[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
The Rothwells are easy to get hold of in the UK and do the job. You can use them at either end of the SB-303 connection. Popular wisdom is that they should go at the amp end but the difference will be marginal at best (assuming shielded ie normal) interconnects. On the subject of power handling...in hi-fi contexts speakers are rarely damaged (imho) by continuous driving at high levels (unlike, say, PA speakers where you can get the coils to glow red - and eventually the cones catch fire!). What most often kills speakers is power rail DC across the terminals (faulty power amp o/p stage), or instantaneous high-level very distorted transients (near square waves!) that kill tweeters through very rapid heating of the voice coil. This latter effect is nothing to do with the power of the amp per se. A 20w amp can destroy any (hi-fi) tweeter just as well as a 200w one if you dump all of its power very quickly into a fairly fragile, thin, piece of wire. Under normal circmstances that won't happen because the energy spectrum of real music is such that the tweeters rarely recieve much power to dissipate as sound or heat. However, under distortion conditions all bets are off!. You are better off having an amp that is very hard to drive into distortion in the first place. This means not only one with a high overload threshold on its input stage, but also one where the output stage and power rails will be stable when presented with challenging signals. I'd rather run a 200w amp with massive operating headroom into 50w speakers than the other way round. I'm talking about solid state class A or A/B here not valves - which are a different animal in this respect, since by their very nature their power stages degrade somewhat more elegantly (usually). However, they can still suffer from the input overload problem although depending on the design this can actually sound quite nice..sometimes :o) Using the Rothwell (or other makes) on ANY amp has benefits in terms of lowering the chance of input overload and also reducing the overall gain of the system, making it unlikely the amp will ever get near its limits on output. As a side benefit, the volume control operating range on the amp (if you are using a pre-amp stage) becomes much more useful as the normal setting for listening is generally shifted to around 12 o'clock giving finer control. Older amps (hard to be definitive on when exactly but let's say anything before 1990 to be on the safe side) were designed to operate with some inputs (tuner or tape for example) giving full output at 150mV...now CD players and the SB can swing 2v+ at full op... you can see this is going to be a problem. Even today, some amps only offer 500-750mV inputs - although there will be a CD input which should be OK. The effects of driving the input stage of a pre-amp into intermittant overload can vary from harsh obvious distortion to a generally muffled sound. One reason (imho) that passive pre's are a popular upgrade is that this whole effect simply cannot happen - it's VERY hard to overload a pot!although transformers are another matter... I would get the 303 serviced to be on the safe side, regardless. Probably £150-200? depending on what needs doing. The mains connectors and socketry should be replaced with modern (much better) versions and electrolytics will definitely be out of spec by now if the amp has been used since new. -- Phil Leigh Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Phil, Your advice seems sound to me. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I don't live in the UK. I live in Canada, but the Rothwells are certainly still an option. They wind up being something like $75 shipped, so pretty reasonably priced. As far as servicing goes, I'll check with the guy I bought the 303 from and see what he had done to it over the years. He's a bit of a technician himself, so perhaps he's already had a go at a few of the things you've mentionned. Although servicing is not in the budget for the moment, it's something I want to keep on the horizon for the next few months. I'm thinking of having the DIN and the power plug jack changed for more conventional stuff at the same time. I'll order the Rothwells, have the cable made, and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the advice everyone! -- LikeButtah LikeButtah's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7258 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
