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joesax

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  1. I think what you may be hearing is a more natural bass. I have an XP Pro laptop and to my ears the overall sound qulaity with 9 is better than 8. The bass is less boomy and much more natural. On jazz recordings you can hear more low end detail (fingers plucking the strings) on the upright acoustic bass. If you were use to a slightly stronger lowend (althougth with less detail) you may find it hard to adjust. I also think the upper frequencies ( strings ) are smoother and the stereo separation is better with 9. Of course this is how I perceive it. You may find the overall result with 9 different or less engaging. joesax
  2. John: I suggest you remove any plugins such as ASIO, ASIO4ALL,etc and then try ITunes. When I first got started I had a problem getting Itunes to work with any of those plugins installed with Foobar. Agian I have the same configuration you have: XP Pro, Laptop, Hagerman USB, iTUnes and it works fine. Joe
  3. CharlyD: If you do not use ASIO can you maually change the sample rate? Since I use iTunes and iTunes doesn not like ASIO I beleive that may cause a problem so is ASIO required for the E-MU? joesax
  4. CharlyD: Thanks for the suggestions. The card you mentioned sounds like a bargain. However I want to use a Laptop. If and when I start using 24/96 source material I will have to do something different. For now I am strictly 16/44. I've read about the M-Audio Tranist an it seems like an interesting device with two exceptions. First, it uses Optical which may not be as good as Coax. Second, reviews on Amazon are terrible listing many problems. The Bel Canto looks like an excellent product but $500 is quite a bit and the difference in sound may be better but only marginally so. joesax
  5. Eloise: Thanks for the info on Airport Express. My Amp is a Quad 909 and my Speakers are Quad 22Ls. I'll check those other converters. I know the Bel Canto is expensive ($500) as would be a move to a MacBook. Do you know if I can use Airport Express without turining on my Wirelwss Network? That is can I plug it in, connect it to my DAC and then stream to it wirlessly from my laptop without turnning on my router? joesax
  6. Thanks for your suggestions. However the USB to digital Converter is limited to 16/44. I believe almost all of these types of devices are limited. So to move to High res sources, even 24/96, will require a different approach. I would problaly need to use Airport Express and stream to it over wireless.
  7. I posted my preliminary results previously so here's a recap: I have an XP Pro laptop with an external drive connected to a Hagerman USB to Digital Coax converter that is connected to the DAC in my Quad CD player. The Quad CD player cost $1500. It's not super-highend but very good. I use iTunes to rip and play music. I use inexpensive generic USB and digital coax cables. My preliminary listening tests were very positive. It sounded very good and I had no issues whatsoever. However I decided to do a more lengthy comparison of the computer based sound vs the CD player. My Quad player made this an easy task. I could play a CD and using the remote quickly switch between the iTunes feed and the CD. I would place a CD in the unit then start it playing. After about 60 seconds I started the same track from iTunes. This gave me the ability to listen to a section from the CD and then switch to iTunes and listen to the same section. I did this type of comparison with the same volume level for both sources and using a variety of music: Classical, film scores, pop, jazz,etc. To my ears I could detect absolutely no difference between the two sources. I thought the computer source would be better but it was basically the same. This is not a problem. It's actually a good result. It means that the computer is providing the internal DAC with exactly the same feed as the CD transport. It also means that iTunes and XP are delivering Bit Perfect data to the DAC. The question remains: Can I expect an improvement in sound if I upgrade my cables? I am not someone who dose not believe cables make a difference..... to a point. I have experimented with cables in the past and have heard differences both good and bad. Cables can be filters providing different but equally good results. In any case what should I expect from higher quality cables in my setup? If the current setup is creating any jitter it's apparent that the DAC is doing its job of re-clocking. If the computer source is equal to the CD source maybe the only way to improve is by getting a better DAC, or maybe the amplifier or speakers should be upgraded. But if I don't want to change those components then my alternatives are: Do nothing and enjoy what I have Get better cables anyway and see what it does Move to Vista (not sure what that would accomplish) Use a different player ( I have MediaMonkey and it sounds pretty similar to iTunes. Maybe a little darker in sound) Any comments or suggestions? joesax
  8. John: As I mentioned before I have the same setup you have: XP Pro, Hagerman USB and iTunes and it works fine. I think your problem might be related to using Foobar. Did you install any Output plugins such as ASIO or ASIOforALL? When I was experimenting with Foobar and iTunes I found that some of those plugins caused iTunes difficulty. I have had no difficulty with iTunes and MediaMonkey with the waveout plugin and switiching back and forth but Foobar wth plugins caused me problems with iTunes.
