mosbrook

Souptin, good thoughts. Thanks for the input. I was reluctant to use the Airport DAC, assuming that it was of about the same quality as an iPod, but you raise good points. I'll try it out and post results.

I run NEAR M20 monitors with a powered subwoofer, which is quite a distance away from my main amp. I added an AirPort Express to the system from iTunes, and was blown away by the convienence. So I started adding AirPorts to secondary sytems throughout my house, when I got to thinking: what if I ran a seperate Airport through an inexpensive DAC to my main subwoofer in an effort to eliminate the 30 feet of RCA cable snaked around my livingroom. My concern is that the two AirPorts running independently would not sync up perfectly, considering that they have independent clocking mechanisms. I ran a test running two AirPorts through two sytems in the same room, and they seemed to sync up pretty well. Plus, a slight miss in low bass would be less of a problem then higher range frequencies. Any thoughts? P.S. Chris, killer site.

I run NEAR M20 monitors with a powered subwoofer, which is quite a distance away from my main amp. I added an AirPort Express to the system from iTunes, and was blown away by the convienence. So I started adding AirPorts to secondary sytems throughout my house, when I got to thinking: what if I ran a seperate Airport through an inexpensive DAC to my main subwoofer in an effort to eliminate the 30 feet of RCA cable snaked around my livingroom. My concern is that the two AirPorts running independently would not sync up perfectly, considering that they have independent clocking mechanisms. I ran a test running two AirPorts through two sytems in the same room, and they seemed to sync up pretty well. Plus, a slight miss in low bass would be less of a problem then higher range frequencies. Any thoughts? P.S. Chris, killer site.

Media Relations Consultant and Writer

GO Cavs!

So, for about a year now, I've collected and stored all my music on iTunes and played it back through MediaMonkey via a USB DAC. I like iTunes but found MediaMonkey to have far better sound quality through my Vista-based PC. In fact, the iTunes playback even created an audiable static in some tracks, around the 1k hz range, which I chalked up to software compatability issues. This week, I downloaded iTunes' latest update, 9.0.1, and problem solved. No static, crystal clean sound and a whole new transparency, depth, soundstage and other good buzzwords audiophiles drop like a cheap prom dress. But seriously, it was like someone removed duct tape from the tweeters after the new download. I'd be curious to know if anyone has experienced the same results or can offer insight. -Joe

Great information. Much apreciated. I'll start making those adjustments. -Joe

After downloading nearly all of my music onto iTunes, I discovered at playback, through a USB DAC, a very noticeable static on some recordings. Some music exposed it more than others, while other samples revealed none at all. The common denominator seemed to lie in music with predominate volume right around 1k Hz frequency. Dave Brubeck’s Take 5, for instance, was a particularly egregious offender. The same problem repeated itself with other outputs as well, such as the headphone jack and the speakers built into the laptop. This led me to believe it was a software issue. Learning that Media Monkey was more compatible with Windows, I then made the subsequent downloaded and transferred my music from iTunes. I replayed the same tunes, and the static was gone. So, any insights here? Is iTunes just incompatible with Windows/Vista? Did I fail to make some back-end setting adjustment buried deep inside Windows’ or iTunes? Is this a bug iTunes just needs to correct? I like iTunes better because it adapts more easily to my iPod, and its searchabilty for new music is unmatched. Ultimately I can use both programs for different purposes, but I’d still like to solve this issue. Any input is appreciated.

I've been reorganizing my music from itunes to Media Monkey based on recommendations that Media Monkey works better on PCs. But in the process, I found that iTunes fits my organizational needs better, and I'd prefer to stick with iTunes (and Apple Lossless.) My question is: How much sound quality, if any, is compromised running iTunes/Apple Lossless through a Vista PC? (As way of background, I'm running a laptop to a DAC via USB cable.)