earlinarizona

I noticed a company with a 32 bit chip the other day. I would think that would be the final bit level needed to give greater dynamic range then possibly needed. Any thoughts on this piece. Maybe a 32 bit Pacific Microsonics Model 3. 32 bit/ 192. Just dreaming.

Is this product still an in progress piece? Any new news on it? I met Arazi at the Berkeley meeting and he has lots of possibilities.

http://www.flixxy.com/how-sound-affects-us.htm

If I wanted to feed a Berkeley DAC with a MacBook Pro. Can you use the headphone/optical output to the Toslink input on the Berekeley, or is this a completely different type of optical out. What kind of adapter is used here? If this is possible can you get the 24/176 out of the MacBook Pro optical? This setup will also have the Amarra so does this all interface or not?

1) If I use the MacBook pro laptop for a 24/192 setup will the firewire connection from the laptop to, lets say a Minerva do everything if I have Amarra also on the laptop? 2) If I use just Firewire and the Minerva is there a need for the Lynx card or does the firewire and Amarra/Itunes take care of this? 3) The new laptop has Firewire 800. Will that work with the Minerva or do I just need the regular Firewire? 4) I heard that Firewire setups will only give 24/96 tops. Is that just old information?

Having a gathering like this should not be missed if you are serious about sound. If you equate it to cars imagine you get to drive the Lambos, Astons ets. And you get to talk to the designers at the same time while comparing cars. This is what happened here in Berkeley. If they have another one of these don’t hesitate to come because it was worth 2 or 3 times the price. Higher bit rate does equal better sound. The audio press was there which says to me this is getting big. The seminar with the 8 distinguished speakers was ABSOLUTLY eye opening. The people who are giving results tested on lesser systems will get and give misleading results. I think in the future, the systems like the Martan will be the leaders in sound quality. When you manufacturer your own unit from scratch you can control the wire paths, power regulating and so many things that would be a problem in a regular computer setup. But also in the future I would bet most regular listeners will use a regular computer. It is absolutely how amazing even with all of the problems of a cheap computer, how good it can sound. Solid state drives will probably end up the standard for servers. In closing they did an A +++ job and are to be congratulated and thanked. It would be great if some of the people that went could just add their own word here. I just did a very basic coverage of things. Most people there will see other thing that I maybe did not consider as important. I look forward to reading them.

Now what everyone has been waiting for. Everyone that has compared lower priced or other equipment and gotten certain results, let’s forget that for the moment. Gossip or heresy from other people forget it for the moment. Load your mind with a clear sheet about proving the viability of this server technology. Unless the test that you have heard about had level matching with a 400th of a DB, disregard it, Unless the other test had solid state and spinning drives to compare throw the results out. Unless the listing test was on a pair of $ 90, 000 speakers (adjusted by owner of Magico) with amplifiers to match, throw those results away too. SO if your mind is clear and you start from knowledge scratch ZERO , LETS GO. They started with the Windows server internal Solid State drive and PCI express Lynx card. 24/176 music. Quite impressive to say the least. Hearing 24/176 sound was very enlightening, clear, and easy to digest. No digital grunge around the edges. You could just get a cup of hot chocolate next to a fire and listen to this for an extended time. This did not sound like a CD but of a much higher level of sound. Then with the click of the remote and level controls reset (maybe 10 seconds) we listened to the Mac Pro PCI express Lynx card with Solid State drive. It clearly sounded different with different air around the voice and the space changed. Still same high quality sound as the Windows machine. I was expecting to hear real big differences but the difference was not earth shaking. Then they put on the older Mac G5 with just PCI Lynx card (not the faster PCI express) and it actually sounded better than the first two. How is that possible with an older machine and only PCI card? Voice had less euphoric sound around it and more in focus. EVERY person in the audience was listening quite intensively. Then they switched to the Martan server that Magico uses in his personal showroom. It sound even better with more clarity and something special about it but keep in mind we are under a MAJOR Microscope with the listeners. This is a work in progress and not a finished product. Then one of the people in the front row that was from Skywalker studio asked if we could hear the servers with spinning drives. With the push of a button they activated the internal spinning drives in the servers and we listened. I personally can’t give an opinion on this one because I was different sounding but you loose track of which is actually right. The real pros were lasered in on sound differences. Then they put on the hard drive that was on an Ethernet line across the room or a NAS drive. As soon as they put that one in you knew the others were better. It all came back to the seminars telling that everything adds jitter or problems an clearly the switchers and long Ethernet cables change things. We all noticed. From that point on no one requested to hear it. BUT BUT BUT then they went back on the servers and listened again but would hit the remote and turn the Amara software off. Suddenly the audience starts laughing. You can hear the sound being regular Hi Fi even though it is still using the Lynx card. You can imagine how bad a good regular CD player would sound like at this point. My point is you were listening to a very special setup with these servers and Pacific Microsonic units under controlled conditions. NOW THE BIG CHANGE. In the forum you always hear that higher sampling rate and bit differences just a waste, not needed, ridiculous. This guy and that guy said don’t waste your money. YOU WERE WRONG. Let me repeat that. YOU WERE WRONG. The audience asked if they could switch the D/A to play the selection in 24/96 instead of 24/176. They took a few minutes and then went and started the same song on the server. The magic was just about gone and suddenly the music was uninteresting and not involving. Smaller cloudier music. More haze around the edges and all around less enjoyable after listening to 24/176. At that point we didn’t even have to listen to the other servers to compare because the change of character was clear. Higher bit rate equals better sound. 24/96 is good or even spectacular compared to 16/44 but not when compared to 24/176 PERIOD. 24/192 was not presented here.