There is no need to use a preamp [unless you want to select multiple sources] or spend big bux on an attenuator. While your friend is making cables for you, have him install a two resistor voltage divider in each cable. Quality metal film resistors will cost about $0.05 each. Otherwise, you can go into the power amp and install the resistors on the input jacks. TD -- tyler_durden tyler_durden's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2701 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Mark Lanctot;154969 Wrote: You could also use passive attenuators and go from the SB3 direct to the amp. Strangely, the reports of the white noise of death appear to have ceased. Funny you should mention this. I had an occurrence a couple of days ago while attempting to play a programme recorded from BBC R3 via DTTV using EyeTV on a Mac, and converted to Apple Lossless (at least, I think it was the Apple Lossless version. I had converted one to AIFF as well as an experiment). It was playing from my iTunes library. I haven't tried to repeat it yet (and don't particularly want to!) to investigate further, but it was a nasty surprise. This is using SS 6.5 on an SB2, by the way. It's just struck me as I write that I'm not sure whether I told iTunes to switch it from 48kHz to 44.1kHz during the conversion (and haven't had time to check whether this matters). -- geraint smith geraint smith's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=625 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
geraint smith;155253 Wrote: Funny you should mention this. I had an occurrence a couple of days ago while attempting to play a programme recorded from BBC R3 via DTTV using EyeTV on a Mac, and converted to Apple Lossless (at least, I think it was the Apple Lossless version. I had converted one to AIFF as well as an experiment). It was playing from my iTunes library. I haven't tried to repeat it yet (and don't particularly want to!) to investigate further, but it was a nasty surprise. This is using SS 6.5 on an SB2, by the way. It's just struck me as I write that I'm not sure whether I told iTunes to switch it from 48kHz to 44.1kHz during the conversion (and haven't had time to check whether this matters). The WNOD appears to have changed - this isn't what was reported before. Earlier it was caused by some spontaneous failure Slim Devices was never able to reproduce. People would just come home and their Squeezebox would be putting out white noise at 100% power and doing so possibly for hours. Now it seems connected to file conversion issues. I'm not saying if it's better or worse as both occurrances would suck, but I'm just noting that it's changed. -- Mark Lanctot Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Mark Lanctot;155255 Wrote: The WNoD appears to have changed - this isn't what was reported before. Earlier it was caused by some spontaneous failure Slim Devices was never able to reproduce. People would just come home and their Squeezebox would be putting out white noise at 100% power and doing so possibly for hours. Now it seems connected to file conversion issues. I'm not saying if it's better or worse as both occurrances would suck, but I'm just noting that it's changed. Ouch! I'd misunderstood the original WNOD issue, then. I know which I'd think worse. Mine may have hurt, but it was on one track only, and stopped immediately I hit pause. More a white noise of catnap, by comparison. -- geraint smith geraint smith's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=625 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
geraint smith;155256 Wrote: More a white noise of catnap, by comparison. LOL! Yeah, at least the current one you're in the room for. It's good to see that the original issue went away though. That would be far more dangerous if you had an auto-on amp. -- Mark Lanctot Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
LikeButtah;155218 Wrote: Phil, Your advice seems sound to me. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I don't live in the UK. I live in Canada, but the Rothwells are certainly still an option. They wind up being something like $75 shipped, so pretty reasonably priced. The endlers also seem like a good idea, but at $150+ they're a bit out of my range at the moment. As far as servicing goes, I'll check with the guy I bought the 303 from and see what he had done to it over the years. He's a bit of a technician himself, so perhaps he's already had a go at a few of the things you've mentionned. Although servicing is not in the budget for the moment, it's something I want to keep on the horizon for the next few months. I'm thinking of having the DIN and the power plug jack changed for more conventional stuff at the same time. I'll order the Rothwells, have the cable made, and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the advice everyone! Sorry I hadn't realised you were in Canada! the 33/303 is such an English combo -I really shouldn't assume! Anyway the advice of others to install padding resistors in the signal leads will work as well...and cheaper. However, the Rothwells (etc) for the relatively small outlay will be more flexible over time. The sound will be the same either way though... by the way - check this out: http://richardbrice.net/quad33303.htm Regards Phil -- Phil Leigh Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Read Sean's post on the matter: if the SB3 is your source, then you need something between it and your amp(s). That would mean using your preamp. The deal is that you run a real, if as yet unrealised by anyone on this forum, chance of a digital failure of sorts followed by the blowing of your speakers. Also, in an ideal world, you want to max out the volume of the SB3 and use analogue attenuation -- that you avoid