The HiFi thread

[hifiandmtb]

This was a bit of a surprise - Musical Fidelity A1008, same amp circuitry as the apparently legendary KW550 - has a tube input stage with a 24/96 DAC.

Box below is the power supply - all separated left/right after the 240V feed, even the amp circuitry is fully separated.

Sound stunning, and my decent source is still ripping in the kitchen. Looking forward to having it all set up.

 

[clockworked]

What software do you guys use to manage your music libraries? Ive used itunes and mediamonkey. But mediamonkey is getting a little glitchy. Is there something better out there?

 

[wesdadude]

I couldn't find something that supported flac and worked cross platform so I've decided to build something. Still very early days, currently fooling around with libraries.

 

[indica]

What software do you guys use to manage your music libraries?

I'm still using iTunes, convert to ALAC which is bit for bit identical, I use XLD for conversion. I have an iMac so it works for me.

 

[Haakon]

I’m using iTunes (on a Mac) for library management - but I use Audivarna as a plug in to handle the actual music making part. Sounds wonderful, as opposed to the mediocre job iTunes does.

And as above, XLD for converting to ALAC.

 

[clockworked]

Righto. I'm on a pc now. Anyone know of a good pc/android platform?

 

[indica]

but I use Audivarna as a plug in to handle the actual music making part.

Righto, sounds better then? Can you explain how you have things set up and i'll give it a poke.

 

[droenn]

Is foobar2000 still going? That was king for PC back when I used to listen to flac

 

[Haakon]

Righto, sounds better then? Can you explain how you have things set up and i'll give it a poke.

Audivarna runs side by side - pressing forward in Audivarna or iTunes will control tracks etc. So you just open Audivarna when opening iTunes and Audivarna does it’s thing in the background.

SQ is improved- sounds more natural and whatnot. Plenty of articles on why the engine in iTunes is compromised, but I forget now.

Audivarna has a free trial, but is expensive. I may or may not use a cracked copy...

 

[hifiandmtb]

I don't get it - you store songs encoded as FLAC (CD quality), or less...

What's the question - how to get the 1s & 0s to sound the best or simply how best to manage the music portfolio?

It's getting the 1s & 0s out as an audio stream that really matters. Via a DAC. Without jitter or loss.

The PC or laptop or phone DAC will generally suck.

Which is why something like this exists:

AudioQuest DragonFly Red USB DAC/Amp

DragonFly Red, combines significantly improved performance with still exceptional value. The higher-performance 9016 chip in Red employs minimum-phase filtering for naturally detailed sound. DragonFly Red includes a more advanced ESS headphone amp and a bit-perfect digital volume control that...

addictedtoaudio.com.au

And onwards from there.

 

[indica]

Audivarna runs side by side

Thanks, I'll check it out

 

[Haakon]

Yeah, I use Audivarna for processing the 1s and 0s into a signal - which is sent out of the Optical Out on the iMac to an external DAC for conversion to an analogue signal (which the NAD does its very vert old school thing with).

 

[Dales Cannon]

Do you have other options that optical?

 

[Haakon]

Do you have other options that optical?

USB. But that lets noise through.

 

[droenn]

I've got optical and USB on my little DAC at work here, never been able to tell the difference. But Its not really critical listening, its more to drive 250 ohm headphones and so I dont have to hear my coworkers.

 

[Haakon]

I've got optical and USB on my little DAC at work here, never been able to tell the difference. But Its not really critical listening, its more to drive 250 ohm headphones and so I dont have to hear my coworkers.

Its mostly the occasional click or tick which is hard drives sending spikes down the line... Sometimes you'll get buzzing, depends on how well designed/made the computer and its motherboard is I suspect.

I used to have a little DAC on my work PC... But new IT provider meant locked down OS and only windoze media player. And they cracked the shits about me storing music on the C drive... So it was easier to get a nice little portable media player that plays ALAC.

 

[link1896]

Holly fuck. Finally got the three way klipsch cinema speakers repaired and working. Long hard road but oh so worth it.

Mid horn is running 250hz to 2700hz. UHF horn from 2700hz and up.

QSC dsp box, set to second order LR xovers, triamping the speaker.

Mid and Hf amps are class A, bit of EQ for the dual 15” bins to get them down to 25-30hz in room sees them need 150-200 watts.

Best reproduced sound I’ve ever heard.

 

[hifiandmtb]

I finally bit the bullet & bought a portable headphone amp (Fiio E12):

It’s bloody lovely.

Playing via an iPhone6 to my steadfast Sennheiser Momentum over-ear ‘phones, music is significantly more vibrant, the soundstage is deeper & wider & bass is more visceral.

It’s not subtle, looking forward to using them tonight on my fancy home ‘phones...

 

[hifiandmtb]

If you want to keep abreast of the latest hifi developments, only Mr Darko is worth listening to:

 

[droenn]

Just skipped through a bit - seems like a nice solution if you spend a lot of listening time to digital. Hefty investment though, as are most nice HiFi toys.