antipodes_audio

We recently completed blind testing with rates of compression of flac files, on our very revealing test system. The uncompressed flac file and wav files were indistinguishable. Progressively higher rates of compression sounded progressively worse - sounding more closed in (the opposite of open). We used wav, uncompressed flac, flac level 0, flac level 5 and flac level 8. From a technical point of view I don't think it is about more processing power required with a flac file, as de-compression is trivial, and the difference between unpacking level 5 and level 8 is even more trivial - yet the sound difference isn't. It could be the reason, but I don't think so. But there is a streaming difference that I suspect is more likely to be the issue. You can simply stream a wav file at a constant rate because it is encoded at a constant rate. Flac files are encoded at an adaptive rate and the rate varies throughout the file. Therefore the flac file needs to be buffered at the point it is unpacked or the time-domain distortion of the digital stream would be appalling. Despite the claims of dac manufacturers I haven't heard a buffer that 'eliminates jitter' - other than writing it to disk and playing it back later - much later. But some buffers are better than others and so the audible differences between uncompressed flac and compressed flac is likely to vary depending on the equipment used.

The music server you ascribe to BMC in the photos Chris is actually an Antipodes Audio DS1. We have been making music servers for four years now, first off making customised Windows and Mac based servers and for about a year now, Linux based servers. As for being a newcomer, almost everyone is fairly new to music servers, but we have been in the high-end audio business since the 90s and first began exporting to the USA in 2004. We have, at a guess around 500 US-domiciled customers and many more in 22 other countries. We have not pushed the music servers in the US much yet simply because while our standard power supply is universal voltage our units with regulated linear supplies are 230v only at the moment with the 115v version about 2 months away. The DS1 is one of 6 servers in our newly announced line-up being released in the next few months, and the one in the picture employs the SOtM PCIe output card with the SOtM battery supply powering it. We are the agents for SOtM in New Zealand.

Then again, you deny, and you deny, right up to the point that you launch.

Several emails later and indeed, Jesus is a nice guy and very helpful.

I will look forward to that, very keenly. The only time I built a Linux server for music I was very impressed with it, but the limitation of using USB and not firewire meant I stuck with the Mac. My last 3 DACs in my 2nd system have been a Metric Halo LIO-8, an Apogee Rosetta (for FW to AES or SPDIF) & DCS Delius combo, and a Weiss DAC202. I have tried many USB DACs but after a good firewire interface they sound poor - typically relatively harsh up top and wooly down low. On the subject of comparing the sound of those 3... The Apogee/DCS is the odd one out, sounding larger, more immediate and engaging, but on the forward and dry side of neutral. The LIO-8 and Weiss DAC202 were both more neutral. But my preferences were, in order: 1. Weiss DAC202 2. Apogee/Delius 3. LIO-8 The Apogee/Delius colorations could be tolerated in comparison with the LIO-8 because of the greater musical involvement. But the Weiss DAC202 lost only a smidge of that involvement and allowed the music to flow more naturally, making the DCS sound a little crude. No doubt the newer DCS equipment is a lot better than that old Delius. I have heard some of the new DCS gear in other systems and it sounds fabulous, but not in my system yet, sadly. I will be getting a Debussy in the New Year so that will be interesting. Maybe I will be won over by USB this time. If so it will make trying Linux a lot easier.

Jesus has just got in touch with me directly and the up-shot is I will re-place my order and hopefully get them soon. I have built many music servers and know that the issues these products address have a big impact on sound, so I am looking forward to getting them.

Has someone figured how to get a Weiss DAC202 to work via firewire with Linux, and can share it please?

Hi Jesus. You certainly have your supporters here. I have received the Paypal refund. Thanks for that. I don't quite understand your reference to 'rogue' email. Is the support address not '[email protected]'? That is what is listed on the Paypal record I have. If you have sent something via EMS then you will have a tracking number. If you provide that to me it is pretty likely that I will be able to track it down here locally. I have imported many items where EMS has been used and there has never been an item lost before. Delayed - yes, lost - no. It is worth me having a go at locating it and if I am successful I can pay you for them. If that fails I will re-place my order, as I am still keen on getting some of those filters. So please send me that EMS tracking number.

