Creating a music server seems like deja vu all over again for those of us involved with audio during the transition from analog to digital back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, with many of the same issues playing out in a yet to be stabilized arena. Is a digital server better than CD’s and/or analog? What is the best approach? What approach produces the best value versus quality end result? Whose products should I buy?
The following is a summary of what Marty and I discovered as we patrolled CES and THE Show, trying to pick the brains of anyone who seemed to have some knowledge and experience in this nascent arena. Since I am actively acting on what we learned I will offer periodic updates as my project proceeds.
First let’s answers some of the questions I posed in the first paragraph. Are digital music servers better than CD’s and/or analog? There is no one answer to this question since what constitutes better is highly personal combination of sound appreciation and convenience. Given a sufficiently enabled and quality DAC that can read up to 192/24, there is no loss with regard to CD, even SACD, and in fact, possibly better sound than you obtain from all but the very best/expensive CD players. With regard to analog, I am a purist that no amount of sampling can totally replace an analog wave and thus probably there is some auditory loss compared to the best analog playback.
The single most prevalent piece of audio gear at CES and THE Show was the iPad because it is simply the best vehicle for accessing your digital musical library. They were everywhere, especially in the high end rooms. Put simply, to use one to search and control the music is completely and instantly addicting. While an iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone will do it equally well, the format for the iPad and the other new touch pads make them the way to go.
It is at this point that I need to offer a theory that I subscribe to -- that the main reason most of us play more digital than analog is convenience, not sound quality at the level that most of the people on this site listen. While a simple remote control gave the option to jump tracks, adjust volume, balance and input, to have your entire digital music library available with album art and other metadata sitting in your lap so that you can jump not just within a disk, but within your entire library is truly freedom from movement. It is currently the optimal way to choose the music that strikes your fancy at any point in time.
The answer to the second question regarding the best approach is very much a function of your resources and the importance of getting that last several percent of resolution. The good news is that you can get probably 97%+ of the best possible from a number of systems that are quite reasonable in price. You can also spend well over a $100k and have sound that is no better than what I am going to recommend for $3-5K, but you might not have some of the metal work that seems to be so important to high end audio lately. Probably going beyond the Weiss DAC or Audio Research DAC 8, each at $8K, produces little to no benefit.
So it is at this point that I feel I should share with you what Marty I learned from our CES knowledge mining as way to sort out what products might work for you if you choose to make the jump at this point.
The answer to the third question, what products are best for you,is a bit more difficult due to individual needs. Since I did not want to spend $5-8k for a DAC at this point, I looked at DAC’s in the $2,500 and less price point. While there are a number of DAC’s on the market under $1000, most are USB and clearly seem to have a number of comprises and thus probably are not of sufficient quality for what I am seeking. It should be pointed out that the rate of evolution in the DAC arena is fast and to my way of thinking it just does not make sense to spend $5-8K unless you have a mega system and money to spend. I also want a DAC that was designed with firmware and software upgrade capability.
For me there were two choices for the DAC for my system that stood out as best choices. The first was the Rega DAC at $1000, which claims to have many of the DAC features and designed from their highly acclaimed Isis CD player. While I did not hear it, I was quite impressed with its design considerations, but disappointed that it had only single ended outputs. I ultimately purchased the Bryston BDA-1 at $2150 for several reasons. First, I heard it and was truly taken by its sound and it design considerations. In addition, TAS loves it and rates it Category A, it has balanced outputs and finally Bryston has developed their analog sections to among the best for solid state components and I wanted that in my analog section.
So the music server I plan to create at this point in time is as follows:
1. Dedicated Mac Mini with 4 GB of ram with iTunes 11 installed when released without Amarra unless Amarra still sounds better, which I do not expect
2. La Cie 1 TB Firewire HD connected to the Mac Mini via Firewire 800
3. La Cie external CD/DVD read/write optical drive for ripping in a metal case, connected to the Mac via USB
4. Mac Mini connected to the Bryston BDA-1 via miniToslink with the Bryston connected to my preamp through balanced cables.
5. I am also considering either an Oppo BDP 93 or 95 (if there are more benefits to the 95 than improved analog out sections because I will not be using that part of the unit) using the coaxial digital out to the Bryston BDA-1.
I hope that this is helpful.
The following is a summary of what Marty and I discovered as we patrolled CES and THE Show, trying to pick the brains of anyone who seemed to have some knowledge and experience in this nascent arena. Since I am actively acting on what we learned I will offer periodic updates as my project proceeds.
First let’s answers some of the questions I posed in the first paragraph. Are digital music servers better than CD’s and/or analog? There is no one answer to this question since what constitutes better is highly personal combination of sound appreciation and convenience. Given a sufficiently enabled and quality DAC that can read up to 192/24, there is no loss with regard to CD, even SACD, and in fact, possibly better sound than you obtain from all but the very best/expensive CD players. With regard to analog, I am a purist that no amount of sampling can totally replace an analog wave and thus probably there is some auditory loss compared to the best analog playback.
The single most prevalent piece of audio gear at CES and THE Show was the iPad because it is simply the best vehicle for accessing your digital musical library. They were everywhere, especially in the high end rooms. Put simply, to use one to search and control the music is completely and instantly addicting. While an iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone will do it equally well, the format for the iPad and the other new touch pads make them the way to go.
