What does Sooloos really buy you for $7K?
David Matz -- Wed, 12/15/2010 - 01:20
I have noticed several reviewers here are using Soooloos. Is it just an expensive and pretty interface? Has convenience won over sound quality?
Does it sound better or worse than iTunes + Amarra on a Mac with external drives dedicated to music? Thanks
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From What I understand:
1. It has one of the best user interface/software that allows the whole family/friends/guests to be involved in music playing, especially if its part of a high end system.
2. It has the best Metadata...i.e. Automatic retrieval of Album name, cover art, tracks, singers...etc... Its not perfect but one of the best out there and uses a company called AMG I believe....
3. Its Turnkey...no need to have knowledge of setting up computers/harddrives/backups..etc..
As far as sounquality there is no difference...its still essentially a computer. and many reviewers who have this have tested this and compared with other music servers and not much difference in terms of sound quality. Infact the most recent Jan 2011 issue of Stereophile they tested a mac computer and soolooos with a dCS DAC and no difference in sound quality was seen.
All this may change soon as "asynchronous USB" connections are rapidly becoming the norm. Its suppose to be better then spdif...therfore will and should have better sound quality. Below is a link that talks about it. If you have some knowledge about computers and stuff....you will very quickly realize two posters on there of great value. Barry and Scott are true professionals and audiophiles and know what they are talking about which sadly cannot be said of 80% of the posts you see online with just opinions and that includes some reviewers. Decide for yourself.....but here is the link:
http://www.avguide.com/forums/sp-dif-coax-v-sp-dif-rca-v-usb-v-ieee-1394a
To me the $7000 price for a computer and software is not worth it. Its too much to me....but for others it might be ok. Computers have come very far in the last 15 years and there is no reason for a computer server to cost this much. a lot of them are running some form of windows software behind the system in a nice looking case. Building a server yourself may not be that easy.......but would cost half or less for the same sound quality and not the touchscreen software that you wont use anyways cuz you are sitting in the listening chair with an iphone or other remote to play the music.
bottom line. Its on individuals to decide what works best for them. If you have the money and don't want to be bothered then the sooloos is great....otherwise...setting up you own PC or MAC at less then half the price may be a good for the time being. We are on a turning point with digital music and music servers and this is and will be the most rapidly changing or improving area in high end audio...I wouldn't wait...but I wouldn't rush for a $10,000 server either....there are other interim options. Check out that link....and good luck!
Sam,
Thanks for chiming in. I have not yet read the Stereophile article and I look forward to reading it. I think AHC mentions he uses Sooloos in a few reviews and RH writes about it in his latest book.
From what I understand, Sooloos sounds pretty identical to a good transport according to what RH says in his book and what AHC writes in his Sooloos review. However, it may not be the best way to do digital. A better way is to download all digital. This is because of very stringent error checking built into the internet protocols. As the data packets travel from servers in Farofistan, the routers must be very certain that everything has been received as it was sent. I heard a demo recently of a ripped cd vs. a downloaded cd (44.1/16), and the downloaded cd had more depth, space, focus, microdynamics, ... audiophile terms ad nauseum. The download of the cd vs. the ripped one just sounded more real.
Also, my understanding is that a dedicated mac with external drives and with Amarra wired with a USB cable to the DAC will sound better than the Sooloos solution (in addition to being much cheaper). I wonder if anyone has actually tried it.
I don't doubt that Sooloos is the ultimate user interface and is convenient. But is high end audio about convenience?
Another point to note is that Amarra requires a hardware key to work and is about $700. Steven Stone who reviewed the Amarra is really high on an equally good software for $130 called "Channel D pure music software" in Jan 2011 issue of TAS 209. This price seems reasonable considering the prices of even the most advanced softwares out there. SS found that there was no difference in sound quality between the 2 softwares and yet one costs a fraction of the price. The only reason why some people are/were charging hideous prices was because it was new and the secret was not out yet. Now it's well known that computer audio of some form with asynchronous USB is replacing cd transports so everyone is in an arms race. Products getting cheaper and cheaper and the monopoly will not hold up as competition intensifies. There can be computer based servers built at a fraction of a cost of what highend audio considers stylish which can give even the most elaborate and expensive cd transports a run for their money. It will be interesting to hear what others think.
One problem with cheap computer servers, is that they are inherently noisy: laptops on battery power, less so. First, there is the fan noise, then the disk noise, and then electrical noise. In the past, you could actually hear your processor(s) and drives work through your headphones, depending on how well your sound card was shielded, and that's ignoring the "noise" noise you'd hear in the background, not being generated by the drivers in your headphones. Now of course for a server, you can buy a better case for better acoustic/electrical shielding, better fans, better power supply (large cost here), better drives, etc. and other isolating components, but these aren't exactly cheap, on their own, or taken en masse. Certainly, these days, you're not as likely to spend as much on your computer as you are on your turntable setup, and that there are, for a price, already setup "silent PC" servers waiting for you to install the cheap musical application of your choice. I'm not sure if Amarra is any good, but $700 and a hardware key doesn't seem ridiculous for a application with limited users. Of course, we're talking a lot less noise if that "server" is actually an IPad or MacBook Air with a SSD.