any chance of signal degradation. LikeButtah;154940 Wrote: Hey team, I've just put together a new system, and am looking for the best way to get good sound of my (unmodded) SB3. At the moment I'm using a Quad 33 Preamp, and 303 Poweramp to a pair Dynaudio Audience 52s. My speaker wire is some flavour of Ixos, and my interconnects are complete garbage (i'm having a friend custom make some good ones, having Quad stuff means DIN and that makes things tricky). It seems to me that for at least the next sixth months, until I get a turntable, the Squeezebox will be my only source. Should I run it through the 33, or just go direct to the poweramp and use the SB volume control for everything? At present, I find myself using the SB volume control a lot anyway because the Quad doesnt have a remote. Strangely, I find the whole thing sounds better when the SB volume is lower (~50) and I increase the volume on the Quad. Does that make sense? Anyhow, I'm hoping you guys can offer some relatively inexpensive advice, as I'm a student, and can't really afford much of anything. -- highdudgeon Relax. It's about the music. highdudgeon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2195 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
LikeButtah;154940 Wrote: At the moment I'm using a Quad 33 Preamp, and 303 Poweramp to a pair Dynaudio Audience 52s. My speaker wire is some flavour of Ixos, and my interconnects are complete garbage (i'm having a friend custom make some good ones, having Quad stuff means DIN and that makes things tricky). Should be a decent system. Best advice I can give is: - spend time on speaker positioning. - get some Deoxit or other contact cleaner to brush up your old Quads and cables. Especially important with such old kit. Re the preamp issue, I suspect the 33 pre will be the weak point in your system (the Quad pre-amps were never that transparent, I found). However, there is a small risk that you will fry your speakers if you don't use one. It may however be worth checking if your 303 has a cut-out - I think they might. This might offset the risk somewhat (but will not eliminate it completely!) Adam -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
I go from my sb3 to my amp via a pair of endler attenuators. Sounds at least as good as it did with my old classe preamp. The endler attenuators are something like $65. -- totoro squeezebox 3 - mccormack dna .5 - audio physic tempo 4 totoro's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5935 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
You could also use passive attenuators and go from the SB3 direct to the amp. Sean recommends passive attenuators, and I believe they aren't that expensive. You need something should the SB3 catastrophically fail and send out white noise at 100% power. This is possible and was infrequently reported about 6 months or more ago - it was referred to as the white noise of death. Although it occurred a few times, there were no reports of blown speakers, but the possibility is there. Strangely, the reports of the white noise of death appear to have ceased. -- Mark Lanctot Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
LikeButtah;154940 Wrote: I find the whole thing sounds better when the SB volume is lower (~50) and I increase the volume on the Quad. Does that make sense? Yes, because the volume pot on the Quad pre is probably worn/dirty in the low gain range. You could replace it with a DACT attenuator, or swap a passive attenuator for the preamp alltogether. However, my vote would be to hook up the 303 to the Dynaudio's and see exactly how much attenuation is needed. What is the power output of the amp vs. speakers? If they're fairly well matched the sonic gain of losing the preamp would outweigh the danger of an occasional glitch...IMHO -- Skunk Skunk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2685 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Mark Lanctot;154969 Wrote: You could also use passive attenuators and go from the SB3 direct to the amp. Sean recommends passive attenuators, and I believe they aren't that expensive. You need something should the SB3 catastrophically fail and send out white noise at 100% power. This is possible and was infrequently reported about 6 months or more ago - it was referred to as the white noise of death. Although it occurred a few times, there were no reports of blown speakers, but the possibility is there. Strangely, the reports of the white noise of death appear to have ceased. Regarding the WOD, I'm still on 6.3.1 (and have no need to upgade at the moment), but occasionally, I'll get a burp of what sounds like white noise to me when the SB transitions from a FLAC to a 128k mp3 in a playlist. Just a burp, but it scares the crap out of me when it happens. Makes the cat jump, too! -- jonheal Jon Heal says: Have a nice day! http://www.theheals.org/ jonheal's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2133 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Read the threads on the power supply issue. I heard a big improvement with the stock PS plugged into a power conditioner, I heard even more improvement with a linear regulated PS. There is a lot of info on this in these forums. It is controversial, however :-) -- tomjtx tomjtx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7449 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
