A Few Small Post-Build Issues

[dubiousmike]

I don't understand the purpose of the commercial playback software. I thought the whole goal was to just get your cpu to output bit-perfect and then to let your dac do its job. On the pc side, using foobar with kernel streaming, asio or wasapi are all equivalent mechanisms for getting this done so long as volume is left at max. Isn't there freeware for MAC that allows you to do the same?

[Grainger49]

I just read a review of Decibel, $33, which was very complementary.  It also has a free trial download.

I don't stream music... yet.  So I can't really recommend it.  I'm just throwing it out there.

[williaty]

I don't understand the purpose of the commercial playback software. I thought the whole goal was to just get your cpu to output bit-perfect and then to let your dac do its job. On the pc side, using foobar with kernel streaming, asio or wasapi are all equivalent mechanisms for getting this done so long as volume is left at max. Isn't there freeware for MAC that allows you to do the same?

Sadly, it isn't that simple. Even a player that has bit-perfect output under some conditions can be screwed over by other things going on in the system. One of the biggest culprits is the "system mixer". There's a chunk of code that lets multiple programs all have access to the sound output device. In other words, it's the thing that handles you listening to music and then the computer needs to make an error beep while your email program is also saying "You've got mail!". So each application can provide sound to the system mixer, which has to decide what to do with one audio pathway that's giving it 24/192, one that's giving it 16/44.1, and one that's sending 8/22 and all of them are at different levels. So the things going on in your computer other than your music can have an effect on what your music sounds like.

So 3rd party player software is trying to come up with some combination of a decent user interface, bit-perfect decoding of the music, and getting the bit-stream all the way to the hardware output device without letting other programs screw it up.


As a note, "streaming music" does not mean simply playing music from your computer, to a DAC, and on to an audio system. Streaming music specifically means moving the audio that resides on Device A over a network (wired or wireless) to Device B in real time so that Device B can play the music even though it doesn't happen to have a copy of the file on hand.

[Jim R.]

Hopeful,

Yes, there is much, much more to it than that, also including system noise, disc i/o, dac buss i/o and so on.  Even in the windows world, there is and can be large differences between all the i/o protocols you mention, even between asio drivers.  And the mac mini, even without any special tweaking is worlds ahad of a fully optimized windows machine.  I know, I've donethis for quite a while now and had my little asus EEE box running xp home that had been stripped down using nLite, with both kernel streaming and the AQVox asio driver (talks directly to the usb hardware and bypasses the windows mixer altogether, and still, the mac mini running play.app -- a freebie from the same guy who wrote Decibel that Grainger just mentioned, easily clobbered the fully optimized windows machine.

Computer audio looks simple enough on the outside, but is vastly complex and can take quite a bit of "tuning" and optimizing to get the most out of.  My mac mini with an SSD, 8 gb ram, the music files on a firewire external drive, and the mach2 music operating system overhaul, and this is easily the best transport I've had and can go toe to toe with, and even surpass some of the best transports/players out there.

That said, in second place, I'd go to a small, single board linux computer -- the PCEngines ALIX board, which has no video, keyboard, disc interfaces, etc., just a compact flash cad for the operating system and MPD software.  You then pull your files off a NAS or another computer (mac, pc, or linux) in your home and on the network, and then use a client to control it.  This is about the best price/performance digital transport out there as the alix board with case and power supply can be had for about $120, and the software is free.  There are clients for all kinds of hosts -- netbooks or laptops, smart phhones, iPod Touch, iPad, and even one that uses nothing but a mouse.

I just yesterday got the last parts I need to build a super regulated linear psu for the alix and that should take it up another few notches, and who knows, may even give the fully tweaked mac a run for it's mney.

Yes, you can do as you say, just take a functioning windows machine (or mac for that matter) choose a player (I too used foobar for several years) and connect it to the dac and get music out, but when you've taken the time to find andoptimize everything between the computer, disc storage (file storage), and dac, the results can be nothing short of incredible.

The one thing I can upgrade about my mini is to put it on battery power and use a special firewire cable with no power leg, but that's a whole lot of money I don't have right now.

Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, but I've done this, one change at a time,and in all kinds of combinations and permutations and I promise that whatever you think of computer playback quality can be, well, it can be much, much more than that.

-- Jim

[Billyk]

Not knowing MAC stuff... Nothing like Foobar2000 available? It's free allows bit perfect out put to a DAC. I use it with Kernel Streaming and output via coax/ spdif. Really makes the crack /w speedball sing for me.

[InfernoSTi]

I just read a review of Decibel, $33, which was very complementary.  It also has a free trial download.

I don't stream music... yet.  So I can't really recommend it.  I'm just throwing it out there.

This is the program I have been using since it had a different name and was a free "beta" program.  I like it very much and it is worth the $33 (I purchased it once it came out). 

I have had some little issues and Stephen Booth, the programer, has corresponded personally with me several times to resolve them...you can't beat that kind of customer service (very similar to BH service, actually).  I connect my Mac via an optical to the DAC which limits the sample rate to 96K, but it converts the higher sample rate files automatically (I am waiting for the Bottlehead DAC to move to USB due to a variety of reasons including that I am using my Macbook Pro and use a long optical cable so I can operate it directly from my couch. Once I have the BH DAC, then I will set up a dedicated Mac Mini). 