Hiring a single software engineer in the US is going to cost you an average of $91,000 USD a year + benefits + support costs + office etc. not to mention sales and marketing, and we would guess they might have an engineering team of 4-8 software engineers on staff, perhaps. Even with a 6 month project duration, of five developers (salary x2 for full support cost), that's still $455,000 in development costs, alone, to recover, before you consider marketing, customer support, losses to piracy, and necessity of upgrades. I'm not sure the average cost of an audio specialist software engineer, but I would want to pay them above pay scale to not loose them (and my paid-for IP) to a competitor.
David, re: Ripped CD vs Downloaded CD: how in the world do you think that CD was made available for download, if not ripped? :D Really! If it wasn't "ripped" or read from a CD-ROM player (bit perfect, one can assume) into a .WAV file or whatever format you downloaded it in, how else was it loaded? Digitally, from a DAT master or some other format master, that luckily was both kept around and had access made to it, for uploading? The issues are the same, in any case DAT/ADAT/CDR/CD: error correction, and the like. When you "rip" or read data from a CD or other digital audio format to the computer, you're getting the same samples into the computer (if not the same data, as various media use various encoding to allow for media damage to be made up for with redundancy/error correction), are you not? And, if it's a CD master you're getting (regardless of the media) those same samples in 16-bit / 44 KHz and having them now your PC's hard drive, to then convert and listen to. Don't think that just because you're not using the internet, you're not getting error-correction. As for jitter, be thankful for buffers on the internet (for streaming), and built in to hard drives, etc. Just do a ping of a website, or a traceroute, and you'll quickly see the latency, and path you're data is taking. Care to calculate the miles of copper involved on an internet connection? I could not begin to guess, even if I had the route: who'se to say, only that it's a complicated labyrinth: that it works, reliably, is amazing! Just be glad we're still not using modems over analogue lines, limited to voice bandwidth. It would take literally "forever" to download a single CD, let alone SACD or DVD: we're not talking days here.
Anyway, I would be interested in a diff on the two files in question: if they were the same track from the same artist/label/"pressing" they should be identical, data wise, on the hard disk, just of course spread over different sectors: one file could be more fragmented than the other, depending on operating system, I guess, which, at the worst case (little or stupid buffering) could lead to stutters at the DAC. The same thing could happen on your modern operating system if too many processes or applications were competing for system time, hence the choice of stripped-down OS's for strictly audio applications, and for modes like "HOG mode" in some new audio players.
Going back to the downloaded vs ripped cd files, if a diff turned up actually different data, then there's always a chance that there's a different master. Just think of all those audiophile pressings and re-issues of disks like Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" say, and how similar and yet different each sounds: could this have accounted for your downloaded vs ripped experience?
As an experiment, take one file (the one you prefer, the download one), and burn it to a disc (CD). Then "rip" that CD to a file, of the same format. If you're using a variation of UNIX for your OS, say Linux or MacOS/X, then use the cmp util to see if the two files are the same, byte by byte, or you can load them into a good audio editor, perhaps to do the same comparison. As for a Windows, the Total Commander file manager utility has this ability, I've read. If the CD wasn't a viable medium for storing digital data, then the CD-ROM would of never taken off, and brand-new software would always be crashing as tried to install it, off the CD.
The other experiment would be to take a "ripped" file, upload that somewhere and then download it again, and of course, it would hopefully be the same, bit-for-bit, byte-for-byte exact copy, provided somebody hadn't as a joke, messed with it, wherever you uploaded it. I used to collaboratively compose music with others in the days of regular modems and BBS's, and that was basically the process: one person makes a track, uploads it, and another downloads it, adds another track, etc. and you can listen to each copy and step along the way, until "done" to everyone's enjoyment and surprise.
My original point is that the downloaded CD has to come from somewhere! :D Sort of chick-egg.
Staxguy
David,
A few points.
- Is high end audio about convenience? No, high end audio is about listening to music. And a well-designed music server leads you to listen to a broader variety of music, more often, with greater depth of insight and enjoyment. A music server is a "convenience" in the same way that an automobile is a "convenience" - it simply opens up new possibilities for understanding and interacting with the world. If the "convenience" doesn't matter, then sticking with a good CD player will save you a lot of time and effort - trust me on that :)
- The difference between a really good interface like Sooloos and an entry-level product like iTunes is vast, in terms of its ability to browse, learn about, and understand connections between your music. That's why everyone who's reviewed a Sooloos raves about it. It is possible to get a substantial part of that kind of experience with much less expensive software - see the thread Sam linked for details.
