dufferdan

I only joined Massdrop recently. I bought the AKG 7XX Red Edition headphones ( I already own a pair of 702's). The 7XX are really solid. Easier to drive than my 702's for my Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 amp. If the TH X00 Purpleheart come back, that may be a last pair of headphones I buy. Well, except maybe a pair of Grados. I really do want a pair of good Grados.

Why not relieve the Squeezebox of DAC duties and get a DAC that can be used as your pre-amp and drive the monitors. I have a Beresford Caiman ( like years old and well out of date) between my Squeezebox and Rotel integrated amp. I think Schiit Audio makes several that would suit. Or is it the remote volume control you need.....might require a little more effort. I run my Squeezebox thru Beresford DAC to Rotel integrated amp. The tape out on the amp to a six channel (3 stereo pairs) Rotel amp. I leave volume control on the 6 channel at 3/4 power and control zone volume with wall resistors. For background music in kitchen and out in back yard, it all works well. I'd use a DAC as pre-a,p volume control.

Etymotic ER4P's do the trick for me. In ear fit, can be a little difficult until you get used to them. During Obama's first inauguration concert, the Edge was using either the 4P or 4S as his stage monitor. Any headphone good enough for the Edge onstage is good enough for me. (no political post...it is when I noticed he used these...)

I recall that when I first purchased the early Elton John albums on LP, the treble (high hat and crash) sounded very tight and clipped. The sound was consistent, if I recall correctly, up through to "Don't Shoot Me". The cymbals sounded more of a "tic..tic...tic" with no ringing or sustain, for want of a better description. If I recall, GYBR was much smoother, but may have had a bit of the same feeling. Caribou on is much cleaner IIRC.

Hopefully, this is the right forum. APologies if not. I have a few CD's which are claimed to be 20bit. My understanding is that if you have an HDCD player, there is a software extraction that allows 20 bit playback, otherwise the sound is played back as 16 bit. Normally, I rip via iTunes to lossy 320 kbps AAC for iPods and such, and use XLD to rip to ALAC or FLAC for lossy playback. Is there any way of ripping these 20 bit CD's to preserve the 20 bits of dynamic range? I know that most rock music doesn't have that much, but Tool's Lateralus seems to have quite a range, as might some others. I store lossless music on an HP MediaSmart server, EX495. Gigabit ethernet, wired connection, to Squeezebox Touch Digital Co-Ax out to Beresford Caiman DAC Cambridge Audio 640 v.2 Intergrated amp Royd Minstrel speakers. Squeezebox server software and iPeng for iPad controllers. It is my understanding that the Touch can only play back a maximum of 16 bit ALAC files. I ripped most music to ALAC so that I could use iTunes for organising and building playlists easily using Genius. I would assume, for 20 bit detail, I would need to rip to FLAC to get the benefit. I have a Mac Pro tower, quad core 2.66 ghz, 12 GB RAM. Apple Airport Extreme gigabit router and several switches about the house. I have Windows 7 via Parallels, so if there is onlyWindows software, I can likely use it as well. Thanks

Two questions:<br /> <br /> 1. I have a Sqeezebox Touch which will play 24/96 flac directly, and sonds great. However, while the documentation says it will play hi-rez flacs natively, and it plays ALAC (all my music other than what I have downloaded from HD Music in flac form) in 16/44.1, will it play ALAC in 24/96? From the info, I don't get the sense it will play hi-rez ALAC. Anyone have experience? <br /> <br /> 2. Why not just use fluke in iTunes to play flac natively? Do you lose 24/96 capability? <br /> <br /> Thanks

Not to completely jack the thread, but I believe that this is where the likes of HD Tracks and such can really provide both value added service AND increase the distribution of well mastered high quality music. Many of the titles that HDT currently offered as hi-rez FLAC appear to me to be re-distributions of music previously re-mastered for SACD and DVD-A sales. At the moment, it is a very niche market, however with talk of iTunes potentially offering hi-rez files, it is on the verge of going mainstream. I would guess that if HDT was able to show some decent numbers, the proliferation of music in hi-rez and reissue would accelerate further. I am heartened that HDT has been able to release Union Station and the new Paul Simon in hi-rez FLAC almost simultaneous with the CD release. ELP BSS should be a no brainer as well. From an environmental perspective, it makes way more sense releasing music in electronic form rather than the plastic and paper waste of a typical CD/SACD/DVD release. Apologies for the comment, back to your album lists!

You are correct. In fact,and this is the embarrassing part, I have both on the DVD-A. I believe when I posted this I was thinking HiRez FLAC, but it's a poor excuse. Call it a brain fart or two and move on!

I have an older Core 2 Mac Pro, so I'll do that as well. I figured I could get it to run in the background, just put everything on page 3 and let it go. wgscott...I am using separate libraries as the family has iPods and it is simpler to have a library with the music they use (and movies, TV shows etc) for them to load without gettting me involved. I manage the lossless library for playing via the home stereo and SB Touch. I may switch to something other than iTunes for that library because iTunes has a tough time consistently keeping the music separate, which is partially my fault for not moving between libraries properly. Which caused the deletions and such in the first place. Thanks all.

