Cycles2

Firedog, thanks for all the assistance with the Blu-ray info. One more question about the hi-rez content on the bluray disc. I'm only interested in the songs from Electric Ladyland in hi-rez without all the associated commentary from Eddie Kramer and other guests about the making of each song. I won't bother with DVDAE and the other Bluray extractor tools if I end up with the commentary.

Firedog. I have a MacMini with dbPoweramp that I use to rip CDs to my NAS. Can I use dbPoweramp to get to transfer the stereo mixes in uncompressed 24 bit/96 Kz off the Blu-ray DVD or do I need a different software tool on my MacMini?

Thanks Firedog. The Blu-ray DVD is just a documentary so I'm not sure why I should be excited about it being hi-rez. Am I missing something?

@skipspence I got the 50th Anniversary Electric Ladyland 3 CD & BluRay DVD set. Am I doing something wrong as the Electric LadyLand CD appears to be 44k/16 bit, not 96k/24bit as advertised? Brian ...

I don't have a QX-5 but my Lumin S1 can play TIDAL MQA (Masters) tracks directly without using the TIDAL desktop app. It plays them as 48kHz, 24-bit. Using the Lumin iPad app when I search TIDAL by artist I see some albums multiple times. In the case of Van Morrison's Austral Weeks, one of the albums is clearly the MQA version as it plays as 48KHz, 24-bit. The other Austral Weeks album plays as the usual Redbook 44.1kHz, 16-bit. The SQ is noticeably better than the Redbook version, likely due to playing at 24-bit. This also proves that MQA backward compatibility works as promised.

Sorry I'm a bit late with this reply. I wouldn't buy the Rossini just because it's a streamer. You can purchase the Vivaldi and an Aurender N100H music streamer for $2.5K. The Aurender has 2 TB for local song storage and you can connect to one of the music subscription services. The Aurender interface is terrific as there's virtually no difference in the interface for local songs on the Aurender or Tidal tracks. Tidal is the way to go in the US as they're the only service offering lossless (Redbook) at this time. I'm not sure how they do it but many of their Redbook tracks sound better than my local Redbook versions.

I'm interested in the N100. Has the N100 software been upgraded to read metadata & cover art from a NAS storage device? Are there any other issues with the N100 that people find bothersome? I'm brand new to music servers as I've been using a Mac Mini via USB to a DAC for many years and am about to take the plunge to purchase a streamer to connect to my Devialet 200 and get rid of the Mac Mini. Thx, Brian ...

Ruben, Thanks for finding the info on SRS (Stanford Research Systems). I spoke to a sales engineer at SRS and he commented that the SRS rubidium clocks are used in Esoteric's G-01 clock that sells for $16,000. He also mentioned that their clock are better than the clocks used in the Antelope Rubidium Master clock. The SRS rep mentioned that to save money, he recommends their FS725 clock that sells for $2,695 and includes two 10MHz outputs and one 5 MHz output. Most audiophiles won't need the eight 10MHz outputs that their $3,495 PERF10 model has. I recently auditioned the Paganini stack (DAC, Upsampler and Clock) vs. my Zodiac Platinum. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the dCS master clock to function with the Zodiac DAC so the comparison was a bit unfair as we were just using the internal clock of the Zodiac Platinum for most of the audition. You were correct, the Paganini stack is at a different level as it's more musical & coherent, especially when you listen to tracks that need a bit of sonic help. Well recorded tracks were closer, but the Paganini stack was still a bit more musical. We did listen to a couple tracks with just the Paganini DAC (no Paganini Upsampler & no Paganini Clock) vs. the Zodiac Platinum DAC and it was closer but still the Paganini DAC was a bit more musical. However, anyone looking for a world-class digital setup for about $8k could consider the Zodiac Platinum ($5,500) plus the SRS FS275 rubidium atomic clock ($2,695).

Thx for the comments RubenV. A couple questions. I'm following your suggestion to convert the USB signal of my Mac Mini to improve the sound quality. What if I also purchased a DCS Paganini Upsampler in addition to a Paganini DAC? Would I still need the Paul Pang DDC or does the DSC Paganini Upsampler replace the need for the Paul Pang DDC? Do you know if the DCS Paganini clock is as good as the Antelope Audio Rubidium Atomic clock? Thx, Brian ...

RubenV, I realize you posted your purchase of the Paganini DAC almost a year ago, but I'm also interested in a Paganini. I currently own an Antelope Audio Zodiac Platinum DAC with the bundled Voltikus power supply. I use a Synergistic Research Element power cable for the Voltikus and a Synergistic Research Active SE USB cable to connect my Mac Mini. I use Pure Music from Channel D as my player software. I have no issues with my Zodiac Platinum DAC. I love the sound, the headphone amp and the fact that it serves as a world-class pre-amp. But as most of us that enjoy this hobby, I'm always interested to know if I can improve the sound of my system. I recently auditioned an Antelope Rubidium Atomic Master Clock and was impressed with the upgrade it provided to the Zodiac Platinum DAC. Before I spend $5K for the atomic clock, I'm researching my options. I'm considering the following: - purchase a 10M atomic clock to use with my Zodiac Platinum DAC. - purchase a pre-owned DCS DAC (likely a Debussey or possibly a Paganini) - purchase an MSB Analogue DAC. Not sure if the MSB Analogue DAC allows an atomic 10M clock to be added. - purchase another DAC / Atomic Clock in the $10K range. BTW, I recently auditioned the PS Audio Direct Stream and it wasn't a noticeable improvement over the Zodiac Platinum and doesn't come close once you add the atomic clock to the Zodiac Platinum. I would also like to know whether the digital-to-digital converter (DDC) you purchased from Paul Pang is an improvement with your Paganini DAC. Thx, Brian ...