  9. John: I am using iTunes and have not had the problem you are. There can be issues with specific USB ports especially if the particular port you select is being shared by another device on the internal USB controller.You just need to try others as you found out. I use iTunes with Apple lossless files and I play back music with both iTunes and MediaMonkey which both off very high quality but are different. iTunes is more open and 3 diemnsional but can be a little bright while MediaMonkey is warmer and less dimensional. MediaMonkey is almost identical to my CD player. iTunes is a little brighter with a more open sound stage. joesax
  10. John: I have a similar setup and it works fine. I have an HP laptop with XP Pro and a Quad DAC. No driver is needed. Does your HAG unit blue light come on? Is this device recognized as a USB device? Did you make any changes in Device Manager that would affect this device? Does your DAC display any signal detection such 44.1? joesax
  11. I store all of my Albums in the iTunes Folder. There is also a subfolder called iTunes Music. None of my Albums are in that subfolder. Should they be? If not What should be in that folder? Everything works fine where my Albums are currently stored. joesax
  12. When you press Shift and you are asked to select a Library,what Library file do you select? There's the XML, the itl, etc? Also all of my music (albums) are stored in the iTunes folder and but not in the iTunes Music folder. It all works fine so does it matter? I have few albums where the track listings are alway displayed out of order when I open the album. I have to click either the name column heading or track heading to get them to display in the correct order. What's up with those items and how do I change it so the default order is correct? If I display the album folder with Windows the tracks are in the correct order.
  13. Chris: I thought about doing what you said but wasn't sure it would work. I will try it. Questions: After I copy my current Library files from the computer C drive to the iTunes folder on the External Drive can I then delete the iTunes folder on the C drive? Will I have to press Shift every time I load iTunes to tell it that the Library is on the external drive or do I just have to do it once? joesax
  14. I am new to computer audio and before I start to transfer my entire CD collection to a hard drive I wanted to make sure I could do several things that would protect my collection and make it easier to manage it in the near future. I am currently using iTunes on an XP laptop. I also alternatively play music using MediaMonkey. So I use both. However I prefer iTunes' user amenities. I also store my music on an external hard drive and have a second external drive as a backup. In a few months I plan to move to a different laptop with either Vista or Windows 7. So I needed to be able to create an Itunes music repository on an external drive, create and manage an external backup drive, know how to use the backup if my primary disk fails and know how to move my external drive to a different computer if my current one fails or I get a new one. Using Itunes I ripped about 28 different albums making sure I could get all the album art and have them labeled correctly. Then I tried to do all the management tasks I just mentioned. It took a while to figure out exactly what to do and I messed up my muisc and library a few times receiving those iTunes exclamation points more than once. But this was a "beta" test. So here's what I learned and what appears to work for me. I did benefit from reading many posts here but could not find one that specifically addressed all the things I wanted to do. I hope this will be helpful to those in the same situation. Of course if you think I've mistated something or there is a better way to do this please comment. I want to learn as much as I can about iTunes. Setting Up the iTunes Music Folder on an Primary External Hard Drive and a Backup When using iTunes with the music files stored on a primary external drive and secondary backup external drive specific procedures need to be followed. These are the subjects I needed to understand to make it work and what I learned about each. Basic iTunes Concept Creating the iTunes Music Folder on the external Drive Adding music to the external drive Moving the drive to another computer Backing up the drive Switching to the backup drive when the primary drive fails Basic iTunes Concept The basic iTunes concept to remember is that in the iTunes folder you will not only store your music but also Library files that contain information about where these music files are located and a folder of the associated Album Art. These items all work together and if they get out of sync then iTunes will not be able to access and play your music or display the Album Art. The music is still there but iTunes will not be able to find it. Creating an iTunes Music Folder on an External Drive Install iTunes on the computer. This will create the iTunes folder that contains the iTunes Library files and the folder for Album Art. This iTunes folder will be stored, by default, on the C drive of the computer. Normally this is also where all music “Ripped” by iTunes or downloaded from iTunes will be stored if you check the proper box