Bezmania

So far, I've put some time into this approach. Here's what I've done so far: - install a scratch HD into my PS3 (fat model with SCAD) - downgrade the PS3 to firmware 3.15 (using an E3-stick and a lot of digging around on ps3-hacks.com) - install yellow-dog 5 - dig into the sacd-read software by mr_wicked, found out is still in development - copy the raw device information onto HD ('dd if=/dev/scd0 of=filename.dump' ) (the device name mentioned by mr_wicked doesn't exist on my installation, probably a different linux) As far as I've been able to ascertain, /dev/scd0 is the SACD partition on the disk. I don't have a clear view on the rest of the process. As I understand from discussions above, there's still some work to be done on the decoding of these files. Right now, my goal is to get the raw data off some 2 dozen SACD's, so they can be converted and played later on. Once finished, I intend to re-upgrade the PS3 and use it for games and video playback again. These two are mutually exclusive, since Sony decided to yank linux support from the firmware, while newer games require the latest firmware. Damn you Sony!

Same problem here in NL, I've already notified Stephen with more details.

I believe Apple already did a test with selling "hi-res" music. There has been a period in which they sold ALAC lossless (16/44) files at a premium price. Since then they've abandoned that approach and sell everything in one format again. Probably saved them more in storage and conversion cost than the revenue of premium quality sales.

<br /> I don't notice any degradation or interference in my setup. However, I could easily imagine ground-loop issues or interference from cheap sparky psu's. I make it a point to minimize ground connections between links, so both SPDIF and RCA interlinks are grounded at the source end only. TOSlink is optical, so no ground issues there.<br /> <br /> I also guess that it's theoretically possible for digital input on an inactive input to show up in the digital path. However, that would be a major design flaw. I've given it a quick try and notice no such effects.

Yes, you can connect different sources at the same time. I've got mine connected to an airport express with optical, to a sat-receiver with coax and to a laptop with USB. Manual switching only, though.<br /> <br />

AAC's are DRM-protected MP4's, so I'm not surprised that AW doesn't play those. My issue is with regular, unprotected MP3's...

I've done some A/B/C testing here. Three setups: - FLAC - iTunes+Fluke - airport express - Linn Unidisk SC internal DAC - FLAC - Ayrewave - Airfoil - airport express - Arcam rDAC - FLAC - Ayrewave - Arcam rDAC via USB The USB-route is sonically superior by far, no surprises there. The Arcam rDAC outperforms the Linn Unidisk SC's DAC, also no surprise given that the Unidisk's design is >5 years old. The biggest surprise was the difference in sound that Ayrewave makes. Given the same source file (either MP3 or FLAC), Ayrewave sounds substantially better than iTunes on the same hardware. So yes, even if the Airfoil/Airtunes route doesn't give the best possible end result, it is still an big improvement over the basic iTunes setup. According to HALlab, the bitstream to Airtunes is 24bit/44KHz. I can't verify the format, but ALAC (Apple Lossless) seems very likely. HTH.

First of all: I really, really like AW so far. Buying the final product is almost a no-brainer. I also like the sound quality it creates out of MP3's. I know, that is not an ideal source. However, I've got a fairly large collection of "broadcast quality" MP3 files which I can't easily replace with flacs. Playing these mp3's, I noticed something weird. I've pointed AW at the root folder of this MP3 tree, and it raced through that tree in a few minutes. Ended up with a playlist of some 10.000 songs. Which is weird, because there's some 17.000 mp3-files in that tree. My first thought was that it might be some limit in AW, max-list-size or something like that. To verify, I've looked up some of the files not loaded, cleaned the AW list and restarted and tried to individually load the missing files. These flatly refuse to load. None of the methods of adding them to the list work, not through cmd-O, not through add-finder-selection or through add-itunes-selection. These mp3's refuse to load, although they play without problem trough iTunes or other players. Anyone else notice this behavior? Or is it just my bad habit of having a mixed collection of MP3 and flac? (running AW 1.0b(9) on a MPB-C2D under 10.6.6)

My MBP is a 2008 model, 2.5GHz C2D. I've played around with the settings a bit. The problem seems to be directly related to hog mode. Memory play doesn't affect the behaviour after all. I unchecked both as suggested in some earlier thread. Something else I noticed is that it only occurs when I run my Arcam rDAC directly through the USB connection. If I use my wireless setup (thru airfoil, airtunes and TOSlink), there's no ticking.

Same here: MBP with Arcam rDac via USB, FLAC 44.1/24. Uncheck hog and memory, ticking stops. AW version 1.0b(9).