference in the different usb types with sound quality. many many thanks for sharing your knowledge.