- The latest iterations of the Sooloos are audio-engineered by Meridian, and are almost certain to deliver far better digital audio performance (e.g. jitter) than a generic PC or Mac. Also, the latest versions implement Meridian's proprietary oversampling algorithm, the secret sauce in the performance of the SOTA Meridian 808.3 CD player RH and Atkinson rave about. Don't get too caught up in the USB/Firewire vs. SPDIF thing: it is possible to get extremely good performance from SPDIF, and extremely bad performance from USB or Firewire, regardless of the theoretical advantages. It's all in the details.
- If the differences you heard between CD and download were real, then they were two different masterings of the same recording. A well-designed CD ripper will extract the data from the CD file system with 100% accuracy 99.9+% of the time - and further, it will tell you with essentially infinite certainty the 0.1% of the time it can't. And if the data is identical, so is the sound. Any problems with a poorly designed ripper will not show up as differences in sound quality, per se - they show up as gaps, ticks, squeaks, or truncations in playback. BTW - almost all 16/44.1 downloads out there probably originate as CD rips anyway. You can imagine that record companies are not fond of shipping digital master files around, especially when the same data is on the silver disc.
- Read my and Barry's comments on the thread Sam linked about software and sound quality. Software is not an electronic component; the only way it directly affects sound quality is by manipulating the digital data. And if you've set up your system bit perfect, the software does no data manipulation - and therefore has no <em>direct</em> impact on sound quality. If the hardware is poorly designed, different software implementations may interact with noise-creating elements of the hardware in different ways - but the best solution is well-designed hardware. If I were setting up a Mac system, I'd happily spend the $129 on the Channel D software just for the convenience of not having to manually switch sample rates, but not expect significant differences in SQ, especially with a high-end soundcard or asynchronous USB or Firewire DAC. I'd spend far more than $129 not to have to live with the iTunes interface, but that's just me :)
Scott,
What USB cable are u using with your Ayre USB DAC?
Sam,
Plain old Belkin USB cable. It's only handling data transfer, remember.
But, computer audiophile guys, even AT of TAS who reviewed the dcs Debussy is saying USB makes a difference. audioquest and kimberkable and synergistic research are talking about shielding issues. Is this all hype? Scientifically it makes sense that data is being sent as packets and USB cable should not make any difference. But subjectively does it make a difference? Have u tried any other USB cables? And if u did were there any differences in ur system.
Scott, thanks for chiming in. Computer audio is the new frontier, and not a lot of people seem to understand it well. But just like everything in audio, it is experiential. I was very surprised that a ripped copy (via Max X Lossless Decoder, which has error correction and is reputable) sounded worse than a download. But it did! And the differences were not subtle!!! I know that bits are bits. But this is audiophile land, and that's why we don't have $69 cd players. My experience were from a $30K system.
Also, I heard a big difference between iTunes alone on a dedicated mac vs. iTunes + Amarra on the same machine. As Sam said, Steve Stone's review confirmed this.
My concern about Sooloos is that it is good enough. And it is convenient, with a gorgeous interface. But for audiophiles who demagnetize vinyl and put secret potions on their cd's to make them sound more natural, "good enough" is not sufficient. Maybe it is good enough for someone like AHC who thinks digital is like "good mid-fi" (from his EMM Labs review). But Fremer and Harley are using it as well. Personally, I am not convinced it is the best digital. I think by tinkering, a better and cheaper solution can be found, if I did not describe it in my post. If I just had more time...
