NickG

Thank you, Peter. For setting up EQ in Roon, is the computer used only to create the settings? Or does it need to remain in the system to enable EQ? For number 5 the idea is to stream audio and video from a projector to watch concerts in stereo. So I was thinking using HDMI ARC from the projector directly to the P1 (assuming the projector had Android TV embedded) or with an Apple TV connected to projector and the projector to the P1 via HDMI ARC. I need to read more about the proper connections.

I hope I am not in the wrong forum! I am looking to make some changes in my system and would like some input and thoughts on what others might suggest. I am trying to decide about whether to get a more traditional preamp/dac and streamer or something that does all of them together. First some requirements that I would like to include whether it be in an all-in-one unit or in components. My bias is fewer boxes and fewer wires. 1. Balance control (my room moves the image to the left) 2. Parametric Eq or Room Correction (preferably in the preamp but could also be in software). I have REW and have also used Dirac Live. Just want to tame a peak at 45hz. 3. Streaming (and an easy to use App) 4. Phono - preferably moving coil 5. Watch concerts in two channel (is optical okay or should I go with HDMI only). This would be through a projector and an Apple TV. 6. Ethernet connection I have gone back and forth about what approach would be best as the world of audio has evolved. Classe (Delta Series has an HDMI option) and McIntosh (C53) have preamps that have a DAC, parametric eq and phono. No built in streaming on either. No ethernet on the McIntosh.. In either case I would then need to buy a streamer. Maybe these are now too old school? Also reading about and Elac pre/DAC/streamer that is Roon ready. I don't have Roon but understand if offers a way to do parametric EQ. The Lumin P1 looks very interesting as does the Auralic Altair G2.1. The price points on all of these are very different, obviously. I'm pretty agnostic about the brand at this point. I don't expect that anyone can tell me exactly what would be best for me, but I sure would appreciate some input. Currently I am using a very old Mac Mini and a Squeezebox with a Mini Dsp SHD. Many thanks.

Hello, I am hoping someone can recommend a technician who can repair solid state equipment in the SF Bay Area. The piece is a Classe CP-800 preamplifier. Thank you, Nick

Emptied trash and the USB drive is now clear. It is hard being such a novice! Thank you for helping me get through this frustration!

Many thanks for sending this. I moved files into the sequence you show and copied the files into the media folder. When I clicked 'add to library' it moved the music into iTunes. Although two albums showed up in the 'recently added' area of iTunes but I couldn't locate them in the music library on iTunes so I just made a playlist from the 'recently added'. I thought when I moved files to trash that I was emptying my USB stick, but it is still full. No files show on the disk because I removed them all from the window. I'm thinking I need to empty the trash on the computer, but that doesn't seem right to me since the USB and trash aren't really linked.

Thank you for your post, goldsdad. When I copied iTunes I had to remove the music folder because of the size. I then added back the music folder and copied a batch of music into it. That batch shows and plays. When I burn a CD in the drive of the new computer, it shows up in iTunes. I moved the second batch artist folders into the music folder, but they do not show in iTunes. I also see that I created two locations for music and I think I created an additional media folder, so I've complicated this. But in the folder you suggest I have all the files as does the additional file. I've kept the original itunes file in the new computer, but it is itunes is not mapped to it. When I map to it, i seem to have the same problem. Please let me know what you suggest. I'm wondering if the second batch of files somehow needs to be in the Library itunes folder. Thanks again.

Ted, I'm having trouble getting the second batch to copy into the right place. I can see the music in the music file, but it doesn't show up in itunes. The first batch is there and it works. I'm not copying the the files exactly like chris did - it looks like in the video that he drops the copy into the itunes folder. When I do that, it just copies into the folder rather than going into the music folder. So, they are in the music folder, but not mapping to iTunes. I did open iTunes without first doing the option/alt key, but it seems that the file should already map to the library. Any suggestions on what step I might be missing?

Yes, that is what I am doing, thanks.

Hi Ted, thank you for your reply. I didn't realize I was looking at one the size of one set of songs. I just saw that it is just over 29GB, so I see why I can't copy it. I bought the wrong size flash drive.

I'm getting an error message - "The item “iTunes” can’t be copied because there isn’t enough free space." I've got about 1000 songs on Apple Lossless encoder. Wondering how big a flash drive I might need to move the music to a different computer? The music file is only 262 mega bytes. I'm using a 16GB memory stick.