Four of the speakers start presentations that was so informative that I felt like I didn’t know as much as I thought. They explained the differences of 16 to 24 bit and how the garbage moves to inaudible ranges and how you get more dynamic range with 24 sampling. The internal workings of D/A processors which I found fascinating because you then realize everything even in digital has compromises at every stage. How about even the digital cables being near power wires is messing with the sound. I always thought once in the digital form it was immune to this. How about how Sony decided on the 16/44 standard. You find out it has nothing to do with special numbers or sound but it was a business decision. Sony had tons of machines in studios all over the world set up for video recording and they wanted a format that could be recorded on them. This saved big changes and easy adoption. Talks about rooms with measurable voltage in the air changing the sound of systems along with other unusual things. The other thing that became obvious is that there is a business side to sound and that dictates a lot about what we hear. I m just touching lightly here so anyone at the meeting please add to this. I learned so much and I’m a guy in high end audio for 40 years. It also became how many problems are in regular computers compared to the perfect setup. The power supply may radiate, internal wire routings, noise and tons of possible problems. I forgot to mention the section on digital volume controls and what is involved. They explained it all. All 8 of the presenters were the top in the industry and don’t think you could have asked for more.

Things get going and half of the group was in the studio and half was in the room with Keith Johnson. He took the time to explain a lot of things about how he records and why he does it. He sat in front of his custom made mixer which probably has done most of the music we have listened to over the years. The specially modified mic pre amps, the isolating power supplies along with a bunch of other stuff. Keith took a dead studio and made it very lively with some mics and speakers which I had never seen before. He is very settled with his microphones and comfortable with all of his equipments and you can see this is a good thing. The musicians started to play and his Pacific Microsonic started it’s A/D work right onto a disc. It was that simple. A second take was done with everyone in the studio going into Keith’s room and the other group to the musicians area. This made you understand both parts of the process. Keith took the disc out and they carried it to the main room where they loaded onto all of the servers. It was recorded at 24/176.

This was a group of real pros along with real audiophiles. I got introduced to a few and these are engineers that all of us have albums that they have worked on and music on many movie soundtracks that we all have enjoyed. Then the man that did the legendary Pacific Microsonic Model 2 and the Berkeley D/A was there along with about 10 others that are very important in the equipment field. Meeting Keith Johnson was very cool as most of us own some of his Reference Recordings works. To top that off, ALL of the audiophiles were real nice, open and you find out also have very keen ears. All of a sudden you realize you are not the only one that hears things and loves music with realism. This group exceeded my expectations. When it came to equipment, the only word was a big WOW. In the lounge they had a nice Magico speaker with MBL system along with a music server. This was the main eating and sitting around talking room. The main listening room was a dream come true for server people. They had the Goodwin windows server fully decked out , Mac Pro and an older Mac G5 server with just PCI and the Martan server. Each had the identical Lynx card. Then WOW WOW WOW they had four yes four pristine Pacific Microsonics Model 2’s.(Everyone was taking pictures) This gave one for each server on it’s own. No wires to switch so comparison was easy. All of this fed into a magnificent pair of Magico Model 5’s fed with this monster top of the line Boulder amplifier. Keep in mind the room was also perfect. Plenty of separation between the speakers and not too many bad seating positions in the house. NOW to top that off all of the servers and Lynx cards were played and volume measured and adjusted to within 1/400th of a DB. Not a misprint here. So in reality you have the perfect comparison system. Volume perfect, same card, same songs, same D/A. I don’t think anywhere on earth there was a place in time with the ability to compare things in the new server world with all different resolution. The equipment exceeded what I was expecting. Just a note. Normally when you go to seminar you get pizza or something like that. Again they went over the top. Shrimp, clams, Corned beef and pastrami, great deserts and endless soft drinks.

This is a clear sign of the times when a Disney movie will only be available to download and not buy at a store. This is basically saying computer and music servers are the future. Ending weeks of speculation, a Disney spokesperson just confirmed that the soundtrack to Pixar's Up will be released by Walt Disney Records only as a digital download. No compact disc (CD) version will be sold. Quite disappointing considering the beauty of the cover and other factors, such as Up being Pixar's tenth film. As reported earlier, the soundtrack will become available for download on May 26.

http://www.naimlabel.com/catalogue.aspx Click on any recording to get a sample listen.

http://www.yarlungrecords.com/ Most at 24/88.2 recordings with great artists. Listen to the owner of how he records. This is my kind of guy. Do this by going to http://www.yarlungrecords.com/ and scroll down to "Yarlung Records Player" and then click on the top folder. " Yarlung Records on the radio", Then click Yarlung on KUSC Arts Alive and just listen.

I just found this one but all hi resolution & 5.1 also downloadable. Previews sound very good. http://www.bso.org/bso/shop/productCategories.jsp;jsessionid=MB2DLKZQ1FFZMCTFQMGCFEQ?id=bcat13360032

Here is another comparison that can be settled at the Berkeley Symposium under good conditions. I would think the studio would have a reel to reel deck and a music server. To be fair you need to have the top D to A converter along with the RR recordings to do a proper comparison. The goal here is to get servers to sound as good as an open reel. See you in Berkeley.