The 33 is not the most transparent pre-amp in the world..in fact it's not Quads greatest moment imho. Compared to modern pre-amps its input overload threshold is very low and will easily be driven into overload by modern equipment. This is why it sounds better when you turn the SB down and raise the vol on the 33. I'd junk the 33 and use Rothwell attenuators between the SB and the 33 = this is cheap, and will sound a lot better than going via the 33 IMHO. Try it and see. Regards, Phil PS the 303 is also a bit long in the tooth - have you had it rebuilt? - it will certainly need its electrolytics (and possibly rectifier) replacing by now... -- Phil Leigh Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
Whoa, thanks for all the responses in such short time! You guys are awesome... Skunk, that's exactly my problem, before reaching 1/4 on the 33 volume control the level isnt even on balance between the two speakers. It seems to click in at about that level. How could I check to see how much attenuation is needed? (i'm pretty new to the technical side of all this stuff). I know the specs of the 303 are listed here, but I'm not quite sure which figure to use: http://www.retrohifi.co.uk/quad_303.html . The speakers recommend upwards of 25w for a small sized room, which is what I'm rolling with for the moment. Phil and Adam, your advice seems sound and it looks to me like that's the direction I should be heading. I realize that the 33 isn't a great piece of equipment, and it certainly is getting long in the tooth. I'm fairly certain it has not been rebuilt ever, and I certainly am having a few problems with the volume control, and the balance. The rothwells seem like a solid solution. I was reading up a bit on them, and people suggest that you plug them in directly to the power amp. Considering I've got 4 pin din and not RCA, would it be a disadvantage to plug them into the squeezebox directly and then run a custom rca - 4 pin from the SB to the 303? Attenuators definately seem like something promising, and would certainly save me the effort of getting up to change the volume all the time. I'm also going to look further into an Elpac power supply, and perhaps a Bolder mod also. -- LikeButtah LikeButtah's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7258 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
LikeButtah;155084 Wrote: How could I check to see how much attenuation is needed? I don't think there is a method for predetermining it. By checking, I meant slowly turn the SB3-303 from zero until it's at maximum listening level. Since the SB3 vol scale works in .5 dB steps you can roughly estimate how much attenuation would put your loudest listening level at 100/100. If you can only bear to turn it up to 60/100, that roughly equates to needing 30 dB attenuation to properly use the SB3 as preamp. If your friend is handy maybe he can wire the appropriate resistor into your interconnect? If I read correctly those Dynaudios were rated at 150W continuous power handling, so it doesn't seem like a short burst of full power from your 50W amp would hurt them (though the nature of the noise won't be musical..) OTOH, if you were doubling the continous rated power of the monitors at 300/side- and using the SB3 as preamp with a max volume of 12, you'd be running considerably more risk. -- Skunk Skunk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2685 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
I have Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MKII and use a passive preamp by Luminous Audio. It basically gives you a volume knob instead of attenuation settings, and I've found it to be really transparent. It's relatively cheap and the company was great to deal with. http://www.luminousaudio.com/axiomrca.html They have an XLR version as well. -- ob_kook SB2 -- Axiom passive pre -- Portal Paladin monoblocks -- Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MKII ob_kook's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1383 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice
LikeButtah;155084 Wrote: ...The rothwells seem like a solid solution. I was reading up a bit on them, and people suggest that you plug them in directly to the power amp. Considering I've got 4 pin din and not RCA, would it be a disadvantage to plug them into the squeezebox directly and then run a custom rca - 4 pin from the SB to the 303?... Can you find a 4-pin din to rca adapter? If so, I think using RCA-outs on SB to Endler Audio 'Shotgun' Attenuators directly on your amp (through such adapter) would be a terrific option for you... -- NewBuyer NewBuyer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7862 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29722 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Néstor Wrote: Hi, If I remember it well, EAC always re read the suspicios block a fixed time (I guess 8 times the first time) and if, lets say , 7 of the 8 reads of the same block produce the same value, and only one is different then EAC assumes that the most common value is the right value. Thats why it always fill the first line of leds. If EAC finds 4 for one value, and the other 4 for some other value, then it will read 8 times more ( the second row of leds) and then decide again. If by 64 re-reads (or 32 dont remember well now) it cant decide whats the right value for the block, it will give a data error message. Ah, thanks for jogging my memory; what you say sounds familiar. But can anyone tell me if CopyTest yielding identical CRCs in burst mode is as reliable as secure mode? -- dbls ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
