Leigh Hibbins

The PS Audio PerfectWave DAC (the original version, not Mk II) received an excellent review in Australian Hi-Fi Magazine last year. I believe the Mk II is significantly better again.

The new Audioquest Firewire cables are out in 6-to-6, 6-to-9 and 9-to-9 pin configurations ranging in price from $29 to $1,450. Curiously one cannot readily find them listed on Audioquest's website but I did a Google search and discovered a link to an Audioquest pdf. When I tried to place this link in this post it did not work so I suggest readers try a Google search on "Audioquest Firewire cables" and look for a pdf in the search listings.

The new Audioquest Firewire cables are out in 6-to-6, 6-to-9 and 9-to-9 pin configurations ranging in price from $29 to $1,450. Curiously one cannot readily find them listed on Audioquest's website but I did a Google search and discovered the following link: http://www.audioquest.com/resource_tools/downloads/npa/AQ_FireWire_NPA-EN.pdf

I wonder if it is a problem peculiar to NAS drives. I cannot remember having had any such problem with a directly connected drive. I have stopped working on the NAS in question for fear of losing more files and started importing files on to a second backup NAS instead. I imported "The Girl In The Other Room" in to the "Diana Krall" folder on the second drive and then imported it in to iTunes. Subsequent to its importation in to iTunes the pre-existing album "Live In Paris" in this folder disappeared! The same thing that had been happening on the first NAS! Something strange going on here. I have not experienced the same thing previously although I have had other problems with NAS/iTunes combinations before – songs played in iTunes but could not be seen in the Finder. I will try experimenting with directly attached drives to see if the same thing happens but previously I have not had problems with iTunes/directly attached drives other than such drives eventually failing for other reasons. NAS drives appear to have a mind of their own – and indeed they do.

Selecting "Show in Finder" brings up a dialog box stating the file cannot be located with an option to try to locate it, but the file is nowhere to be seen in the finder. Selecting "Info" gives the same result. The iTunes folder in question has been copied to a second drive as a back up. The back up copy is 12 GB larger than the one in question. This 12 GB is equal to the albums that have disappeared. It would seem the drive is not listing them at all. It seems odd they have disappeared in to thin air. I tried copying the albums from the second drive back to the first drive. After importing them in to the iTunes library on the first drive they promptly disappeared again from the first drive! Only albums within the folder on which I was working disappeared. It happened to be the "Compilations" folder. I now have no such folder. It's gone. The songs are listed in iTunes but cannot be played or located.

Some music files have suddenly and inexplicably disappeared from my LaCie NAS! This occurred during the importation of and metadata editing of new files in iTunes. Does anyone have any experience of this? Does anyone have any suggestions to recover the lost files or to prevent it happening again? Is there any maintenance that should be performed on a NAS? In general is a NAS more vulnerable to problems than a directly connected drive? I assume the drive has become corrupted. Why does this happen? Could it be the way I use the drive? My set up: MacBook Pro and LaCie NAS connected to Apple Time Capsule via Cat 6 ethernet cable. iTunes library and iTunes Music Folder both reside on the LaCie NAS. I have not set up the LaCie NAS in any special way – I use it the same way as a directly connected external hard drive. I would appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

I run PT9 on my MacBook Pro. I use the MBP all day at work. I bring it home each night and use it as a music server, so it's not a dedicated music server. I would like to try a new Mac Mini with 8GB RAM. If it sounded as good as the MBP I would consider it as a dedicated music server, but I am in no hurry and new products are coming out all the time. I'll bide my time and save my money. It is best to run PT9 without any other applications, especially music applications, running. You can have iTunes and PT9 open at the same time (but not playing simultaneously) but sometimes things go wrong. Best to quit one and then open the other. At times I have PT9 playing while using Mail, Safari and other applications and have had no problems, and have noticed no effect on sound quality.

