Robinson

Reading this thread has cleared up things that I have noticed but had not consciously grasped. My children's (14 and 26) musical tastes have always kept me in touch with current popular music. I always try to listen and appreciate whatever I can.<br /> I now realize that the thing that made me dislike my older child's music of the late 1990's was the large amounts of compression; I could appreciate the music for a period of time but quickly became fatigued and wanted to turn things down.<br /> Now, listening to my 14 year old's music I can see that even she gets tired of listening to the same song, this may be due to the fact that she likes what she first hears but the true musical expression is not in the recording and the appreciation soon wears off. However for all of the pessimists out there; the record company did succeed in selling the song in the first place. ;-(

So how is the master clock in your music server, which is the source for the PS Audio DAC in the 'native' mode? When listening this DAC, it seems that the 'native' mode almost always sounds better than any of the up-sampling modes.

Used to design and develop materials and coatings to withstand operation inside the worst places that one could imagine. I always love hearing the comment "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to..." to which I can answer "as a matter of fact I used to be a rocket scientist" People never believe me though... Now I have my own custom woodworking machine shop in the mountains of Colorado (life is good).

The PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC along with its network bridge are supposed to do exactly what you are asking. Take the computer out of the equation (and the room) and convert ethernet data to streamed audio data using buffers and their digital lens. There still seems to be some development teething pains but people seem to like the sound very much.

I too have been using a Korg recorder and their included Audiogate software to rip my analogue collection (both tapes and vinyl). The original rips are archived in 1-bit DSD files and then can be transcoded to anything that I like. I am still deciding on which format to use but I am leaning toward 96kHz/24 bit FLAC. The software also has metadata editing as well as minimal sound editing capabilities. I have enjoyed the sound as well as the capabilities of the software very much. The MR 1000 costs about $1200. If I had the extra money I would also look into the Metric Halo LIO-8, ULN-8 as they seem to have very good 'reviews' here.

Yes this is an OSX feature at least in 10.5 and 10.6. As has been stated, go to system preferences and select >SoundSound Effects< at the top of the window. Then look at >Play Sound Effects Through:< Then select >Internal Speakers< from the drop down menu.

Optical out of a Mac is a pretty darn good way to go especially as you are just getting into this stuff. Most all DAC's (and your Mac) are pretty good at putting out good sounds with this method; so as others have said, if you have it, use it. If/when you get further into computer audio you will find that other methods of getting music to your DAC exist and each must be evaluated with respect to the system that you are using. But for now and for as long as you want S/PDIF optical will serve very well.

After being overwhelmed by all of the great music at RMAF, it was hard to remember what was nicer than what. In my minimal note taking I specifically added the Zu's to my list if speakers to look into furthur. I cannot comment on the sound in particular but they did, as I said, make it onto my list so they must have sounded pretty good to me during my short preview.

I agree...digitize-yes; rip-no

I too use a Korg digital recorder to convert (transcribe) analog sources (both tape and vinyl) to digital files. I also archive in the DSD format and convert via the included Audiogate software to various PCM formats for playback. I have been very happy with the results. As for adding data to the files I just Identify each LP side as a file and leave it at that. This way when I choose a file, I am choosing to play a side of the LP, just like the good old days. As for trying to RIP SACD's no such luck. Sony doesn't let this happen. I have heard that there may be ways to do this with other equipment and software but they seem to be 1) very complicated, 2) expensive, and 3) not legal

Golden, Colorado

Korg MR 2000S. Korg.com

I have heard of Van Den Hul before but did not know how to buy anything from them. Thanks for this, it looks pretty easy to order from the European website. Anyone around here have experience with these cables?

I, along with others I suppose, have been having trouble finding a high quality optical (Toslink) cable for my Mac. I have been in contact with Nate Graham at Kimber Kable and he has informed me that he will build a mini Toslink to Toslink cable if I can find a mini Toslink connector. SO... can anyone out there find one of these so that we can get a nice (hopefully) cable from Kimber?

I'm a new guy here and have found this site most helpful, so I'll try to add my two cents. I am in the middle of converting many audio tapes to digital and have settled on using the analogue line inputs on a Korg 1-bit recorder (Model MR-1). I was very concerned with the a/d conversion process and found in my research that the electronics in this unit are pretty good. (more expensive Korg models are also available but out of my price range). I have converted all of my analogue tapes to dsd files which are the same (I think) format as SACD. The software included with this recorder is able to convert these files to almost any other PCM format (compressed or uncompressed) rather simply. At this point I am still deciding which format to use but in any case I will still always have the "original" dsd files in my archives.