Matty

Paul, don't complain to Apple just yet. The way I heard it is that your high-res music files in iTunes on your Mac/PC will remain the same, but your database backup in "the cloud" will register your non-iTunes purchased music as 256kbps AAC file. So, for example, at home you listen to and enjoy your music via iTunes playing from your Mac's HD. When you're out and about, however, you might want to listening to some music that you haven't synced to your iOS device by directly connecting it to your Mac. But that doesn't matter because iTunes on your iOS device knows what's on your Mac at home & will download this music from the cloud so that you can listen to it. It may 'only' be 256kbps but it's better than not having it at all. That might be a long-winded explanation, but that's how I see it. I hope that's how it's going to work, otherwise I'll be raging at Apple with you! - Matthew

Clay wrote "Ideally all recordings would be normalized to a standard level - based on the precise volume level intended for best sounding playback, but I'm fairly sure this will not happen in my lifetime. ;-)" Actually we've already had this system, it was called LP Records! I haven't listened to my record deck for a while now, but I seem to recall being able to put on disc after disc and not worry about reaching for the volume control too often. Before CDs and the 'loudness wars' started, recordings would be mastered to a standard level, with plenty of dynamics. Hence you could go from folk to jazz to rock and not hear any major level jumps. Now, thanks to over-compression and an insane desire to sound louder than the previous CD, you can't tell how loud any CD is going to play. And as for dynamics...well that's another moan for another day ;-) Incidentally, in my system, I find that iTunes sounds a bit better if I knock the volume control back a smidge. I'm running optical out from a Mac Mini to a Sony MDS-JB920 working in DAC mode. I feel that by holding back a couple of dB allows the DAC to calculate the whole of the waveform and regain some of the micro-dynamics lost in the mastering process of squashing the waveform to 0dBFS. Of course this may be complete tosh and I'm imagining it sounds better rather than it actually is better, but surely that's half the fun of hi-fi? :-)

Hi usernaim, thanks for your comments. If the ADC is good then I'll be happy. I'm looking to digitise my vinyl collection, so if the quality is good going in, then that's half the battle won :-) I already have trs to phono convertors, so no problem there. If I end up getting one I'll post my thoughts on it. Matty

Hi there, I'm interested in getting a Konnekt 8 pretty soon, primarily for recording. One thing I've noticed on this discussion is that everyone seems to be using it as a Firewire to SPDIF convertor. Has anyone used it simply as a DAC? It's got analogue line outputs so I'd be interested to hear if anyone's actually heard those? For instance, would it compare well to a Musical Fidelity V-Dac? Cheers, Matthew