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Ralph Bagge

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  1. @Clay I'm happy for you to dig yourself in deeper if you choose. "The very definition on intuitive is that study of a manual is NOT required in advance of use! :)" Whose definition is that? "AFAIC, I shouldn't have to talk to developer in order to use a program, as you suggest." I did not suggest that. My suggestion is that an objective report, and a typical user, would follow their intuition to the point where it was necessary to check the documentation and if still uncertain might then call on support. Obviously developers provide documentation for a reason. "|I stated precisely what I was reporting on - "my initial experience" with the software - sharing my thought process as I tried to sort it out - not a review." In other words a real-time, uninformed stream of consciousness then? So what was your purpose in posting the account of your experience? Ralph
  2. Clay wrote: "I don't see the point in the Pure Vinyl developer making such a comment. I'll assume the statement is a fact, but for what purpose, other than to cast FUD (aka fear, uncertainty, doubt) on other competing products? This is not an issue with Amarra." That's a negative outlook. Maybe the developer just has pride in having produced an elegant and superior piece of software. You seem very certain about Amarra and your defense appears out of proportion for an user. Do you have a commercial interest in Amarra? Ralph
  3. @Clay It reads like you jumped in using an unfamiliar piece of software without reading the manual or contacting the developer for support. I would expect an impartial "reviewer" to show a little rigor - even the most skeptical user would do that before going public. I initially bought Pure Vinyl for doing needle drops. The email support was fast, patient and effective in helping me get a new interface up and running with Pure Vinyl. The "read me" file included with the download is quite explicit about the consequence of memory play causing a delay in response when starting/pausing. Once you get a feel for using the program it's not an issue - it's like the adjustment you make when driving a car from a different manufacturer. I find that reviews often reveal as much about their writer than they do about the subject. For a more rigorous review of Pure Vinyl, Michael Fremer's in Stereophile March '09 is a good place to start. Ralph
  4. Hi George, I'm in a similar place to you in recognizing that now's the time to rip my CD collection and do away with my CD collection altogether. I don't want to compromise on sound quality. I dabbled with Squeezeboxes a few years ago but couldn't live with the drop-outs when streaming FLAC files over a wireless network, so my solution is centered around having a computer next to my stereo gear with fixed connections (i.e. not using wi fi). Like any forum there are some diverse opinions here and some experts may also have interests in selling certain brands or products so the most cost effective and straight forward solutions are not always as clear as they could be. From what you say about your needs, playing files encoded in Apple lossless from iTunes into your Denon's DAC should meet your sound quality/convenience needs, so the question is which computer to use? That's where priorities kick in. Many opt for a Mac mini mainly because it's so small and runs quiet. If you want to stream your music via your current Denon then check if it has an optical (Toslink) digital in. It's relatively easy to run a Toslink cable from a Mac mini (and most other post iTunes Apples) and then change the output in System Preferences > Sound > Output for the sound to be routed via the mini Toslink output (located in the headphone socket). Personally, I'm not worried about how my music server looks so I'm leaning towards an early Powermac G5 (quite attractive looks, but big). My main reason is that I can upgrade an older machine by fitting two large capacity hard drives to store all my CDs plus high res downloads so I don't have to mess around with network drives and running an ethernet cable the length of my house. I believe that the G5 also has a digital display output and it's possible to buy HDMI adapters to drive an HDTV, but that's not a consideration for me. Ralph
