Mark Block

"Many authorities feel it is debatable that hi-res offers any improvement at all..." Huh..? Authorities of what? What are they comparing..? There are bad, good, and great LP pressings. Same is true for CD. And Hi rez digital is not always implemented well for a variety of reasons, but when it is, it is superior to REDbook. My ears are my authority. That is audible even on a portable devise like FIos as long as you have capable headphones. As far as a stock car system, I would reserve judgement till actually trying it.. Besides Some folk have high end sytems in their cars. Ican discern the difference between good and bad recording on my stock car system.

Gentleman please! I don't believe Neil Young thinks this device will replace $10K digital front ends for the rarefied audio hobbyist. But this is a welcome step forward which will introduce the unlearned pubic to really good digital sound for a modest cost. It will be miles beyond the itunes mp3s which 99.99% of the music listening public listens to, and doesn't even know there's a better alternative. Yes those in the know can buy apple loss-less, and tweak things, but the general public isn't wired that way to make those discerning choices. So having a cool looking device that only uses good digital sourced will lead them to the way. Even redbook thru a good music player and decent headphones, or high end audio system for that matter is a great sound by comparison. This is an encouraging development. It's not for 'us', its for 'them'. Well,, my 2 cents...

I did discover something I did wrong. The file info in MPDroid says 32 bit, 44K, so I changed the setting in DBPoweramp to 32 bit on the encoder. For some reason Mpdroid doesn't like those neew files. I changed the encoder setting to 'as source', and lo and behold the next few albums I loaded were then recognized on my droid tablet. However some issues remain. Some albums still don't get seen, and a few albums were broken up into several separate smaller albums in my droid library. It seems to see the performers on the tracks and groups them that way. SO when a sax player is then features on a few tracks, that becomes a separate album. None of the albums are indexed or recognized by the album name, so I need to change a setting so MPDroid sees the album name. Not sure how to do that. I'm a total newbie. Making progress, but not out of the weeds yet.. And still no album art. Is there a way to copy the file straight from DBPoweramp..? Perhaps there are more features available for purchase, but what I have seems to be ripping only,, no library buildiing feature that I know of..

Thank you.. I will change the path setting.. Under 'settings' in the droid app there is an 'update - refresh mpd's data base' command which I click. That is all the control I know of to re-scan the library. No I didn't use WMP to copy music,, it didn't seem to recognize the drive anyhow to sync to, as it otherwise does mp3 players,, etc.. I hit 'start menu' .. select 'music',,, then click the files I want to copy to the dirve and click 'send to' and of course select the Passport ext drive. I suppose the music files are 'in' Windows Music player, even when accesses that way but I don't send them from WMP. Is there another way...?

Newbie here. I just bought an Auraliti PK-90, an Andriod tablet to run MPDroid, and am using WD passport ext HD. I bought DBPower amp ripping SW, which then transports the files we over to Windows music player. I then select the files I want from my Music folder and use 'send to', and select the WD passport, and everything appears like is being written onto the ext hd. In fact when I click 'Computer' from my start up menu, and select the Passport ext hd all the files I sent to it are displayed as content. However after I then plug the Passport into the PK-90 music server, only the same 2 albums keep showed in my library on the MPdroid app, Its as if the all the other Cd I ripped and sent to the Passport are not there. The other albums do show up as content when I use the web controller from my PC desk top that Auralititi provides, but still only those same 2 albums I spoke of can be actually played, as their song populate when I select them. The other albums show as a titile, but when I click on them nothing happens.. None of the songs appear, and they cant be played. The other nuisance is that non to the album art seems to show in the MPDroid either, though on the web cpontoller so the art is =in the passport, and it shoss in my WIndows music player as well.. I did set the the 'cover filename' to 'cover.jpg', and 'path to music' to '/', as explained off Anitipodes website. Auralitie's support is virtually non existant. This was supposed to be the hip way to do CA,, I';m almost regrettin I didnt just buls a muwsc PC and use Windows Music player in my audio system! Any help out there...???? Very frustrasted!

Newbie here. I just bought an Auraliti PK-90, an Andriod tablet to run MPDroid, and am using WD passport ext HD. I bought DBPower amp ripping SW, which then transports the files we over to Windows music player. I then select the files I want from my Music folder and use 'send to', and select the WD passport, and everything appears like is being written onto the ext hd. In fact when I click 'Computer' from my start up menu, and select the Passport ext hd all the files I sent to it are displayed as content. However after I then plug the Passport into the PK-90 music server, only the same 2 albums keep showed in my library on the MPdroid app, Its as if the all the other Cd I ripped and sent to the Passport are not there. The other albums do show up as content when I use the web controller from my PC desk top that Auralititi provides, but still only those same 2 albums I spoke of can be actually played, as their song populate when I select them. The other albums show as a titile, but when I click on them nothing happens.. None of the songs appear, and they cant be played. The other nuisance is that non to the album art seems to show in the MPDroid either, though on the web cpontoller so the art is =in the passport, and it shoss in my WIndows music player as well.. I did set the the 'cover filename' to 'cover.jpg', and 'path to music' to '/', as explained off Anitipodes website. Auralitie's support is virtually non existant. This was supposed to be the hip way to do CA,, I';m almost regrettin I didnt just buls a muwsc PC and use Windows Music player in my audio system! Any help out there...???? Very frustrasted!

Has anyone compared directly these 2 dacs..?

Well I just pulled the trigger on the Auraliti PK-90. They have a great reputation, and they use the SOtM USB card (which the mini server does not), which is known to be a SOA method for implementing USB output on a computer. The PK-90 uses a light OS as do all the others mentioned,, so seems to be the device for me at this time. Not too expensive...

gotcha.. Based on the the very intelligent and scientific explanation of why usb delivery can be a superior format, and the ascyhnc connection, I feel inclined to find a great USB out server as well,, which is why I'm resisting the idea of a Rendu, though I understand it sound great... would be ideal to listen to all.... but hard to do... Lets hope Mr Manners can fill us in soon...

Mark! I'm anxiously awaiting... how do these servers, streamers, renderers,, ( or what ever you want to call them) compare...???

Just curious. New to all this. Perhaps a naive question'' counter-attack gently please.. ... but here it is... All this work to optimize a powerful. and 'heavy' O.S. (Windows). Would not then a light OS already optimized for audio such as the Voyage MPD work the best? Or, does the the ultimately more powerful Windows, when optimized carefully, out perform based on its ability to tweak so many parameters..

Have you tried the Auraliti PK-90..? Seems a bit more advanced than the mini server,, a bit more expensive but not by much. How does the Mini and Rendu compare...? Have you compared them in the same dac ( one that has both good usb and spidf)? thx, Mark

I just checked out that Auralic. That a pretty serious company.. and that streamer look like a very nice device. I bet they'll kill the market. An affordable digital player at a reasonable price. I guess we can assume it will sound good...

hmmm... thank you. Do you know anything about the internal design of the mini..? It does seem like an inexpensive first step. Just that I seem to have my head wrapped around the idea of a player using the SOtM usb out card.. as it seems to bring out the best in that format... I'm just going by what I've read.. I haven't heard any of these..

Well yes that is true, but the USB out ( I believe) is direct off the mobo, no special card.. I had a conversation with them. That doesn't mean it doesn't sound good, but I would think with their expertise, a great usb card in the Orbiter would be an amazing option, but the mobo it;s designed around does not accept one. It seem their true focus is in spif in the Rendu...