Hi hafjell, Boy, you have a ton of files! The method of importing audio in to Pro Tools I have described previously in this thread. It is the same whatever the type of audio your are importing. In PT go to the File menu, select Import, select Audio then navigate to the CD, WAV file, AIFF file, or whatever file you wish to import. PT cannot import FLAC so you would first need to convert it to another format using Max (www.sbooth.org). Once imported the songs appear in the regions list. Once in the regions list you need to move these in to the Edit pane. In addition to my previous description it is possible to import all the songs in the regions list at the same time by selecting all of them and holding down the control key (on a Mac) while dragging to the Edit pane. They then all appear in the Edit pane in order. While you can import a number of albums in to one PT session I tend to have one PT session per album. I do not know how PT7 compares with PT9 but I believe the latter may be a significant improvement in sound quality. The best sound quality is obtained when importing directly from CD in to PT9 – using Pro Tools as the ripper. This is time consuming but is worth doing for at least a few CDs to really try it out. You might get hooked and end up re-ripping all your files! No, just kidding. Happy importing.

Audioquest should have a Firewire 800 to 400 cable available in the coming months. They are also working on a new Cat 7 ethernet cable.

The 8GB refers to RAM. The theory is that the more RAM the better for music servers. I did try a Mac Mini (previous version to current Mac Mini) with 4GB of RAM and 2.53 GHz processor. It did not sound as refined as my MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and 3.06 GHz. Whether this is reflection of the greater RAM I don't know. There are so many variables in computer audio. The best thing is to simply try something and hear if it sounds better.

Hi Trent, None of the guys in my audio club have made this specific cable but they have made others. If you source the materials and tools it can be done. Someone in a post on this website said they had made their own Duet breakout cable and with some fairly exotic materials from what I remember – you might like to do a search. Alternatively you could find someone locally who could do the job or help you with it. I like the Cardas 1/4"-to-RCA adapters but there are readily available cheaper ones. As for RCA cables I always like to try before I buy. My local hi-fi dealer indulges me.

Hi cbman, Yes, I looked at the Apogee Mini-DAC but I wanted both an ADC and DAC, and preferably something that looked smart. The Mini-DAC judging from Apogee's heritage would be a good product if you need only a DAC. I have not heard Pure Music in my system but have heard it in a friend's system through a Weiss DAC2. I preferred Amarra Mini in his system for the same reasons I was enjoying Amarra Mini in my own system. This was about a year ago. Both music players have been upgraded since then. Recently I downloaded Decibel 1.2. I like Decibel's interface and it sounds better than iTunes, but I prefer Amarra Mini 2.2 (in playlist and cache mode), and in turn I prefer Pro Tools 9 to Amarra Mini. My girlfriend (also an audiophile) are having a lot of fun listening to PT9 through the Duet. In particular since upgrading to PT9 and the Audioquest Diamond USB cable the soundstage and detail has approached the level of vinyl playback. Previously in my system the soundstage with digital playback was considerably more narrow than with vinyl. I am now enjoying Red Book (and some hi-rez downloads) on the music server, SACD on the Esoteric, and vinyl on the turntable. They're all good.

Hi hafjell, To be honest I cannot remember how much difference the Breakout box made, but I knew upgrading the standard Apogee Firewire cable to a Gold X one made a significant difference and assumed upgrading the standard breakout leads would do the same. I also got the Breakout box to enable placing a good RCA cable on it. The current Breakout box has no RCA and only TRS or balanced. To make use of these you would of course need the appropriate cables or adapters, or you might be able to get a custom Breakout box made for you with RCA if you wanted that. The fact that Apogee now make their own Breakout box for the Duet 2 is testimony to the success of the third party one – although this might be for reliability issues rather than sonic ones as the Duet is used by bands on the run. Another alternative is to make your own breakout leads – direct from Duet to amp input. People have done it. There is a wiring diagram for the computer-type plug that screws in to the Duet – it may be in the manual. A number of the guys in my audio club have made their own interconnects. The balanced interconnect between my phono stage and my amp is a DIY which does an excellent job at a fraction of the cost of bought leads. I'm not in the habit of DIY but the expertise of other members of the audio club was readily available and it worked a treat. Happy listening.

