First of all, thanks to all of you for the tips.
Final thoughts based on recent experiments:
1. Turning the volume up on the Touch was incredibly important. This
seemed to have a huge impact on sound quality.
2. Using dbPoweramp to rip flac files was a bit more complicated than
iTunes for aiff
Soulkeeper;666413 Wrote:
But seriously, the average pop production sounds like sewage to me, so I
don't care whether it's in its purest form, or slightly processed. The
war on sound (aka loudness war) has really ruined a lot of otherwise
good music.
How true to the newer recordings.
Rgds
If the only evidence that OPs hearing and / or equipment is knackered is
that he can't hear the difference between AIFF and WMA 192kbps then it
might just be that perceptual codec designers know a lot more than
audiophiles.
-192 is a little on the low side, but I think BBC 3 hd and spotify
adamdea;666379 Wrote:
If the only evidence that OPs hearing and / or equipment is knackered is
that he can't hear the difference between AIFF and WMA 192kbps then it
might just be that perceptual codec designers know a lot more than
audiophiles.
-192 is a little on the low side, but I
aubuti;666030 Wrote:
Didn't mean to take an unfair shot about the hearing, but it happens.
Especially the high frequencies. There are lots of easy tests out there
to see where your hearing drops off. If you still have all your aural
acuity, more power to you. I'm a few years younger than
Soulkeeper;666413 Wrote:
I can't tell the difference between a pig with lipstick, and a regular
pig, either. ;)
But seriously, the average pop production sounds like sewage to me, so
I don't care whether it's in its purest form, or slightly processed.
The war on sound (aka loudness war)
mrfinsky327;666028 Wrote:
Again, thanks to all repliers. I am a high-end veteran but new at
computer audio. I enjoy the wide access but am frustrated by the
complications.
I am curious why the replies recommend flac as a file format. My
understanding was that aiff was totally uncompressed
I second the recommendation for ripping with dbpoweramp. I have used
EAC and dbpoweramp. If you have a PC with a multicore processor,
dbpoweramp will be much faster than EAC. dbpoweramp also uses multiple
sources for metadata and will transcode your flac (or apple lossless)
rips to mp3 for
+1 to the other comments about iTunes for ripping.
- ALAC is a good choice if you're set on using iTunes.
- Make sure to enable sound check to add gain tags. Not needed for
single album listening, but essential for random playback.
- Make sure to enable secure ripping in order to avoid bad
SuperQ;666201 Wrote:
I personally stay away from iTunes for music.
I use itunes (and a mirror mp3 library) for loading up my
iphones/ipods. But I don't use it for ripping, tagging, or organizing
my files. Nothing I have against itunes, just not nearly as good as
other tools that are easily
I recently installed a brand new Touch with SB Server 7.6.1. I have Kind
of Blue in both .wma (192kps) and .aiff formats. I did a listening test
and found it difficult to discern a significant difference in sound
quality. My sound system is fairly old (most components are about 20-25
years
You may want to read this link
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=83412 It made a
difference for me BUT if you are not comfortable opening up your Touch
and doing some solder you may want to pass.
There also are other posts in this forum talking about using a better
power supply (
mrfinsky327;665916 Wrote:
I am using only the analog outputs of the Touch (the only digital
component).
Although the Touch internal DAC is good, it's not as good as a well
designed external DAC. That, plus Soundcheck's software mods
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84742)
Most likely you are having issues with volume level calibration. Many
devices like the Denon CD player have very loud op-amps. They will
sound better because they are louder. The Touch is a well designed
neutral DAC without the usual over driving.
It's almost impossible to calibrate this with
Thank you for the replies and suggestions.
I will definitely turn the volume on the Touch up to 100% and use the
preamp for management of the overall level. I speculate that this will
allow the Touch to fully blossom as a source.
My Denon CD player is 15-20 years old. I am certain that the
Think lossless flac for your digitized music .
--
jmschnur
Joel
jmschnur's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8604
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=91196
I second the suggestion about ripping your CDs to lossless flac. If, as
it appears, you have a main system in which you have an external DAC,
why not temporarily connect your Touch to that DAC via the Touch
digital output and play a few good rips through your main system, as a
test?
Guido F.
mrfinsky327;665990 Wrote:
I hesitate to open up the Touch to touch the caps. The sound is as good
as my expectations, but I am surprised at the minor difference between
.wma and .aiff. I am confident that the old system, plus the small room
size and non-optimal speaker placement, is limiting
25 year old amps need their electrolytic caps replacing. Also the drive
units in your speakers may be getting rather tired and their crossovers
probably need rebuilding by now. None of these things last forever
unfortunately.
--
Phil Leigh
You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a
Again, thanks to all repliers. I am a high-end veteran but new at
computer audio. I enjoy the wide access but am frustrated by the
complications.
I am curious why the replies recommend flac as a file format. My
understanding was that aiff was totally uncompressed and allowed access
to the iTunes
Didn't mean to take an unfair shot about the hearing, but it happens.
Especially the high frequencies. There are lots of easy tests out there
to see where your hearing drops off. If you still have all your aural
acuity, more power to you. I'm a few years younger than you, and know
that I've lost
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