rich

Of course I mixed up mhz and khz...the chart was duly updated and thanks to you I now 'get it'.

Hi all, happy holiday! Here is a chart I made that attempts to explain how digital formats work. Please feel free to let me know if I was wrong somewhere, especially with the the DSD bitrate, which I am not so certain about... Thank you .

For the moment I use a PPC PowerMac G5 with 10.5.8, but the goal is to get a shiny new one. But before that I plan every detail. So AIFF is proper for 24/192. Great!

Hi all, since iTunes doesn't seem to play FLAC, which is the best way to convert your FLAC properly? Is there a way to be certain your file is not down-, or over-sampled in the conversion process? Then, how can you be certain that iTunes is genuinely outputting full 24/192 and 24/96? What is your format of choice?

I am sorry to say, but I saw iPhone come out in 2007, and since all other phones look exactly like it, only they don't provide half of the features. 4s is expensive because it is innovative. A simple ipod will do.<br /> <br /> As to the artists...iTunes compresses the music before selling it. But no one forces artists to record in a low quality.<br /> <br /> It's only a matter of time before audiophile downloads are available at reasonable price, with albums from artists that people actually want to listen to, which is not the case now (what's available in HD? a few albums from the Stones. The rest is interesting and awesome music maybe, but sadly no one listens to that so it's not going to be a mass market unless they come up with popular music).<br /> <br /> And, let's face it, most people can't tell the difference. I was called crazy for buying the €300 V-Dac.<br />

This comment is very funny indeed.<br /> <br /> Overpriced, a $200 iPod?<br /> <br /> Says the 'audiophile' ready to shell out insane amounts of dollars to purchase the best of the best of the best amps/speakers/dac?<br /> <br /> You could be the best, most informed and worshipped sound engineer in the industry, your post remains arrogant, aggressive, and biased.<br /> <br /> Compressed files are ok to listen to. I listen to it frequently on my V-Dac, i'll tell you something: it's better than NOT listening to music. <br /> <br /> I will add that this manufacturer has always provided new concepts. No computer audio without a home computer. No home computer without Apple.<br /> <br /> As to the tablets...i think you are kidding. Who invented the tablet? Apple. Who shamelessly copied it? Everybody else. <br /> <br /> I really think you are more passionate about electronics than you are about music. And yet you seem to know very little about electronics as well.

Opeth, "Heritage" "Häxprocess" (track 6) is delicious.

Hello all, @wgscott I have been trying to setup an aggregate device as the one you describe, unsuccessfully. I own a PPC G5 running Leopard. All I was able to do was sending a stereo mix to USB DAC and to optical receiver simultaneously, creating an unpleasant multichannel setup (with Audio Units). And never found a way to "decode" AC3 with the Mac and assign the different 5.1channels to different devices. Could you please let me know how you did? (honestly reading your post now, several months after i stopped bothering about it and stopped the aggregate device altogether, is like finding the Grail . Cheers

If there is no dot, means it didn't work. This worked for me on USB with Leopard, as a conventional hard drive. No RAID or anything like that. I'm sorry this trick won't work with this connection. I hope you will find a way. Note that this trick 100% works with USB so this could be useful in the future (you can try with a light USB stick to check, if this doesn't work, means Lion won't do it). Cheers

Hi agentsmith, hi all, 1-I don't know. To be honest this idea that spotlight must be turned off to give a better sound makes (i'm sorry to say) little sense to me. Especially when it gives you such a fast access to your hard drive. 2-I don't know. I think it has to be indexed in each computer. 3-Access was super-slow, to the point where it was unusable. Indexing it took a very long time but then the access was normal. You click, file opens immediately, thank you ladies and gentlemen. About Windows, I don't use it, so I don't know. A lot of things i don't know, but this trick works for sure. Be careful though, because a 1.5Tb partition is highly risky and the hard drive can crash anytime, especially if the data is fragmented!

Hello, I think you need to index the hard drive in spotlight. To do so: go to System Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy and add the hard drive in the list. Then restart your Mac, go again to ystem Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy, and remove the hard drive from the list. Restart again. Normally you will see a dot in the center of the spotlight icon on topright of the display, indicating that Spotlight is indexing the hard drive. This will lead the Mac to believe the hard drive is internal, and the access will be fast. Please note that the more your data is fragmented on the hard drive, the longer it will take for Spotlight to index it. This definitely worked for me on Leopard. I can't guarantee this willwork with any other connection than USB though.

Hi all, after patient research, i went to the conclusion that the simpler the better. Here is an example of a "budget" (still a good $3300) digital setup. All the computer's iTunes controls are handled by iPodTouch via AirPortExpress' wifi. The computer is is connected to the DAC via USB. Thanks to the Proton's software volume control, its analogue output is regulated from iPod through the computer. I really really like this design as it is a finite one. Here is all one needs to play quality digital music with the easiest use and the least components possible (no need for external display). I submit it to you guys and I am certain you might have ideas on how to improve it, budget-wise and/or performance-wise (like a 192/24 DAC handling software -analogue- volume control for example). MacBookAir + Superdrive: $999 + $79 http://www.apple.com/macbookair/ Wavelength Proton DAC 24/96: $900 http://www.usbdacs.com/Products/Products.html iPodTouch + Airport Express: $229 + $99 http://www.apple.com/ipod/ KRK ROKIT Powered 10-3 : $998 http://www.krksys.com/krk-studio-monitor-speakers/rokit/rokit-rp10-3.html

I must say that your arguments are seducing. Why don't artists say anything? <br /> I didn't think studio execs had such contempt for artists, and I would have thought that a goldmine such as Mc Cartney, famous as he is for giving out to everyone about everything, would be in a position to request things from the studio, and not the other way round.<br /> <br /> I'm puzzled.

Hi Firedog.<br /> <br /> This is an interesting debate.<br /> <br /> I think that we disagree because we have different approach to music. You seem to listen to music with a musician's ear, visualizing the partition and imagining the instrument playing.<br /> <br /> I am more into exploration of sound. The question that interests me is " What kind of feelings and ambience can one create by using sound?".<br /> <br /> Maybe you are right, and RHCP botched the job and massacred their album only to sell more records to a broader audience.<br /> <br /> But maybe they used high compression an experiment, as a tool used to design their work of art, to obtain a particular sound as a result, the way the Tarantino "grindhouse" films have obvious grain, technical errors and voluntary bad actor performances. The end result is a unique film and what could be seen as flaws are actually part of the work and have their own meaning within the film. Isn't Tarantino a well-respected professional?<br /> <br /> As to the "no one is entitled to comment' comment, maybe I went a little too fast. This is a whole debate by itself. However most artists I have an interest in have a "take it or leave it" attitude.<br /> <br />

if RHCP decided that their newest work of art would be designed that way, no one is entitled to comment. Sounds an awful lot like people who bash George Lucas for adding SFX in Star Wars...I think it's up to the artist to decide what his work of art will be.<br /> When I receive a letter I focus on the message, not on the paper and the ink that were used to write that letter.<br /> <br /> <br />