grsteve

What is the advantage of using 64 bit ultimate (or Pro) over Home, Premium 64 bit?<br /> <br /> -Steve<br />

I picked up one of these at an auction for $300, but I haven't received it yet. I know the AX24 is very highly thought of, so I was wondering what the story was on this older unit. I'm interested in both the AD and DA performance. My current ADDA is an RME FF 800 that I bought new 2 years ago for around $11000. Regards, Steve

I 2nd your sentiments Rand. Besides wasn't Gordon's response a reply to a number of inquiries regarding the quality of the clock? No reason for him to be flamed for that. I would hate to see this place become AA2. -Steve

As far as I can tell, all the standard analog and digital i/o is only accessible through HD connectors which would seem to require special cables and patch-bays for breakout. Not sure if these are included. Everywhere I turn people are raving about this thing. There are tons of threads at Gearslutz where people talk about dumping their Lavrys, Prisms and the like for one of these. Another common topic is the wish that MH would release an updated ULN2 built to ULN8 standards (while still admitting the ULN2 is already a great sounding unit). Their doesn't seem to be a weak link in the unit. By most accounts the AD, DA and Mic Pres either surpass or hang with the very best. FWIW - a few have knocked it (but not on the pro forums) for not having "Audiophile Approved" features such as fully discreet analog i/o stages or overbuilt, linear power supplies. -Steve

In fact my entire ultra hi res (> 24/96) PCM library consists of a single RR HRX disc and some free files from the 2L site (I also have some double bit rate DSD vinyl transfers and recordings made to a Korg MR1000 but those are irrelevant to this discussion). I will go as far as to say that I have been hard pressed to detect any improvement in sound quality beyond 24/96 or 24/88.2. In the case of the HRX disc, I had earlier purchased 24/96 files of the same material from HDTracks. I believe I detected a slight improvement with the 24/176.4 material, but I can't entirely rule out the possibility of wishful thinking. My current setup is a Lenovo thinkpad laptop running J River MC 12 going fw out to an RME FF 800. My entire digital library resides on a RAID 5, standalone NAS, My network is wired gigabit ethernet. I know there are better sounding DACs out there. In fact I briefly had a friends MSB Powerdac in my system which sounded considerably better, although at the time I didn't have any ultra hi res files to play through it. I closely followed the reports that trickled in following the Fantasy Studios Symposium. I took very seriously the claims made that ultra hi res files were significantly superior in sound quality on a highly resolving system. Especially those claims made by CA members who admitted to never having heard all that much of a difference before. I am contemplating upgrading my digital front end in stages. One component I am leaning towards is a Weiss DAC2 to replace my FF for dedicated 2 channel out. This will allow me to still interface with my laptop via fw. If the Amarra mini had full resolution, I would find a used Macbook and download the free trial to hear for myself what all the buzz was about. If I liked what I heard, I would jump on the mini version for $395. As things stand, I doubt I would go to the trouble and/or expense of hunting down a Macbook to evaluate something that I may not purchase regardless of how much I liked it. -Steve

$395 for the mini version would be very reasonable if it didn't max out at 24/96. That is a total deal breaker for me. So, it's back to deciding whether the full version is worth the price (for me personally). -Steve