LOL. I hear ya. But I never did "worry" about cables, green market pens etc. The only tweak I ever did on my Naim CD players
was power cord upgrade and vibration control. Dat is it!
LOL. I hear ya. But I never did "worry" about cables, green market pens etc. The only tweak I ever did on my Naim CD players
was power cord upgrade and vibration control. Dat is it!
But why worry about any of the computer stuff then? Just enjoy it - and even without any of the audiophile obsessiveness, your computer will probably sound pretty darn good.
Thus my suggestion to just invest in a basic system following some recipes some here on WBF .. Results if mind is open can be shocking , a laptop is all you need ... Darn! why do we , audiophiles have to make everything so difficult!! We happilly spend thousand of dollars on Quantum dots but cannot get our minds to admit that a $500 contraption will wipe the floor with our kilobucks transports ... Wait .... that is exactly the problem .. if it is so cheap it can't possibly sound good .. Talk about a screwed-up mentality !! I am glad I took the plunge and I am not looking back .. I have never heard and enjoyed so much music since
You use the terms "some recipes" as if it was a cooking dinner and all the ingredients were easily available or could be replaced by something similar. I tried the old Gary system just with one exception - the laptop advised was not the one Gary advised, as it was no more available. My attempt was not a success - a CEC TLX1 belt drive CD transport or the Kalista easily outperformed it (in this case the tests were blind, as switching digital inputs can be done easily.
Perhaps the problem was the laptop - I tried three different ones, and gave up.
Some audiophiles do not make thinks difficult - they are fair enough to accept that sound reproduction is a mix of well established practices and some still not completely understood. And yes, I am sure that I would also hear and enjoy much music if I gave up on being an enthusiast audiophile - I still own a pair of ESL63 that would make me happy with a simple system. But I do not want it - and I do not have a screwed-up mentality as you seem to think. Neither the thousands who still own systems that spin physical media.
We happilly spend thousand of dollars on Quantum dots but cannot get our minds to admit that a $500 contraption will wipe the floor with our kilobucks transports ...
Yes, but unlike a PC their only function is music playback.
PS, I also listen to music files from a NAS via ethernet to a Auraliti PK-90-USB contolled by MPaD on my iPad. It's very convenient, but like other PCs and MACs I've tried, it doesn't sound any better than the PWD.
PS, I also listen to music files from a NAS via ethernet to a Auraliti PK-90-USB contolled by MPaD on my iPad. It's very convenient, but like other PCs and MACs I've tried, it doesn't sound any better than the PWD.
I tried the old Gary system just with one exception - the laptop advised was not the one Gary advised, as it was no more available. My attempt was not a success - a CEC TLX1 belt drive CD transport or the Kalista easily outperformed it (in this case the tests were blind, as switching digital inputs can be done easily.
Sorry, but I don't have time to find another laptop. The problem is that it is not a trivial task - the key bit of information is never specified - that the two USB ports are independent. So, if you plug a USB DAC into one port, and a USB hard disk into the other port, it doesn't conflict.
The only other laptop I've found to be good is the HP Elitebook 2530P (also long obsolete). It has a single USB port on the right side that is independent of the other USB ports.
PS, I also listen to music files from a NAS via ethernet to a Auraliti PK-90-USB contolled by MPaD on my iPad. It's very convenient, but like other PCs and MACs I've tried, it doesn't sound any better than the PWD.
Fortunately we don't need to agree. Audio electronics, computers and software aren't designed by agreeing on a consensus, but by engineering based on facts and science.
I can definitely see the point of rbbert and others that would rather play CDs. Ripping is the biggest stumbling block. Whose got the time?
As far as I'm concerned, 16/44.1 in file form is only sonically superior to really shoddy transports/players. There are many out there that deal with the bugaboos like mechanical jitter etc. to a point that they are meaningfully indistinguishable through the same DAC.
We are at a crossroads however despite one side saying that the CD is already dead and the other saying it isn't. It's an economic one. You can now get a download for around the price of a CD if you include shipping costs. You get the music faster even if you have an ordinary broadband connection. Fact is the Hi-res catalog still needs to expand quite a bit and that is an understatement.
In another thread there's a lot of reverie about Daft Punk's release in 24/88. Rightly so, but where is ATB, Tiesto, Air, Kaskade and the thousands of others in the genre readily available in *gasp* AAC or MP3?
The way I see it, is if we actually want this to happen, we've got to support and grow computer audio by letting our wallets do the talking. I don't see any other way we can get the attention of the labels.
Actually I'd rather have everything on a server and just pick up my iPad to easily view and choose what to hear, and have it sound optimal. The problem is getting to that stage...
I remember that one company a few years ago offered to rip all the cds when you bought one of their servers. I forget which. Was it Sooloos? I don't see that offer anymore anywhere.