I am hoping someone can help me understand how to set up my Mac Mini. Currently my music is in itunes on my MacBook Pro and backed up on my Time Capsule. I have set up the mini and watched Chris's tutorial about how to screen share, and that worked. Before I turned on screen share, all my music showed up on the Mac Mini and I played a song through the TV via HDMI. Now, when I use screen sharing is appears that there is no music in iTunes on the Mac Mini. It seems that I should be able to access the music via screen sharing without having to copy the music to a USB stick (as per Chris's tutorial). Am I wrong about that? Since the music appeared before, it seems that I should be able to access it. At this point, when I open iTunes on the Mini (via screen sharing), iTunes wants me to go through the tutorial. When I press the 'alt option' key it asks me for my library preference, and I'm thinking this is where I have to access the music file on the time capsule, but I'm not figuring out how to do that. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. As you can see, I am a not terribly tech savvy. Thanks, Nick

How does this product differ from their higher end product?

Interesting article from NPR - anyone surprised by the results? http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad January 2, 2012 by CHRISTOPHER JOYCE In a double-blind test by professional violinists, most couldn't determine — by sound alone — which violin was an original Stradivarius and which was a modern instrument. Above, a 1729 Stradivari known as the "Solomon, Ex-Lambert." In the world of violins, the names Stradivari and Guarneri are sacred. For three centuries, violin-makers and scientists have studied the instruments made by these Italian craftsmen. So far no one has figured out what makes their sound different. But a new study now suggests maybe they aren't so different after all. OK, here's a test. Clip one is a musical phrase from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. Clip two is the same phrase. The same musician plays both. But one is on a Stradivarius violin, the other on a violin made in 1980. See if you can tell the difference. Violin Test 1: Strad Or Modern? Violin Test 2: Strad Or Modern? It's a tough choice. But a professional violinist could tell the difference, right? Well, a research team recently tried to find out. They gathered professional violinists in a hotel room in Indianapolis. They had six violins — two Strads, a Guarneri and three modern instruments. Everybody wore dark goggles so they couldn't see which violin was which. Then the researchers told the musicians: These are all fine violins and at least one is a Stradivarius. Play, then judge the instruments. Joseph Curtin, a violin-maker from Michigan, was one of the researchers. "There was no evidence that people had any idea what they were playing," he says. "That really surprised me." Curtin says of the 17 players who were asked to choose which were old Italians, "Seven said they couldn't, seven got it wrong, and only three got it right." Claudia Fritz designed the experiment. She's an acoustics physicist from France's National Center for Scientific Research — and a flute player, by the way. She says this test was more rigorous than previous ones because it was "double-blind" — no one knew which instrument was which until after the test. That rules out the kind of bias that might creep in when a musician judges an instrument he or she knows is 300 years old and maybe played by someone like Fritz Kreisler or Henryk Szeryng. And this experiment asked seasoned violin players, not listeners, to choose. Fritz says some of the players told her they were certain which were the new violins and which were the old Italians. "'Ah, it's just a bit too new for me'," she recalled one musician saying. "And it was a Strad. Another one said, 'Ah, I love the sound of this one, it really has the sound of an old Italian, ah, just so warm.' And it was a brand new violin. " When Fritz asked the players which violins they'd like to take home, almost two-thirds chose a violin that turned out to be new. She's found the same in tests with other musical instruments. "I haven't found any consistency whatsoever," she says. "Never. People don't agree. They just like different things." In fact, the only statistically obvious trend in the choices was that one of the Stradivarius violins was the least favorite, and one of the modern instruments was slightly favored. Now, what does that mean for all the years of research studying the old violins — the design, the wood, the varnish, even the glue? If no one can tell the difference, what's the point? Well, Fritz says maybe researchers should focus more on people than old wood. "People looked at the violin, tried to understand how it vibrates, what are the mechanics behind it," she says of past research. "But nobody has really looked at the human side." She says her research is aimed at determining how people choose what they like, and what criteria they use. Curtin has spent years trying to capture the quality of old-world instruments. But he's not discouraged by the results. "If new violins get better, it doesn't mean old ones get worse," he says. "The question is, Can the sound be gotten from a new instrument, as well as an old one?" The old Italians certainly sound great, but not necessarily better or even that different from the best new ones, he says. It's more in the mind, or ear, of the listener. Dale Purves, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University, says the research "makes the point that things that people think are 'special' are not so special after all when knowledge of the origin is taken away." The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Oh, yeah, the test: Which of the two phrases we played came from the Stradivarius? The second one. http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad

I would highly recommend that you read Floyd Toole's book, 'Sound Reproduction.' Although if the speakers have to placed so close to the front wall, it may be better to use PEQ to rid your room of the low end mode. You can read about room measurement, and download software and the Home Theater Shack website. There is also good instruction on how to build tube traps on the Teres Audio site.

Can you pass along the prices of these pieces from NAD? Also, how is it that they can make this claim about USB? "The M51 introduces many 'firsts' for the DAC product category: first to support HDMI, first to support USB Audio Class 2 with support for 192kHz, the first to use digital error correction, and the first 35-bit architecture to be found in a DAC."