lhissink

A quick note to mention that this music server, by itself, is very good in standard issue, (ie Server, switching PS) but improves dramatically if the optional linear PS is used, as well as the SOtm battery power supply for the soundcard. Further improvements in spatial cues, depth, width and height, are obtained if the USB signal is passed through a iFi USB power supply. The latter was an ad hoc addition because it was there, and if so, why not use it. (DAC used was the USB input of the Accuphase DP550). The Naim server is used for CD only rips, and feeds the DP550 via the SP/Dif route. DSD recordings are either burned to a DVD and played through the DP550, or via the Antipodes DS2 using the Chordette DSD input that outputs into the BSB Qol, then to either Bird or Woo WES etc. As it is the DS2 plays back DSD files but via the files route shown in the music player, here the Logitech Media Server. Then it's a case of navigating the file structure to locate the music file you wish to play, and add it to the playlist. Definitely not a navigate and click, play operation. One minor issue is the Chordette DAC - it uses a different protocol in USB mode, and requires hard reboots to interface with the DS2. The Chordette is used to play back DSD files natively from the DS2, as the Accuphase DAC cannot, at present.

Strange, the OS is Windows 8 and the remote application isn't ported to a Windows phone.

I received the following advice from BAD concerning the installation of drivers under Windows 8. (H/T Michael Ritter). Louis Hissink All you need to do is disable Driver Signature Enforcement Thanks to: http://laslow.net/2012/03/14/disable...-windows-8-cp/ So, one of the big issues I’ve had with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is that Microsoft now not only forces you to use Digitally Signed Drivers (this isn’t new, as Windows 7 requires them as well), but also checks to see if the driver has been modified and will fail to install if it has. This is a problem for anyone who needs to modify a driver .INF to support their device (*cough*Android ADB Drivers*cough*). Fortunately, there is a (slightly complicated) workaround. To get started: From the Metro Start Screen, open Settings (move your mouse to the bottom-right-corner of the screen and wait for the pop-out bar to appear, then click the Gear icon). Click ‘More PC Settings’. Click ‘General’. Scroll down, and click ‘Restart now’ under ‘Advanced startup’. Wait a bit. Click ‘Troubleshoot’. Click ‘Advanced Options’ Click ‘Windows Startup Settings’ Click Restart. ??? Profit! When your computer restarts, select ‘Disable driver signature enforcement‘ from the list. You can now load your modified driver. Reboot again once the driver is installed and all will be well. Update (June 5th, 2012): As requested in the comments below, you can permanently enable Test Mode () by opening an Elevated Command Prompt and typing the following commands, then rebooting: Code: bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ONTo turn it off again, use these commands: Code: bcdedit -set loadoptions ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING OFFStandard disclaimer that by enabling Test Mode you are opening yourself to potential maliciousness, blah blah blah. I’m going to assume that if you’re going to do this you’ll have the common sense to verify things before installing them. Don’t blame me if your computer bursts in to flames!

DSD sure does have a role - but it's difficult to play them through existing set ups. My conversion to computer audio was the result of realising that PC's are now powerful enough to outperform CD and SACD players which, when all said and done, are reading computer files from optical media via an internal D/A. Do DSD sound better - sure do - but the trap is that the files are very large, so unless you have an economical broadband connection, which we don't have in Australia, DSD files are hence expensive. Playing them back? This stopped me for a while until I realised that DSD is a professional recording standard and when I poked my nose into that area, I found one or two solutions. I simply purchased a Korg M@-2000S studio recorder which records PCM and DSD. I used its S/Pdif input to record FM from the Accuphase tuner. I use its DSD mode to rip analog music off SACD's played back by a highend sacd player. Playing back native DSD is basically downloading the files, copying them onto the Korg's internal hard drive, and playing them, in my case via balanced out to the preamp and the rest of the chain. I experimented by also playing them back via Audiogate software that converts the DSD to 24/96 through the USB, or, converted the DSD files to WAV,24/192 format. Native DSD sounds superb. WAV 24/192 almost as good as, and the wav 24/96 not bad but the transient reponse suffered (always happen when one down samples), and some low level detail started becoming lost in the noise. The biggest gripe at the moment is the limitation of Windows 8 USB - none of the async USB gadgets I have are fully recognised by W8 - W7 no problems. In fact the only DAC that Windows 8 recognised is the Accuphase DAC 30 I have, the rest being put into storage. That said, bad performances recorded via DSD will sound bad no matter what, except they will sound badder than had they been produced as PCM at a lower resolution. But if by audiophile we mean reproducing the real thing, what others call TAS, DSD when done properly gets there, providing the rest of the chain is up to scratch. I should add the conversion of the DSD files to WAV24/192 result in an increase in file size!