I figure I have hung on long enough Mani. Unlike you I have received nothing of any kind from Simple Designs. Not an acknowledgement of an order (other than what the Paypal checkout produces and the record of the order being placed and my payment being made), no goods and no response to my email asking for an update on my order. I have just sent an email to the address you have provided for Jesus, but I decided I needed to get the Paypal dispute resolution process going given the lack of response so far and that if I don't get it going I will lose my money (not for the first time). So the Paypal process will have copied Simple Designs my description of events already. Let's see what happens...

Barrows, I was under the impression there was only one source of these. I get your point that I was tarring the product with the same brush as the shoddy supplier (Simple Design Inc). I am sure I will fall short of your expectations of complete information, but doing my best to answer your specific questions. Q Who did you order the products from? A Simple Design Inc - Is there someone else I can deal with for these Barrows? I will try them if there is. Q When did you order the products? A 13 November 2011 through the online ordering process Q What country are you in? A New Zealand (A long way away I know, but they have these things called planes...) Just as a little add-on for you: The sales process stated the products in my order were in stock. I was charged $24.99 for an unspecified freight service to deliver two filters. My assumption was that this was likely to be an air service. If I thought it was surface I would not have gone through with the order. Those planes get here a lot quicker. I have purchased a large number of products from many countries. Any air service would have had the products here several weeks ago, so I sent an email to [email protected], being the listed contact for customer service. I think that was about 2 weeks ago, apologies for not providing you the exact date. No reply has been received. In any case the time is running out for dispute resolution through Paypal so I can't afford to wait any longer to hear from these people, so I am 'over' them. It is only a sample of one, and there may be an explanation but I will still recommend people do not do what I did. If there are other people to buy these products from please tell me as I am keen to try them out.

Surely the process of converting a digital sample to analog is "upsampling", since it invents information (the continuous analog wave-form) between the samples. Whether this job is best left entirely to the DAC, or whether it is better for some of this job to be done by digital upsampling (offline or online), will depend on a lot of things including the algorithms and accuracy of the chips that perform the processes. A universal truth is unlikely. And since we don't know what the information is that should have been invented, then how could we be definitive - other than to listen and judge accuracy of timbre as best we can. Personally, I find I prefer to use Sample Manager to take it as far as 24/88.2 in off-line upsampling/dithering and play those files through my DAC. I have tried many other scenarios and that is the one that gets me closer to thinking the sound is real.

Ordered some filters online and paid for them. None received and no response to emails. Not recommended.

I recently tried using Front Row in the following circumstances: 1. While Amarra and iTunes were running 2. While Pure Vinyl and iTunes were running 3. While just iTunes was running It seemed to me that the sound with Front Row was benefitting from Amarra and Pure Vinyl in the same way as I was used to (using iTunes with them). Features like memory play or caching did not work but Amarra EQ did.

Or if you want the best sound, use firewire - the only problem being you then need a firewire DAC (Weiss DAC202, Metric Halo ULN8, etc) or a firewire interface like a Weiss INT202 or Apogee Rosetta. Firewire beats all the USB interfaces I have tried.

Some boxes will be better than others. When using fans the holes in the case are strategically placed so that air is forced through a particular route, but without fans you rely on convection. So the best fanless cases will have a lot of ventillation and preferably holes at top and bottom rather than on the sides. <br /> <br /> The CPU cooler I tend to use most is the Scythe Rasetsu with the fan removed. The fanless Rasetsu has proved to be sufficient for any E7500 (or similar) CPU build.<br /> <br /> You are correct that the first gen of Sandy Bridges, and most of the later ones will not be cooled sufficiently with the fanless Rasetsu. Even the 65W Max TDP ones are too hard. But recently there have been a few interesting CPUs with low TDPs such as the (more an i3 really) i5-2390T with a TDP of just 35W. I have made four servers using these and even in poorly ventillated cases like the H6 there are no heat problems.<br /> <br /> I will be making one soon with an i5-2500T which has a Max TDP of 45W. I am sometimes asked why not just under-clock some other chip rather than use the low TDP chips, and the answer is I tried and found I still had some heat problems from time to time going that way.<br /> <br /> As regards the Mini-ITX boards, I have found they are great for a Linux music server, but for some reason not so good for Win 7 or Hackintosh. I suspect that this means I just need to wait till they develop a bit further. For example, I imagine one that can handle 8GB of RAM may change my mind.