under Edit/Preferences/Advanced Tab: “Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to the Library”. Also check the box: “Keep iTunes music folder organized”. Checking these boxes will make all future management a lot easier. If you already have iTunes installed and an iTunes folder and some music on the computer you will need to make sure that all the music is in the iTunes folder. To do that under File/Library/Consolidate you need to consolidate the library. This will move all of your music to the iTunes folder and update the iTunes library with their locations. Now copy the iTunes folder from your computer to your external drive. To use an external drive instead of the hard drive on the computer to store the music you will need to assign a drive letter to the external drive that you will also assign to that drive whenever you move it to a different computer. Pick a letter not likely to be used by other devices such as M or N. Assinging a letter to the drive is important if you plan to use the drive with other computers or a new computer at a later date. It will be important that the drive letter assigned to the drive is the same on each computer so that iTunes will be able to find your music from any computer. The reason is that as you add music to the iTunes music folder it will record in the iTunes Library file the exact location or path of every item. This path includes the drive letter. So when you move your drive to another computer you will have to make sure that the drive has the same letter assigned to it on that computer. How to change a drive letter: (for Windows XP and Vista) To change an existing drive letter on a drive follow these steps: 1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. 2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance. 3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane. 4. Right-click the drive that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths. 5. Click Change. 6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK. 7. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change. The drive letter of the drive is changed, and the new drive letter appears in the appropriate drive in the Disk Management tool. Adding Music to the External Drive When using an external drive you will need to change the location of where iTunes music will be stored. In Edit/Preferences/Advanced Tab select Change to change the location of the iTunes music folder. Then browse to the location on your computer where the external drive is listed and select the external drive and then the iTunes folder. You should now see a new location listed in the window and it should display the drive letter of your external drive and the iTunes folder. Then click OK. iTunes will now store all subsequently ripped or download music on the external drive in the iTunes folder on the external drive. However the locations of these music files will still be stored in the iTunes Library files on the computer’s C drive. All Album Art will be stored on the computer’s C drive as well. So if you move the external drive to a different computer you must copy the Library files and Album Art folder to the new computer as well so that iTunes on the new computer will know the locations of each file on the external drive. Moving the External Drive to a different Computer Make sure that iTunes is installed on the new computer. Copy the Library files and Album Art folder from the original computer’s iTunes folder to the new one. If you do not copy these files to the new computer iTunes will list all of your music but when you ask it to play it it will say it cannot locate it and give you that dreaded exclamation point. (This step assumes that there are no iTunes music files on this new computer. If there is that’s a different issue and I am not addressing the merging of two libraries) Connect the external drive to the new computer and assign the same drive letter used on the old computer. Load iTunes and change the default location of the iTunes music folder to the external drive. Check to make sure all other iTunes preferences are the same and you are ready to play music. Backing Up the Drive Connect a second drive to the computer. Copy the iTunes Folder from the primary drive to the secondary backup drive. Copy the Library files and Album Art folder from the computer’s iTunes folder on the C drive to the backup drive out side of the iTunes folder. You will need these items if your computer hard drive C fails and you need to move your external drive to a new computer. Remember those Library files contain the locations or pointers to where your music is on the external drive. As you add new music to the primary drive’s music folder you should copy it to the backup drive’s music folder and also copy the library files from the computer’s C drive to the backup as well. You don’t have to do this every time you add music but periodically update your backup. Of course you can just copy the whole iTunes folder but that may take a while if your music folder is large. Switching to the backup drive when the primary drive fails Disconnect the failed drive. Connect the backup drive to the computer. Assign the drive the same drive letter that was assigned to the failed primary drive and you are ready to go. You will be missing any music added to the failed drive that was not copied to the backup before the failure. That's it for now. joesax