seanadams Wrote: Also, any opinions as to whether plextor drives are really that much better than the others these days? They earned a good reputation early on, but AFAICT all CD drives are now equally good at ripping. Here's one anecdotal bit of evidence: I have a Plextor PX712A, and have always felt it was really good at ripping. I particularly like all the facilities in Plextools. However, the other day my daughter asked me to rip one of her CDs, and it was in really terrible condition. There was a scratch on *both sides* of the disc (must have got snagged between something), and I could see that the actual data layer had been damaged. In attempting to rip it in the Plextor, it failed on the last track (where the worst damage was). Even switching off error detection didn't help. The Plextor always ended up reporting read error, whether I used Plextools or EAC. I then put it in the LG4521 drive (a DVD-ROM/CDRW combo) in my wife's PC, and EAC managed to read that one track (in secure mode). It took about 95 minutes to rip just the one track, and there were lots of sync errors and suspicious positions reported, but at least we got a usable rip in the end. -- cliveb ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
The ones that you rip in non-secure mode will potentially not sound as good as the ones that you do in secure mode. In secure mode, they are guaranteed to be an exact copy of your cd. It depends on whether you actually sit in front of your pc whilst it's ripping. I did my 300 odd albums in secure mode over a month or so. I'd put a new cd in whenever I noticed that the old one had finished, then would go off and do whatever else needed doing around the house. The difference between 3 minutes and 7 was therefore fairly irrelevant. The nice thing about the combination of secure mode and flac is that you know you will never have to rerip. With anything else, you're not quite so future proof. Max Mike Anderson Wrote: OK, well I set up EAC/FLAC on my PC according to all the instructions, and it seems to be running OK. However, it's still taking somewhere between 5-10 minutes to rip most of my CDs. I've got hundreds of CDs, so it's a major undertaking. Question: What am I losing by not running EAC in secure mode? Doing so substantially cuts down on the ripping time. So how much difference does it really make? Can I use secure mode on those CDs I really care about (about 20% of them) and unsecure mode on the rest of them, or would that present problems? -- max.spicer The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
max.spicer Wrote: The ones that you rip in non-secure mode will potentially not sound as good as the ones that you do in secure mode. I guess my question is, how potential is potentially, and how bad is not as good? I should add that I'm using a Plextor 740A to do the ripping, and I don't seem to encounter many errors. I frequently work on my computer too, but for whatever reason, it's a pain to do with EAC running. For one thing, the EAC window always wants to be on top. -- Mike Anderson ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
The problem I've found, is that whilst CDPs use 'concealment' to conceal any errors they detect but cannot correct, ripping s/w doesn't. So any ripping errors you do get, tend to be very annoying on playback; pops, clicks - that kind of stuff, whereas a good CDP will still sound like music. A lot depends on the care you have taken with your CD collection (looked-after CDs tend to have fewer errors IME), and how much you value you peace-of-mind. I'd hate to sit down to listen to something only to find it had ripping errors and I needed to dig the CD out and rip it again, so I'd rather just spend the time doing it 'right' in the first place. YMMV -- Patrick Dixon www.at-view.co.uk ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
