Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What do make of this chaps ?
pkfox wrote: > Mmm, I don't understand who they are trying to attract with this, I'm a > long standing customer of Meridian and they have always made very good > quality products for mid to high end markets - but the Director just > doesn't seem to fit ? As you mention USB power supply no RJ45 socket , > doesn't say what media streamers it supports. Weird marketing on > Meridians part think I'll stick with the TF. Thanks for your time. It's a smallish, high-quality DAC that supports USB and SPDIF. It doesn't stream anything. You can connect it to any devices that supports a USB DAC (computer, Squeezebox Touch, Wandboard with Squeezelite, Vortex Box, Rasperry Pi, etc.). You can also connect it to anything that outputs PCM digital audio over SPDIF. What's to understand? induna's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=34626 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] How would you spend this "windfall"? (DAC question)
I used to own a DAC1 HDR, and I now own a DAC2 HGC. The DAC1 was very good, but the DAC2 is, imo, a truly superb DAC. Beautiful, smooth, incredibly resolved, sweet. You can get one on 30 days free trial (and a DAC1 on the same deal), so you could make up your own mind. It also supports native DSD conversion for any DSD downloads you might want, or SACD rips if you can figure out how to do them. Plenty analogue and digital inputs and asynch USB. There are a couple of variants $200 cheaper - the 'D' which is digital inputs only, and the 'L' which drops the headphone outputs. JezA's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21219 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99265 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What do make of this chaps ?
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/536-meridian-audio-director-usb-dac-review/ When the going gets weird - the weird turn pro. Hunter S Thompson CD's -> EAC/Grip -> ReadyNas NV -> CAT5 -> Sonicwall -> TP -> Meridian 551 -> Monitor Audio Gold -> Me :-) pkfox's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5346 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What do make of this chaps ?
ralphpnj wrote: > It would seem that the field of sub $1,000 DACs just keeps on expanding. > Meridian Audio is a well respected manufacturer that often produces > products with a high bang-for-the-buck rating. The Director seems to be > squarely aimed at audiophiles who are using their computer as a music > source rather than as a music server feeding a remote device (the basic > Squeezebox setup). The only real question is how long before someone > offers a "audiophile quality" stand alone USB power supply for this > device. Mmm, I don't understand who they are trying to attract with this, I'm a long standing customer of Meridian and they have always made very good quality products for mid to high end markets - but the Director just doesn't seem to fit ? As you mention USB power supply no RJ45 socket , doesn't say what media streamers it supports. Weird marketing on Meridians part think I'll stick with the TF. Thanks for your time. When the going gets weird - the weird turn pro. Hunter S Thompson CD's -> EAC/Grip -> ReadyNas NV -> CAT5 -> Sonicwall -> TP -> Meridian 551 -> Monitor Audio Gold -> Me :-) pkfox's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5346 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] How would you spend this "windfall"? (DAC question)
Right now I'd go DAC2 also (I own a DAC1 HDR). Note it's best to do a bit of digital attenuation in the transport feeding a DAC1 if your collection includes any dynamically brick-walled recordings. This helps during upsampling, this goes for many upsampling DACs I believe. The DAC2 has 3.5db of "DSP headroom" built-in for this sort of thing. This is 100% irrelevant to Ikabob, though, if he is listening to classical! Darren Check it, add to it! http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A3H57URKQB8AQO/ref=cm_pdp_content_listmania/203-7606506-5721503. SB Touch darrenyeats's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10799 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99265 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What is your personal philosophy as an "audiophile"?
satkinsn wrote: > Ron - > > I like your answer, though I'm starting to get the point that moving to > file-based playback is neither cheap nor without considerable work. > Question: what do you use to play back from your fitpc? I assume some > variety of Squeezebox Server/Logitech Media Server/whatever it's > currently called. > > s. I use the current official release of LMS installed on the FitPC. The Fit is networked via ethernet, and ultimate playback is via one or more of a Transporter, a Duet and two Booms. The initial ripping is the big work; maintenance work depends largely on how much new music you obtain. The advantage of getting CDs is that dBPoweramp automates the ripping to multiple locations; if I download files (and I do get a lot of flacs), then I have to do an individual conversion to the MP3 for my compressed set of music, and copy the file to a couple of locations. It's not really a lot of work on an ongoing basis. The Fit costs about $340 diskless, which is not cheap but cheaper than a laptop -- but you have to buy a hard drive, and do the work of installing Windows, which can be an additional cost, not to mention a major pain. Am currently in the midst of that pain. R. R. RonM's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17029 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98057 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What is your personal philosophy as an "audiophile"?