  15. Hi: I spent a lot of time reading posts on this forum and certainly gathered a lot of information. My goal was to learn as much as a could about using a computer as my audio source. Here's my story and results: I have a fairly decent CD based audio system. It is based on excellent quality Quad audio components. The CD-P CD player has a built in preamp, 3 coax digital inputs, 3 optical digital inputs and an optical digital output. The internal DAC is a high quality up-sampling unit. This player is connected to a Quad 909 Amplifier (140 watts per channel) that feeds Quad 22L floor speakers. This is the best system I've ever had and has always produced a very musical and natural sound. Despite this I wanted to explore computer based audio. My reasons: If I could feed the DAC in my CD player a signal that produced equal or better sound than playing a CD directly than I could enjoy the conveniences offered by a digital music library. After many weeks of research I decided that I would begin with the simpliest method. That meant either Airport Express or a USB/SPDIF converter. I decided on the converter because I didn't want to involve WiFi and didn't want to use optical. I purchased a HagUSB converter. I chose this unit becasue: it did just and only what I wanted: converts USB to Digital Coax; the designer builds other audiophile products; the design appeared to do a good job isolating the computer power line from the USB. My computer is a three year old HP Laptop running Windows XP Pro. It's my home office compter. The laptop has a 1.7Ghz Pentium, 1 GB RAM and a 90 GB hard drive. The drive is too small so I planned to use an external drive for my library. I used XP without any plugins (No ASIO, No Kernel Streaming, etc.) I did optimize XP by shutting off Windows Sounds and placing the volume at max. I like Itunes so I decided to start there although I did experiment with Foobar, Media Monkey, and Winamp. Itunes, IMHO, is very easy to use so that's where I started. Also I decided that Lossless was satisfactory so I ripped using Itunes and Apple Lossless (ALAC). I could always change if this didn't work to my satisfaction. I optimized Itunes (shut off all DSP, etc). I needed cables so I ordered an RCA Digital Coax and a USB cable from www.monoprice.com. They sell decent cables for very low prices. I bought their best USB cable that had heavier guage wiring almost similar to the Kimbler USB. It also had gold plated conectors. So I ordered a 1 meter version. It cost $.75. That's right less than a dollar. Their best RCA Coax was less than $3.00 for a meter. Again I figured I had no where to go but up. When I finally had all my components I ripped a couple of my reference CDs using Itunes ALAC on to my Laptop, hooked up the HagUSB to my CD digital input and turned on the audio components. My initial reaction was "Not Bad!". Sounds like a CD. After listening to a few selections I switched to the actual CD and then back to the Laptop. The more I listened the more it was obvious that the computer based sound was definitely better. As I increased the volume slightly on both sources the CD source was not as transparent and smooth as the computer source. The Computer source opened up dynamically, the bass was fuller and more deep, the highs smoother with less glare on upper strings and cymbal crashes and most noticeable the stereo soundstage was more three dimensional with instruments positioned more clearly. Wow! I was impressed. Still am. I was running he Laptop off the battery so I now plugged in the power supply. The sound was still very good but slightly less clear. Not sure if it was just me or the power having an effect. I still need to explore that variable a little more. I then tried an external USB drive. I moved my Itunes library to an external drive and listened again. Sounded great. The external drive had no effect. So what did I learn: Computer based audio is better than a CD player. It does depend upon the quality of the DAC. I know the Quad has a good one so my fears about Jitter being a problem with the USB connection were unfounded. XP offers excellent sound even without attempting to bypass Kmixer although I noticed that when I was playing music the volume control on the laptop had no effect on the sound. So was I in some way bypassing it anyway? I was using the latest Itunes Version 8.2.1.6 Of course these are my subjective results and others may and have had different results. But I can tell you that I consider myself an Audiophile. I have been for years. I listen to all forms of music and am very happy with the approach I followed. Can I still get better sound by bypassing Kmixer, using a different player with plugins, buying more expensive cables, switching to Vista, getting a Mac, etc? Who knows. Music has never sounded sound so good on my system so for now I'm going to enjoy it as it is. I think the message I would like to convey is that you can get excellent sound from a computer. Just invest in a quality DAC and don't worry about all the other issues for now. You can always upgrade and experiement or you can just enjoy the music.
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