grayh

My home systems include an iMac playing via Pure Music into an RME Babyface audio interface. As this has been my 1st choice system, I chose to use M4A Apple lossless 24/192 files which are stored on an NAS. Our HTPC in another room is mainly used for movies and has an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R audio interface. This is 24/96 capable only. I use Windows Media Center as the player for movies. I had not tried to use this HTPC to play music files as I was under the impression that WMC could not play M4A files and the audio interface could not handle 24/192 files. However, as an experiment, last night I attempted to play these files on this system and it worked. Firstly, I am not aware of ever having downloaded any codec to allow WMC to play M4A files. And second, which part of my system is downsampling the files from 24/192 to 24/96? Any ideas?

FWIW, I have used Channel D's Pure Vinyl to digitise my vinyl without going through a regular phono preamp, I use a flat preamp, hence, I get no RIAA EQ on these digitised files. I have then played these files with both Pure Vinyl and Pure Music (they use the same audio engine) with RIAA EQ applied in the software. The results are stunning and would suggest to me that applying EQ with Channel D's EQ filters will cause no problems for a "handful of dB" of adjustment. After all, RIAA correction requires up to around 20 dB of adjustment. Pure Music includes a number of built-in graphic and parametric equaliser plug-ins and allows 3rd party plug-ins, but these may not be up to Channel D's standards. However, I'm not sure about smoothing out room frequency response using EQ based on my experience. I have attempted on a few occasions to use test tones, mics and Audyssey software on my Denon and NAD AV receivers to compensate for room acoustics and the results were horrible. I prefer to place the speakers carefully and make use of furnishings to change the room acoustics. But, good luck. Part of the fun of our hobby is to try things out for ourselves.

I had already saved the 16 bit files as 24 bit and I am not particularly concerned that I have changed the files from the originals. Nor do I need to burn any to CD-ROM. I just wish to play my files without having to stand by the volume control. I will look at replay gain, although I'm not sure it will work under Pure Music. It's a sad reflection on the computer audio state that no solution appears to exist.

I have been searching for this topic and can find no discussion on it. I have several thousand tracks stored and every one has been processed to "normalise" the volume by setting the peak volume to 0 db. However, this has not actually given me similar sound levels. I know now that this is because of the injudicial use of compression on an increasing number of recordings. I can see this from the wave forms. Highly compressed recordings sound very loud, while uncompressed or very lightly compressed recordings sound quieter - often much quieter. This does not allow me to sit in front of my music server at home and enjoy a random selection of tracks as I have to keep adjusting the volume. This is also annoying and potentially dangerous when in my car. What I would like to find is a piece of software that will "level" the average sound level within a track preferably as a batch process. Does anyone know of software that will do this or similar. I'm assuming that levelling the average will do the trick, but maybe some other approach is required.

I know what you mean about some old albums - even some of the re-issues. I started buying music in 1955, so those are also 5+ decades old, but many of my older albums were stolen in the mid-70's. The worst sounding album in my collection is Carol King's 'Tapestry' whilst 'Chicago II' from the same era sounds great. I recently re-bought Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' re-issue and am very disappointed with it's quality. Go figure! :-) Your TC Impact Twin and your friend's RME Fireface 800 are both 24/192 capable. I seem to recall that the original MOTU 828 MK3 was 24/96, I think that was the maximum data rate that the Firewire connection could handle in those days. USB 2.0 also could not handle the data rate required for 24/192 until recently. Maybe your friend's 828 is the 24/96 model or maybe MOTU products are not the best - I certainly did not like my 828 MK2 and swapped it for a M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R a couple of years ago, which sounded much nicer. I don't like the sound of any Rega cartridges and I've tried several, the swap to the Dynavector 10X5 made a big difference - but this is probably personal preference. I do not rely completely on my digitised music for listening pleasure, so I need a decent front end turntable and phono preamp. I digitise albums as a backup in case I lose any or they get damaged, but also to reduce wear and tear by playing through Pure Music depending on my mood - sometimes I just like to play records the old fashioned way! However, regardless of whether playing the album direct or the digitised copy, I still have to go through power amps and speakers and these make a lot of difference. My Bowers & Wilkins speakers are old, but sound good. I have owned Goodmans, Sony, Yamaha, Denon, NAD and AudioLab amps over the years and do not like the dry 'Japanese' sound. I keep coming back to my trusty old NAD 218 THX which cleanly handles everything I throw at it and just sounds faster. The slew rate and damping factor are faster which, I think, improves the transients. I would love to try a tube amp sometime, but my wife won't allow such expenditure.

Paul, Recognising the potential of getting 'off topic', digitising vinyl does very much depend upon the quality of the source and maybe the RP1 and/or the NAD PP2i are responsible for the sound being 'distant'. I use a 1998 Rega Planar 3 which I have, so far, upgraded in every area except the plinth and dust cover. I replaced the standard cartridge for a Dynavector, the arm is from Origin Live with high quality internal and external wiring. The platter, sub-platter, bearings and motor have all been replaced with upgrades. The turntable now sits on an isolating base which in turn sits on a substantial shelf anchored into the wall. I ditched my NAD PP2 phono preamp long ago. All of these changes made significant improvements to the sound quality - more so than the digitising software and hardware. Graham

I started digitising vinyl using Steinberg Clean 5.0 many years ago and have progressed through WaveLab, Audacity, Amadeus, TwistedWave and Pure Vinyl. I honestly cannot tell the difference that the recording software makes to the sound. In that time I have also used a number of audio interfaces having progressed through a SoundBlaster card with a breakout box (the name of which I quickly forgot), an Echo Gina 24, a MOTU 828, an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R and an RME Babyface. The SoundBlaster sounded poor, but all hardware since then have sounded just fine, there being, perhaps, slight improvements with each upgrade. I found that Steinberg's Clean 5.0 made a very creditable job of removing clicks, but the software was limited to 16/44.1 and has never been upgraded. DC6 made an absolute botch of the music when attempting to remove clicks whatever settings I tried. I did most of my click removal manually for a long time after that, but then found Click Repair which is my current preference. It does not introduce any artifacts that I can hear and can handle 24/194 files. I use the lp setting modified from 50% to 30% which leaves the worst clicks slightly audible, but acceptably so. I now play all my music through Pure Music and love the sound of all recordings made at 24/192 and even most ripped CD files upsampled from 16/44.1 to 24/192. However, some of these files do not survive the upsampling process very well. I have not yet been able to determine what it is that causes some of these files to sound distorted. I am recording with flat EQ direct from the turntable so as to apply RIAA EQ in Pure Vinyl/Pure Music, however, that is not working for me yet. I understand from Rob Robinson that this issue is being addressed in the next major upgrade of Pure Vinyl. Once this is addressed, I will make comparisons of using flat EQ for recording against using my phono preamp.