The up side is it is a high quality player that can handle up to 24 bit/192K sample rates, play in HOG mode (loads songs into RAM), and has an "exclusive access to audio" toggle that keeps other programs from accessing the audio stream.  I tried this out and it does work: I can load iTunes and try to play a song but no sound comes out until I quit Decibel and then iTunes can play audio.  It sounds very nice through my DAC and Bottlehead Stereomour/Hawthorne Audio speakers....much nicer than my Squeezebox Touch, which is no slouch and sounds very good on it's own.  It just can't touch the Decibel/DAC combination for clarity and dynamics.   It can play songs from your iTunes program, as well as your high resolution audio files from HDTracks, Linn Records, etc.  It manages the sample rates for you, so you can create and save playlists that combine 16/44.1K files, 24/96K files, and 24/192K files, for example.

The down side is that the interface hasn't been as developed as the MUCH more expensive programs, so it is a bit simple which I don't mind at all.  By simple, I mean you load your songs and can do most anything you want but you don't have a fancy interface like iTunes.  What I find is that I like to load either a single album or a saved playlist (which I often make by genre, such as classic rock, and then play back in scramble mode so each time I listen it is a bit different).   I really prefer the simple interface for serious listening...I just don't use Decibel the same way I use iTunes (which I still use for my iPods).  In a way, it is similar to loading a record in that complex isn't needed, if that makes sense.  I have also had a bit of trouble with one version crashing but Stephen Booth worked with me directly and released an updated version that addressed my issues. He actually sent me iterative versions via a FTP site where he made tweaks and I tested until my problems were solved, then he released it as a mid-version update for all users.

All I can emphasize here is that over speakers, the audio quality is superior to iTunes and Squeezebox so I can only imagine how much better it would be via headphones.  For $33 it is hard to not try it out, in my opinion.  I am all about quality and value, which is why I have a Bottlehead Stereomour, Hawthorne Audio speakers, and homemade room treatments: I believe you can get superior audio quality affordably if you are smart about your purchases, take the time to educate yourself well, and are willing to do a bit of DIY. 

John

[Jim R.]

As for free players for the Mac, I did mention one called "Play" and is totally free and is by the same guy -- Steven Booth -- that John mentioned.  Then there is audirvana, (which I believe is free), Fidelia, which is fairly low cost, decibel (also low cost) and others as well, but these are the most full featured, highest quality apps.  Also as John said, the interfaces aren't as developed as iTunes, foobar, etc. in that they don't have a fullly featured library for managing your collection, but typically work by pointing to a playlist r directory of selected tunes.  If you try to point to your full library it will take a long time to loadd and will become very slow to respond, and it will do this every time you launch the program --- or so it was with the earlier version of Cecibel.  So, you'd still use iTunes for managing your library, making play lists, etc. and then decibel or one of the others to play them.  I do believe most of these programs are working on a more ro bust and full-feaured library manager, but that could be a way off yet.

I personally am sticking with PureMusic as the author is also very responsive to feature requests and such, and because it can play flac files, and now it can also play SACD DSD files directly, but above all, has incredible sound quality, and a superb dithered volume control and sample rate conversion algorithms, which I make use of as my reference dac is only 16/44.1/48.

Anyway, there's always more to learn in this pursuit, and the terrain changes all the time -- sometimes for better, sometimes not.

For me the bottom line is that I'm getting the best playback quality I've ever had and I don't intend to go back.  My best system has a single source and I don't feel any need for adding any more complexity to it.

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

I would caution everyone about declaring PC superior to Mac or vice versa. I am with Jim that for a cost effective home system a Mac is very hard to beat, and a Mini with Snow Leopard and Amarra running optical to our DAC is what we are now using at Bottleheadquarters. Compared to an Acer Aspire One into an EMU 0404 USB with a LCLC power supply, optical into our DAC, running Reaper (much better sounding software than Foobar, BTW), the Mac/Amarra is better sounding, more stable and MUCH easier to use with its iTunes interface. But if you haven't heard the PC based Pyramix setup with a Mykerinos card I don't think it is fair to make a judgment about the limits of PC based audio. I'm not saying this a practical setup in the average home (nor is Reaper), just that PC based digital audio can sound every bit as good as Mac based - with enough time and money spent.

[2wo]

Also consider Vortexbox, at .org. Its free and can allow you to recycle an old PC into a dedicated, Linux based music server. I think the dedicated is key. I have not been able to compare it to a high zoot Apple based setup but it is tons better then when I was trying to run iTunes or Foobar on my general purpose PC.

Very easy to set and use as well...John   

[dubiousmike]

....
Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, but I've done this, one change at a time,and in all kinds of combinations and permutations and I promise that whatever you think of computer playback quality can be, well, it can be much, much more than that.

-- Jim

Jim - I appreciate the gracious explanation.  I know my current setup at least has me bypassing the K-mixer.  Windows 7 also allows you to lock the audio stream so it isn't interrupted by any other programs/processes.  However, there's clearly a huge amount of info out there for me to learn about this topic.  I don't suppose there are any sites/articles you could recommend to get me started?  Thanks!

I'm drowning at work right now, but per Doc's comment, when I've got a little time on my hands, I'll have to give the free trial of Reaper a go to see if I can hear any difference, subject to the limitations of the rest of my rig.