It is at this point that I need to offer a theory that I subscribe to -- that the main reason most of us play more digital than analog is convenience, not sound quality at the level that most of the people on this site listen. While a simple remote control gave the option to jump tracks, adjust volume, balance and input, to have your entire digital music library available with album art and other metadata sitting in your lap so that you can jump not just within a disk, but within your entire library is truly freedom from movement. It is currently the optimal way to choose the music that strikes your fancy at any point in time.
The answer to the second question regarding the best approach is very much a function of your resources and the importance of getting that last several percent of resolution. The good news is that you can get probably 97%+ of the best possible from a number of systems that are quite reasonable in price. You can also spend well over a $100k and have sound that is no better than what I am going to recommend for $3-5K, but you might not have some of the metal work that seems to be so important to high end audio lately. Probably going beyond the Weiss DAC or Audio Research DAC 8, each at $8K, produces little to no benefit.
So it is at this point that I feel I should share with you what Marty I learned from our CES knowledge mining as way to sort out what products might work for you if you choose to make the jump at this point.
- Create your music files using its native sample rate. Most people feel that there is little to be gained by upconverting a sampling rate, despite the option to reduce noise floor, because you cannot create what was not there originally and you might alter some of the nuances by upconverting.
- Computer optical drives are more than good enough for ripping your CD’s. Most feel that the drive present in the Mac Mini is more than good enough, but some feel that an external drive with solid metal case is the best way to go.
- There are a number of ripping programs, especially for Window’s machines, but almost all seem to think that iTunes running on a Mac Mini is all that you need to rip your CD’s. However, there is somewhat universal agreement that you need at least 4 GB’s of ram to do this properly, especially if you wish to use the same computer to catalog and control your digital files. Most feel that there is no need for more than 4 GB’s of ram.
- iTunes software can be divided into three functions: 1) ripping; 2) acquiring, cataloging and managing the meta data; and 3) playback. Almost all agree that iTunes does the first two functions just fine including ripping hi res disks if you have a suitable drive, but, in its current iteration (10.1.1) it is somewhat compromised on the playback side, both sonically and functionally because it is limited to 46/16 for playback and does not handle the music stream optimally.
Amarra software is designed to address iTunes’ playback deficiencies, while leaving the ripping and management components untouched. Almost all agreed that playback through Amarra sounds better, even at 46/16 and certainly at higher resolutions where iTunes cannot function, BUT, almost all talk about about some bugs between the Amarra and iTunes interfaces, which according to Amarra they are “addressing”.
The good news is that iTunes 11, due out in March, will allegedly playback 192/24 and one would guess will sound at least as good as Amarra because Apple/Jobs don’t like the idea of someone doing their products better than they do. The idea of no bugs is quite appealing to me.
- There are much more varied opinions with the following points, so I will report what I learned. Almost all feel that USB is the least good way to connect your music server/computer to your DAC due to slower bit rates, jitter issues, etc. Some say that asynchronous USB solves this problem, while others say it is better than conventional USB, but still inferior to Toslink, AES/EBU and Firewire. Most seem to feel that Firewire is the best, but few DAC’s accept Firewire like the Weiss.
If you use a Mac for your server, and it seems like the smartest way to go for a dedicated server, you have the choice of miniToslink through the headphone socket, Firewire and conventional USB. One interesting thought was that it is important to make sure that you use a different interface for communicating with your hard drive than you use to connect with the DAC. So with any Mac and a non Firewire DAC, the best method is to use an external Firewire HD and connect with the DAC via miniToslink. Almost all agree that while music will sound good when stored on the internal HD of the computer, that music sounds better when on a dedicated Firewire external HD.
The answer to the third question, what products are best for you,is a bit more difficult due to individual needs. Since I did not want to spend $5-8k for a DAC at this point, I looked at DAC’s in the $2,500 and less price point. While there are a number of DAC’s on the market under $1000, most are USB and clearly seem to have a number of comprises and thus probably are not of sufficient quality for what I am seeking. It should be pointed out that the rate of evolution in the DAC arena is fast and to my way of thinking it just does not make sense to spend $5-8K unless you have a mega system and money to spend. I also want a DAC that was designed with firmware and software upgrade capability.
For me there were two choices for the DAC for my system that stood out as best choices. The first was the Rega DAC at $1000, which claims to have many of the DAC features and designed from their highly acclaimed Isis CD player. While I did not hear it, I was quite impressed with its design considerations, but disappointed that it had only single ended outputs. I ultimately purchased the Bryston BDA-1 at $2150 for several reasons. First, I heard it and was truly taken by its sound and it design considerations. In addition, TAS loves it and rates it Category A, it has balanced outputs and finally Bryston has developed their analog sections to among the best for solid state components and I wanted that in my analog section.
So the music server I plan to create at this point in time is as follows:
1. Dedicated Mac Mini with 4 GB of ram with iTunes 11 installed when released without Amarra unless Amarra still sounds better, which I do not expect
2. La Cie 1 TB Firewire HD connected to the Mac Mini via Firewire 800
3. La Cie external CD/DVD read/write optical drive for ripping in a metal case, connected to the Mac via USB
4. Mac Mini connected to the Bryston BDA-1 via miniToslink with the Bryston connected to my preamp through balanced cables.
5. I am also considering either an Oppo BDP 93 or 95 (if there are more benefits to the 95 than improved analog out sections because I will not be using that part of the unit) using the coaxial digital out to the Bryston BDA-1.
I hope that this is helpful.
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