  5. Hi Wayne As I understand from the research I've done, Apple Lossless is Apple's proprietary version of FLAC (which is open source). When I have converted from FLAC to Apple Lossless (using XLD) the files end up the same size (give or take 0.1 MB). I decided that Apple lossless would be fine because there is no data compression - nothing is taken away or lost. It's the same sort of process as zipping a picture file to save disk space. When the hard drive accesses a track it is delivered to the machine's memory "full size" and plays just like the CD track from which it was ripped. I haven't tried this, however I believe it's true that if you convert from WAV or AIFF to ALAC and then convert back to AIFF again, the file will be a bit for bit match with the original file. I can understand why some would advocate AIFF as it's an exact copy of what's on the original CD. Most of the comments about sound quality differences between ALAC and AIFF come from highly subjective/flawed trials. If ALAC and AIFF deliver the same 0s and 1s to the play software in the same order, there is no reason why they should sound different. I have no experience of Amarra. I'm curious about why some people have given it glowing reviews. Others have said that the difference in relation to iTunes is quite subtle. As I wrote previously, I'm getting excellent results with Pure Vinyl's iTunes server. It sits above iTunes and uses iTune's file management and controls however the tracks play in Pure Vinyl which has memory play and upsamples to 192 kHz using 64 bit processing. There are some cool display features too. Pure Vinyl's developer makes a point of saying that his application does not "ghost play" the track in iTunes (where the computer plays the track in two applications, with the iTunes volume muted by 30 dB). Ghost play would add distortion of 0.1% and could introduce other artifacts. Ralph
  6. Thanks for clarifying this point. I did find a review of the ESI Julia@ where the reviewer gave some comparisons of SQ with the Lynx L2 and EMU 1820 sound cards here: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/esi-julia/index.html Seems quite close for a significant difference in price. Diminishing returns again! Ralph
  7. I haven't seen anything that substantiates any claims that Amarra has superior technology or sonics. There is an interesting comparison between another OSX music server and "another popular player" at http://www.channld.com/pure-vinyl_news.html Ralph
  8. I think you already have a great choice of DAC. Every review has been positive. What the reviewers won't say is how close the Dacmagic gets sonically to some very expensive, high-end units. It's priced so low because Cambridge Audio sells about 10,000 units/year, so they have amazing economies of scale in addition to low cost automated manufacturing, which they pass on in low prices. If you can live without audiophile bragging rights you have no need to change because a $3k DAC is well into diminishing returns territory. Ralph
  9. Thanks for your explanation of the reasons for using the Lynx cards. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that if the computer has either Firewire or optical outputs and the DAC of choice can accept either then there's no requirement for an interface card. @Jesus Thanks for your response. I would imagine that your demo wasn't the only one affected by the mains quality of the hotel environment in Vegas last week. That's an external factor which can be controlled in home use and I'm sure in the Lynx's intended environment, the studio, it would be. Ralph
  10. Hi Wayne, I've posted a question about soundcards here because I'm not convinced by the need. The Powermac G5 was the industry standard for mastering commercial releases not so long ago so it has excellent credentials for music use. I would say that iTunes is the best music library program for Mac OS X. Make sure that you have the latest version of OS X and it's critically important to run the Disk Utility to repair disk permissions, otherwise odd glitches can interfere. I am experimenting with Pure Vinyl from Channel D sofware. Although it was designed for ripping vinyl at 192 kHz sample rate it also has a really neat music server that integrates with iTunes, with a built in upsampler and memory play. I'd suggest you rip your red book CDs to Apple lossless and if you download high res files, go for the 24 bit/96 kHz FLAC option. I use XLD to convert FLAC to Apple lossless. Ralph
  11. Hi Chris, Thank you for your welcome and congratulations on a fantastic site which is pulling together the thinking in an area that's not covered by mainstream audio titles. Has anyone done any a/b evaluation of Lynx interface cards against external DACs? My own empirical experience is that subjective differences between different CD players tend to be exaggerated by reviewers and owners in comparison to speakers or vinyl replay equipment. Why then the need to install an expensive pro sound interface when a Powermac G5 offers both a Firewire connection (purpose designed for audio and video connection) or optical digital/Toslink? Ralph
  12. I've been reading through the articles and the forum here over the past few weeks in an effort to work out a music server solution to enable me to rip my CD collection and start working with high res downloads. If for example, I use a Powermac G5 as my music server, with say a Lynx L22 interface, why would I run the digital output into a standalone DAC when I could feed the balanced analogue output from the Lynx card direct to my amps? My understanding is that Lynx interfaces are used in broadcast and mastering studios and the are designed to meet pro sound expectations. What am I missing? Ralph
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