Hi hafjell, I will probably be laughed at by many readers, receive a lot of flak and be considered ridiculous for listing the cables I use for my Apogee Duet, but here I go. The standard cables which come with the Duet are ordinary. First, I purchased a BREAKOUT Box with RCA connectors. This is a hand-wired solid box replacing the flimsy standard breakout leads. I see from the current BREAKOUT website that only TRS and Balanced outputs are now available and, at twice the price I originally paid. Link: http://www.duetbreakout.com/ Second, I had an Audioquest Sky RCA cable on my Esoteric DV-60 player. I tried it on my Duet and was most surprised at the level of improvement. So I had to get one for the Duet as well. It might seem ridiculous purchasing a cable costing so much more than a component, but the sound improvement was there, and I liked it. Thirdly, I had been using a Gold X Firewire cable (400-to-400) with an 800-to-400 adapter. My MacBook Pro has only Firewire 800 and the Duet only 400. A local hi-fi dealer sold me a Firewire cable (for a very modest sum) which had an 800 connector at one end and a 400 at the other. This was a significant improvement. The cable has no markings and the dealer cannot remember from where he obtained it, so I cannot give details. It is dark grey in colour and has LEDs at both ends. Fourthly, I purchased an Audioquest Diamond USB to go between the MacBook Pro and my external hard drive on which my music files are stored. This USB cable replaced a Kimber USB cable which has received good reviews on this website. The Audioquest cable was vastly superior allowing more detail and larger soundstage. If I upgrade to an Apogee Duet 2 or any other USB DAC I can use this USB cable on the Duet/DAC and the Firewire cable on my external drive (which has multiple interfaces). I have been reluctant to upgrade my Duet because there are so many DACs coming on to the market. I'll wait until there is something significantly better than the Duet AND which is as good a value for money as the Duet. I have heard the Weiss DAC2 in my system and was not greatly impressed until we put a good power cord on it. I would not use a Weiss without a good power cord. The DAC2 plus a good power cord is eight times the cost of the Duet. The new Weiss DAC202 with a good power cord would be 13 times the cost of a Duet. With each upgrade of cable in my MacBook Pro/Apogee Duet system I have been impressed with the results. The Duet obviously has the potential and it is worth realising it. I'm sticking with the Duet for the time being although I might get a Duet 2 and sell my original Duet. The rest of my system includes a Classé CAP-151 integrated amp, Clearaudio Champion Level II turntable with ceramic-magnetic bearing upgrade and Clearaudio Syncro power supply, Clearaudio Unify tonearm, Clearaudio Concerto MC cartridge, Pathos In The Groove Mark II phono stage, DIY balanced cable using copper ribbons terminated with Bocchino Technologies XLRs (the same as used by Audioquest), Audioquest Meteor speaker cable, Martin Logan Ascent i speakers, Stax Lambda earspeakers and energiser, Nordost power cords, Quantum QBase8 power board, Clearaudio Magix supports under all components, and DIY rack featuring steel, wood, cork and ball bearings.

Log on to the Apogee Digital website for the low down on the Duet. http://apogeedigital.com/products/duet2.php The 1/4" headphone jack is just for headphones. There is a breakout cable for connection via 1/4" jacks to your hi-fi so you need 1/4"-to-RCA cable or adapters. Cardas make a high quality adapter for a reasonable price. There is also an option of an Apogee breakout box with balanced connectors. I have found that the cables in to and out of the Duet are important, in fact my cables are more expensive than the Duet but I liked the Duet so much I just kept upgrading the cables and things just kept getting better. The money on cables has not been wasted. The potential of the Duet is there. You can continue to upgrade as funds permit. I'm keeping the Duet until there is a DAC that is significantly better in sound quality AND as good a value for money as the Duet. To be honest with you I am surprised just how good the Duet can sound. I am also using Pro Tools 9 for CD ripping and computer playback. Sounds so much better than the usual computer music players – see post elsewhere on Computer Audiophile: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Forget-Amarra-Use-Pro-Tools-9