Ted, I'm using the Zodiac Gold with an integrated amp, so I have not been able to hear it as a digital pre-amp. If I ever decide to go the route of a different amp, based on your feedback I will definitely audition the Zodiac Gold as a preamp before purchasing one.

I've had my Antelope Zodiac Gold + Antelope Voltikus power supply for approx 5 months. I use the USB output to a an i5 Mac Mini with Leopard OS. I use PureMusic as my player. I have the Zodiac attached to my New Audio Frontiers integrated 845 SET amp using a Ridge Street Audio USB cable. Prior to this in chronolgical order I've owned the: Wavelength Brick (non-async version). What a rip-off. Wavelength Cosecant (non async version). A bigger ripoff I then stopped drinking the Wavelength Kool-Aid and purchased an UltraFi iRoc which is very musical and one of the best values out there at the time. I upgraded to the UltrFi MusicStream which was a nice upgrade to the iRoc I then upgraded to the dbLabs Tranquility which is the best USB DAC I've owned from a musical perspective before purchaing the Antelope Zodiac Gold I've owned a Wryed 4 Sound DAC2 to get a taste of hi-rez recordings as my prior DACs only handled 44.1KHz. After hearing some of the hi-rez tracks on HDTracks I decided that hi-rez was worthwhile and purchased the Antelope Zodiacc Gold/Voltikus power supply combo. Not even close as the Zodiac Gold is superior in every way to the above DACs. Not even worth commenting on the Wavelength products as they were the most lifeless components I've ever owned. The owner will tell you that he voices his DACs purposely to not eggaerate the bottom end. That would be fine but lacking any sense of dynamics is not a good thing. To be fair, my experience with Wavelength was pre-async which I'm told is a noticeable improvement but I already swore off the Wavelenth merry-go-round. If you only want to play Redbook 44.1KHz, save your money and buy a pre-owned dbLabs Tranquility as you can probably find one for about $700 and they're SO musical. However, if you want to get into hi-rez and don't want the obvious oversmapling sound of the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2, then the Zodiac Gold is the way to go, assuming it's within your budget. The Zodiac Gold gets everything right, from natural sounding, non-eggagerated bass with plenty of low end heft if it's in the recording to the most musical mids and highs of any DAC I've owned or heard. The dynamics are perfect and you never hear any sibilance as I would often hear with the Wyred 4 Sound DAC. I would've liked to audition the Weiss DAD202 using a FireWire connection to my MacMini as I understand its impressive. The Zodiac Gold is also a terrific headphone amp as I use my Audeze LCD-2s with great results. I've been told that it's also a fairly impressive pre-amp but as my amp is an integrated I have no way to use the Zodiac Gold as a pre-amp. It's also future proof as it will play native 384KHz tracks, although I'm not sure any exist today. I can't even imagine the disk storage we'll all need for that. I've played around with configuring my PureMusic software to oversample RedBook to 88.2KHz with good results. Any higher oversampling and the results seem to diminish. Hope this helps.

I'm purchasing a new Mac Mini i5 with Lion to replace my old Mac Mini model 1.1. Since you seem to have experience testing vrious setups, can you assist with some questions I have. I've read so many posts suggesting to trial Amarra, Fidelia, Pure Music, etc. as results vary from system to system. Did you trial any other players before choosing Fidelia? Do you use Fidelia Advanced or just the base version? My listening position is 15 feet from my Mac Mini monitor. Is the Fidelia full screen mode large enough to see from a distance? If not, do you have any experience with Fidelia remote? Is Fidelia Remote included with Fidelia or is it a seperate purchase? Thanks in advance. Brian ...

Sorry for this newbie posting on software. Although I've been using USB DACs connected to my Mac Mini for over 5 years, I obviously was asleep at the switch when it comes to iTunes alternatives players software. A friend of mine suggested to download trial versions of Pure Music, Amarra and Audirvana to see which sounded best on my system. I must admit it feels like I'm taking a step backward as Amarra support just replied that they don't support the Front Row application which I've become addicted to. I'm now realizing that most of the iTunes alternative players don't support Front Row. For me this is a non-starter as my listening chair is 15 feet away from my 19" monitor and the Front Row application together with the included IR remote are perfect for viewing and selecting play lists and songs from 10-15 feet away. Does anyone know if any of the iTunes alternative players support Front Row or a similar application to view and select playlists from 10-15 feet away with the included IR remote. I don't want to purchase an iTouch, iPad or other remote device as one of the factors that drove me to computer audio was the convenience factor. BTW, I realize that Lion doesn't support Front Row, but I'm hoping Apple wakes up and addresses this. Thanks in advance. Brian ...