The problem is, each list has some "basic" audiophile recordings everyone could have and enjoy, and then gets tossed in several "individual" choices. Nothing wrong with that, but the original question was somewhat unclear. Then you specify HD recordings. Ahhhh....now we are getting somewhere. Not exactly the "desert island" mix, but what really brings out the benefits and nuances of hi-rez. Some of the above choices lean to late 90's and 2000's. Others, not so much. One is all classical, others lean to hard rock. Then, it is what kind of music do you like. Recording technology changes, genre changes, but lets take a shot. What is going to demonstrate a system well and cross different genres with grace. Not sure, but, I'd try: (with some latitude for choices) Beatles: Revolver was a choice I liked, alternatively, more accessible, Abbey Road, 24 bit USB Jazz at the Pawnshop: I liked this even though I have only listened to it a few times. Uncertain if it holds up... Miles Davis: Kind of Blue Diana Krall: Live in Paris, hi rez vocals lovely, but not the classic Ella or Barbara. Pink Floyd: DSOTM. So much going on, so well done, I have to go with this. Love Drum Talk: percussion, test the attack and low end of a system Beethoven symphonies or Bach concertos: need some classical, however many recordings are converted old analog. So much going on that it is hard to qualify. Maybe Brandenburg concertos. Something along this line. So seven down, most genres covered....next...start really getting skewed by personal preferences.... Stones...Let it Bleed, only of the old ones in hi rez, ignoring the SACD versions... Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...homage to my teen years, substitute Billy Joel, Piano Man if you prefer Beck, Gorrilaz or White Stripes... So, if they came out in hi-rez, what do I buy? Vaughn Brothers: Family Time David and David Talking Heads: 77 or More Songs about Buildings and Food One that is a sonic extravaganza is an old Ontario (Canada) band called Saga. A self titled LP that has unreal sonics. Clean, crisp, almost too tight. Some thoughts, YMMV

I have two iTunes directories. One is for lossy files ripped to AAC for iPods and iPads in use in the house (four or five in total). I also have a Lossless directory where I have 14,000+ songs ripped from CD to Apple Lossless. This directory is housed on a Hewlett Packard MediaSmart Server. I have had a couple of hiccups where directories got crossed and about a thrid to half of the lossy directory has been deleted. While I could look for the CD's I have lost and convert, an easier solution would be to convert an entirely new lossy copy of all files from the lossless ALACs. I would just delete all but any purchased music from the lossy directory and have XLD convert all my lossless files to 320 kbps AAC and insert into the other iTunes directory. So, as long as I specify the correct output directory to iTunes, can I just drag the music folder on the HP MSS into XLD and have it grind away overnight on the entire 14,000+ songs? Any tips to prevent problems? I have used XLD to convert some FLAC's to ALAC and AAC (purchased hi-res files from HD Tracks) and it seems to work well. Also, what is the best conversion method to take 24/96 FLAC files to 16/44.1 AAC for playback on iPod? I don't think the iPod can play back anything higher in resolution, though iTunes can play ALAC in 24/96. Can I just set the output bit depth and frequency in XLD? Thanks in advance...

While iTunes will export and m3u playlist, I have a particular hiccup in my system that I can't seem to solve. This may be a solution, however the directory structure you wrote for sounds like won't work with my setup. I'll describe my setup and issues: Music is stored in ALAC (Apple Lossless) in an iTunes Media directory on my HP 895 MSS. I also have the Squeezecentre plugin on the MSS and it points to the Itunes Media Folder/Music as the source for music. Front end, playback is via a Squeezebox Touch connected to the home network via gigabit ethernet. I have tried exporting playlists from iTunes in m3u format to the playlist folder on the MSS, however they will not play when accessed by the Touch. All playlists show up as empty. I have opened the playlist files in MS Word, edited the slashes to match the format that they appear in a playlist that is built within the Squeezecentre plugin GUI (when built manually in Squeezecentre the playlists will play on the Touch, btw). I also tried to match the directory syntax using the edit features, then resave as an m3u text file. The resulting playlist will not play on the SqueezeBox Touch. So, I am either screwing up syntax, missing something in the directory structure, etc. However, I have about 50 playlists, both home built and done in Genius, that I would like to have accessible via the Touch. Has anyone tried your script with an MSS and SB Touch? Maybe too detailed a question. ALso, I have posted queries on the Squeezecenter forums and HP Mediasmart forums, and while I haven't looked back on them in some time, no one was able to solve my issues over a period of months early last year. Any suggestions, or should I make a separate thread?

AKG 702 via main stereo, Cambridge Azur 640 v2 Etymotic ER 4P direct from iPod/iPhone

Both ALAC and AAC format use, IIRC, the .mp4 suffix. I have ripped all my CD's to ALAC and AAC, the former for playing through a Roku Soundbridge or Squeezebox Touch to my home stereo. The AAC format are for playing on iPods and iPhones. I have separate libraries for each format. However, one critical error I made was that although I switched libraries as I was ripping the different formats, I forgot to switch the music folder location each time. As a result, I have AAC files in the lossless library and vice vera. I need to find software that will differential between the two formats so I can save each file type to it's own proper place and then rebuild the libraries properly. I have ripped over 1,000 CDs and 14,000 tracks, so a manual sort is gonna be too time consuming. Any suggestions on software that will do this? Oh, don't abuse me for doing it twice. My first rips were lossy and had to redo for lossless files after the fact when I found players for the home that would play lossless files. Thanks in advance for all help.