Anyone know if a Windows 8 driver for the BAD Alpha USB is available? Windows 8 recognises the device in a sense, but has yellow flagged it. I tried installing the supplied windows 7 driver using windows 7 compatability but the installation program won't work. Updating the driver manually doesn't work either as Windows 8 tells you the latest is already on the system. No major drama as I replaced the BAD with the MF Vlink, but it would be nice to have the BAD Alpha USB working.

Hello Chris, I've recently replaced my MF Vlink (24/96) with the BADA USB and also upgraded the 75 ohm and USB interconnects with Audioquest high end cables, both being 1 step down from their top products. Source is Sony Vaia PC using Audiogate software driving an Accuphase C2110 + DAC 30, Qol signal completion unit, Sanders Magtech and Magnepan Mini Maggies. There is little point using the BADA Alpha USB unless the cabling is also upgraded. Using high end audio cables on digital equipment is problematical as these are optimised for audio frequencies, DC to 20KHz, (< 30KHz) while digital signals are, at minimum, double that. (The higher the frequency, the greater the presence of HF artefacts, usually known as skin effects in the conductors). That said, putting the BADA Alpha DAC into the system made an obvious difference from the MF Vlink (24/96). I have a BADA Alpha DAC series 1 but due to space limitations etc, and the fact I can't readily discern a difference between the Alpha DAC and the Accuphase DAC30 in my system, it's in storage for the moment. That raises a new issue - the sound of any DAC - for it is a fact that the despite what the various digital circuits are designed around, the final output from any DAC is analog audio. So why would one DAC sound different from another - digital circuit topology or analog stage topology, or both? This raises the question of the Accuphase C2110/DAC30 combo sounds identical to the BADA Alpha DAC driving one of the line inputs of the Accuphase. In my case I would need to compare the Alpha DAC driving the QOL etc as a preamp vs the C2110/DAC30 driving the QOL. One thing is quite obvious from having experienced the hi-fi tendency from its beginnings, technological progression hasn't diminished the audiophile factor at all. If anything, it's increased it; yesterday we were obsessing over VTA's - today cable physics.

Folks, I've had a chance to listen to the Mini Maggies for some time now and can confirm some reported observations in the audio press (TAS etc) - they are accurate transducers but require a lot of amplifier power, more than what I had assumed. My system is atypical - I dwell in a mobile home and have a desktop at one end that measures some 2 metres wide and 0.57 metres deep in a corner of the home; sort of a mobile office that I had purposefully designed. Centre piece is a HP LCD computer monitor hooked to the latest Apple Mac-mini (attached to the wall by velcro) flanked by the Mini-Maggies with tweeters inside. The bass unit is under the desk in the footwell. Sources are the Mac-Mini via a MF Vlink/Toslink connection to an Accuphase DAC-30 driving an Accuphase C2110 pre via Audioquest Columbia xlr's to Roger Sander's Magtech power amplifier. Other sources include a BAD Alpha DAC sourcing a Bryston BDP-1 or Cambridge Audio Azur 650T using XLR or coax cabling. SACD's are sourced via a Denon 2000AE player, and CD's via a MF M1CDT via XLR into the Alpha DAC. (I have great difficulty hearing any significant difference between the Alpha DAC and the DAC-30, by the way). The Azur tuner is being replaced by the Accuphase T-1100 as well. I also have to admit I used to sell Hi Fi during mining downturns and as a result earned, whether deserved or not, a reputation as not having "cloth ears", an allusion that one is not tone deaf, so I am aware of the use of pyscho-acoustics to sell Hi Fi. In that sense I have to comment that the "high end" in audio means equipment that faithfully reproduces the recorded sound field. This definition does not apply to electronically confected music, however. So how do the Mini Maggies perform in my system? Pretty well all considered. There is no gut-thumping bass, of course, the "doof-doof" one might encounter in a traffic jam, but, and depending on the recording, one does hear a near holographic reproduction of the recorded sound field. As other reviewers have noted, the Mini Maggies are accurate in the sense that they reveal shortcomings in the equipment used to drive them. In my case using the C2110/Magtech combination in a near field environment at acoustically real replications of the recorded signal caused the amplifiers to clip. Yet playing electronically confected music, clipping seemed not to occur. Could the Mini Maggies be improved? Yup - add a subwoofer to reproduce the "start" of the music, but not the "doof, doof one must suffer during traffic jams. My choice is B&W's PV1D for the moment.