satkinsn wrote: > The SB3 is exclusively a radio tuner for me, and my big project needs to > be moving all the shiny spinning discs I think I'll want to hear over > the next 20 years to some sort of server - but I'm torn because of the > abundace of options: I ran Vortexbox for a year or so and liked it, but > thought the tagging was weak. I could run a Win 8 box with JRiver and > dbPowerAmp, both of which I own, but Windows is fussy. Or I could use a > Mac, but that means buying further into the Apple eco-system, maybe, > than I want. As a Linux guy, I'm inclined to go the V'box route and > build a player or two using a Pi or one of the other boards, but on the > other hand, I'm not sure I want to work that hard. > > Meantime, I have a Boom on my nightstand and just got a used Duet for my > office. Squeezeboxes continue to delight me. > > Scott A. > Watertown NY Lots of really good responses to your plan as outlined above. My 2 cents: How many CDs are we talking about? The reason this is important is three fold - first there is the question of hard drive space, second is the question of a bullet proof backup paln and last is the question of memory needed in whatever device you plan on using to host Squeezebox Server/LMS. Taken one by one. A large music collection means a fair degree of work and planning must go into setting up exactly how you organize your music library. For example I have my music collection stored on two external hard drives connected to an inexpensive computer running windows 7. Each "album" or recording is placed in a separate folder (directory) belonging to a master folder. The full file path looks something like this: \\JAZZFAN-PC\DroboS Music Two\Jazz A\Arthur Blythe - Calling Card (1993)\01 - As of Yet.flac where JAZZFAN-PC is the name of the computer running SBS DroboS Music Two is the hard drive Jazz A is the master folder Arthur Blythe - Calling Card (1993) is the album folder 01 - As of Yet.flac is the first track of the album For back up I have two fully mirrored hard drives connected to a different computer. I also use this computer to do my ripping (I use dbPowerAmp for all ripping) and post ripping processing (tagging, cover art, renaming, etc.) before a copying the finished rip to the computer and hard drive running SBS. The bigger your music collection the more important having and using a back up plan becomes since you do want to rerip all your CDs should your main storage hard drive fail - and ALL hard drives are going to fail at some point!!! Last a large music collection increases the amount of memory SBS/LMS needs and uses. For example for my large music collection Squeezebox Server uses 353,000K of memory as reported by Windows Task Manager. Hope this information is of some use to you as you make your decision. Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. & sub Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Energy sub Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0 Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar Garage: SB3-JVC compact system Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso Server: SBS on dedicated windows 7 computer w/2 Drobos 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98057 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Squeezebox Touch/Classic vs cheap USB DAC ?
If you could go to $169, maybe the Audioengine D1 is worth considering? It uses the AK4936 DAC, which I believe was also used in the Transporter. 'Here's' (http://www.avguide.com/review/audioengine-d1-dacheadphone-amp-playback-54) a review; 'here's' (http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-D1) the manufacturer's website. I haven't got one .. just happened to come across it and noticed the connection with the Transporter. JezA's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21219 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99141 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What do make of this chaps ?
pkfox wrote: > http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/536-meridian-audio-director-usb-dac-review/ It would seem that the field of sub $1,000 DACs just keeps on expanding. Meridian Audio is a well respected manufacturer that often produces products with a high bang-for-the-buck rating. The Director seems to be squarely aimed at audiophiles who are using their computer as a music source rather than as a music server feeding a remote device (the basic Squeezebox setup). The only real question is how long before someone offers a "audiophile quality" stand alone USB power supply for this device. Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. & sub Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Energy sub Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0 Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar Garage: SB3-JVC compact system Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso Server: SBS on dedicated windows 7 computer w/2 Drobos 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