OK, well I set up EAC/FLAC on my PC according to all the instructions, and it seems to be running OK. However, it's still taking somewhere between 5-10 minutes to rip most of my CDs. I've got hundreds of CDs, so it's a major undertaking. Question: What am I losing by not running EAC in secure mode? Doing so substantially cuts down on the ripping time. So how much difference does it really make? Can I use secure mode on those CDs I really care about (about 20% of them) and unsecure mode on the rest of them, or would that present problems? -- Mike Anderson ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Honestly, how much can you really dress that up? Well, the 16bit part is the only real limiting factor (unless you are a bat ;) ) and since surprisingly few systems actually to manage the full 16 bits in actual reality, you may be surprised! Andy. -- Andrew L. Weekes ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Well, I'd have to get an external/firewire drive or something, so that'd be a little more expensive than $100, and I'd have to keep it hooked to my laptop (I'm assuming). But I'll do a blindfold test on a random sample of songs and see how much difference I can detect between lossless and 320. If I can tell the difference, I'll step up. Thanks for the advice. -- Mike Anderson ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Mike Anderson Wrote: Well, I'd have to get an external/firewire drive or something, so that'd be a little more expensive than $100, and I'd have to keep it hooked to my laptop (I'm assuming). But I'll do a blindfold test on a random sample of songs and see how much difference I can detect between lossless and 320. If I can tell the difference, I'll step up. Thanks for the advice. Also check out this thread for tips on mp3 vs. lossless: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=16497 The differences between 320kbps mp3 and 750k-ish FLAC will be all about high frequencies and phase accuracy. You will need a VERY good system, especially the tweeters, to appreciate a difference. I have always believed that room acoustics and speakers are the most imporant factors, but that's not our business. :) Sb2 aims to be the most accurate source, but there is so much more to the whole systems. -- seanadams ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Does your A3.2 have the ability to connect direct into the power amp side, bypassing the preamp? If so, I recommend you try feeding the SB2 analogue outputs direct into the power amp and use the SB2 volume control. Even the best preamps will slightly degrade the signal, and in my experience eliminating the preamp is a bigger gain than improving the DAC (probably because the SB2 DAC is pretty damn good to start with). -- cliveb ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
cliveb Wrote: Does your A3.2 have the ability to connect direct into the power amp side, bypassing the preamp? Nope; it's a very basic (albeit high-quality) piece of gear. -- Mike Anderson ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Even the best preamps will slightly degrade the signal Yes, we can tend to forget that anything in the signal path, however esoteric and expensive, degrades the signal. I sometimes feel that we should not talk of 'upgrades' or 'improving the sound', but that the focus should be on minimising the degredation. A better amp doesn't improve the sound, it just screws it up less. Sorry, I know nothing about Apple products so cannot advise on software. -- Fifer ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
^^^ Right, I gather that's what makes this a nice (integrated) amp - It has no tone knobs, no balance, nothing -- just a volume knob and input selectors. -- Mike Anderson ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Mike Anderson Wrote: Looks like it will take well over 30 mins to encode most of my CDs, Wow. Why? Do you have a very slow CD drive or something? On my PC using EAC a typical rip takes about 2 minutes, with compression happening in the background and rarely taking more than another 30 seconds. I'm afraid I can't offer any specific software recommendations for Mac, though I know there are people on the forum who are Mac users. -- radish ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
radish said the following on 30/09/2005 17:17: Mike Anderson Wrote: Looks like it will take well over 30 mins to encode most of my CDs, Wow. Why? Do you have a very slow CD drive or something? On my PC using EAC a typical rip takes about 2 minutes, with compression happening in the background and rarely taking more than another 30 seconds. I'm afraid I can't offer any specific software recommendations for Mac, though I know there are people on the forum who are Mac users. If your rips only take 2 minutes using EAC then you're not using secure mode whicn means you might as well not use EAC. I suggest you visit one of the oft-posted links telling you how to set up EAC correctly. R. -- http://robinbowes.com If a man speaks in a forest, and his wife's not there, is he still wrong? ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Looking for advice on sound quality
Your maggies deserve lossless! Try encoding something with ALAC as an easy to accomplish test, and compare it with the AAC at 320. If you do decide to go lossless, you might want to spend money first on hard disks, rather than a DAC. Ive got an older pair of MG 3.5s and Im using a modified ART DI/O DAC. So far, its hard to qualify the difference between the ART and the internal DAC in the SB2. Im very happy listening to the SB2 analogue out. -- gharris999 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