I run the Bryston BDP-1 via ethernet from a Mac system (I prefer Windows but the Mac-mini is used for the moment). Bryston's own music players are sort of ok via a browser interface, and Theremin is my current graphic client over ethernet. Bryston's main player (via Safari) has its quirks, mainly Safari I suspect. Anyone know of a good client to manage the MPD on the BDP-1 using the Mac system? There are plenty of Windows clients that are excellent but given the demographics of the Mac computers, I am a little bemused so little is available for the Mac platform that are as useful as the Windows clients, Gnome coming to mind. One way is to dual boot the mac into windows (groan), but the Mac platform that muso's favour is short on MPD clients???? Main issue is that the few clients I have used seem to focus on the artist, and not the album, and lack an intuitive playlist compiling system. This means I have go into the Bryston client, create the playlists, and then manage them using Theremin to play the music. Use the Bryston front end? Well, often I close the browser forgetting I am also using a tab as the music client, and the rigmarole of logging into the web interface etc is more of a hassle than simply running a separate graphics client like Theremin. The preferred music import is via iTunes (ripping CD's as WAV's) or downloading iTunes as Mp4 lossless. These are then transferred to a USB drive for replay through the Bryston via a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha into the analog input of a Focal Bird system. I have purchased Amarra and Puremusic front ends for iTunes to output via the Macmini USB; these are rarely used, though I do use the Mac straight into the Focal system for low res recordings etc in iTunes, Youtube and movies via DVD via the MF Vlink usb-sp/dif unit into the focal digital in. (That's an idea - play a movie in iTunes via Puremusic or Amarra.......hmmmmmm). But cutting to the chase - graphical front end for Mac to manage the Bryston BDP-1 - ?????

Hi Chris,<br /> <br /> Just discovered your site after getting back into the high end audio.<br /> <br /> I got out of the high end over 10 years back for economic reasons as well as the frustration over CD reproduction. I became an audiophile during the early 1970's and went through the Linn LP12/Gales/Accuphase experience, Accuphase C280/M100's Gales and Michel Gyrodek, settingling on Electrocompaniets and Proac speakers using the gyrodeck/SME V combo with Ortofon moving coils. I also sold Hi Fi during the early 1980's and was there when CD's arrived. Been there, done that, as they say.<br /> <br /> I got back into the high end over the last 1/2 year after I realised that music was being delivered as computer files. Only when I discovered Naim and Linn (and RR) were selling high res files, 24/176.8 did I start becoming serious. Being computer literate also helps, (I was working with mainframes during the 1970's), and I quickly realised that a decent digital soundcard and dedicated computer would be the preferred solution.<br /> <br /> I mentioned this to a friend in the Perth, Western Australia Hi Fi wholesaling business (he's the Accuphase importer) and he told me to read the latest Stereophile. I did and it got me up to speed.<br /> <br /> I run a Windows 7 computer (Sony Vaio all in one unit) outputting usb and optical. I had already bought a Musical fidelity M1DAC to feed the Lehmann Black Cube Linear and Sennheiser HD800's, and was resigned to the fact I had to buy another computer that could take a standard sound card. As if I needed another computer, using the HP Z400 workstation for my professional work, and Toughbooks for fieldwork (I am a field exploration geologist). Stereophile Mag opened my eyes and I spotted the Bryston BDP-1 digital player.<br /> <br /> My existing set up is the Sony Vaio, Denon DCD2000 AE SACD player, Tivoli Networking digital radio with second speaker/subwoofer, (I live in a trailer or caravan as we call them here), powered by a 500W inverter using the RV battery supply.<br /> <br /> Once I realised the Bryston BDP-1 was basically a sound card and computer system, without all the unnecessary inputs other solutions offer, I bought one. I also bought the MF V-Link to play the large number of sound files I had collected over time on the computer.<br /> <br /> Your website was instrumental in getting me back into the High End, and as I mentioned to my friend, we are back into the old high end audiophile times, when then it was choice of phonograph cartridge etc that was important in accuracy of reproduction.<br /> <br /> Now it's about DAC's pre DAC's (V-Link).<br /> <br /> I do enjoy reading your reviews and also the informative comments put by your readers.