Fremer is a completely vinyl guy, he practically hates digital and just does digital product reviews just as a job. I rely on Fremer more so for analog than digital. Harley has more experience in the best of the best digital then most anyone out there. But...Steven Stone who generally reviews mid fi or entry-level audio is excellent with computers and home made music servers like Mac. what that means....if they r using it it doesn't say much. They are so overwhelmed by it's user interface that that alone ranks the product high. It truely is a nice product but not reference level sound. The other point is that reviewers get free samples for long periods of times or can purchase them at a fraction of a cost what the general public would pay. Kind of like celebraties given Nike or addidas products to promote them. Music servers are at an early stage, I wouldn't just go by what the audio reviewers are going by alone. That's why I mentioned Barry and Scotts names because these guys know inside out with wha computers do and know a lot obout sound quality and music as well. I would start this elaborate and expensive project with a small experiment and grow over time. Definitely audition. And if u r serious enough to shell out 7k the dealer should let u try it at home without a problem. My dealer even loaded up several of my disks for me before I tested it. But I had other issues as well that I discuss in the other thread. The biggest being this huge thing far away on the rack where I'd have to get up and go to the rack to use touchscreen or if it's on the side then I have to twist and turn...i.e the touch screen control becomes useless in the listening chair. So if I'm gonna not even use that and a quit lap top at a fraction of a price with same sound quality is laying away some where in the room to be controled from the listening chair then that's what I'd like to start with. But that has hurdles too. Sooloos is surely a sexy product and I'm not a guy to cut corners with sound quality or price on audio components...but I'm just not sold with sooloos or qsonix. I feel that the price they want for their touchscreen sofware is not worth it, especially when you think that the rest of the thing is all in a pretty box with a computer inside. And much better computers with much more disk space etc. Is available elsewhere. It's kind of like this. I went to best buy and they said they can install theRAM/memory for me on my desktop for $40something dollars. And in my head I was shocked that the poor people who don't know u will charge them this crazy amount for 2 seconds of work clicking the memory chip in the slot. So. If u don't want the hastle then spend 7k otherwise start basic and later if not satisfied then get the sooloos. Or test it one on one in ur home system on a loaner. If you do test this or other servers do share with us what you find.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your thoughts. Your point about having the interface next to you is huge. That seems to be its biggest selling point, but if it doesn't work out for your setup, Sooloos seems to lose most of its value.
As for some vinyl reviewers "hating" digital, I am not sure I agree 100%. I just don't think they are used to the digital sound. I am not a vinyl person, and I don't hate vinyl, but vinyl sounds like - well vinyl - to my ears, not like real music as many claim. I think if someone has been listening to something for 40, 50?, or 60??? years, it gets wired into their brain. It's no different than a guy who has been eating soused herring their whole life tasting aged meat off the carving station once a year at the holiday party.
I could be wrong, but it could be like the phenomena where some guys watching Star Wars are able to let go of their disbelief, while others watching the same movie are seeing a bunch of actors in really fake suits and weird make-up running around the set and a bunch of poorly fabricated models that light up, fly around the screen. Whatever triggers our realism mechanisms and suspends the disbelief is fine by me as this is just a hobby, but bottom line is that none of it sounds like real music. You need to get your butt out of the house for that. Yet in reading their reviews, most reviewers are comparing the digital sound to vinyl more than mentioning live music...
Coming back to Sooloos, it seems like it's using an inferior network cable instead of the connection you and Scott bring up in the other thread. Thanks.
Sam,
Shielding is, in the case of asynchronous USB or Firewire, the only plausible sonic difference in cables - and I have to say, probably an unmeasurable and inaudible difference in most real world situations. And the measures taken to "improve" shielding can actually compromise performance in the data transfer realm - see the link below to Ayre's recommendations for USB cabling on high-speed USB.
http://www.ayre.com/usb-192.htm
Personally, I take anecdotal accounts of improved sound quality with a grain of salt, when the physical underpinnings don't seem to support the existence of large differences. I've argued frequently on this and other forums against taking the results of double-blind testing as absolute proof of anything, but the advocates of DBT also have an important point: listening is an inherently subjective activity, and factoring out the subjectivity in comparing components is, at best, very difficult for any human.
Scott, this might be a silly question, but do Mac based servers also require something like a WASAPI or ASIO4ALL drivers that windows uses to bypass the computers internal audio? Is there a name for MAC based drivers that do similar things? I've noticed many audio reviewers as well as folks with even the ultra systems are also using a MACbook pro as a music server and audio sound quality wise they are reporting no difference between it or sooloos through the same highend DAC but those guys are impossible to get a hold of. If you know please advise. (I know I could do a web search but I don't trust that. If you know it would help). Thanks
Sam,
You wondered what "Core Audio HOG mode" means in Steven's review of the Channel 4 software? HOG mode and WASAPI exclusive mode are conceptually very similar. By default, all Mac audio (including iTunes) goes through the Quicktime audio pipeline, which enables multiple sounds to be mixed together. Unlike Windows, there are no settings or drivers you can control from the operating system level; to use HOG mode, you must have playback software or playback add-ons which are specifically written to use that mode, like Amarra or Pure Music.
David, to get the best out of the sooloos sound quality wise, it might be best to use it with a meridian 808.3 cd player via their specific connection. But that player would cost another 15k+. That is if cost is no object to you, and ur goal is to get the ultimate sound quality. Those who have tried this combo say good things. And one cant blame Meridian for making the sooloos the best option for their own player....after all they purchased sooloos...and it would be fair enough for them to first push the product with their lines of CD players/speakers/DACs etc...which is what they have been doing for the last few years since acquiring sooloos. Ultimately....in the future...it might be a nice thing if companies are selling software alone...but who knows.. Some companies have already started...others not...its hard to predict.
Thanks, Sam. I can see the Sooloos working very well with Meridian. But Meridian recently discontinued the 808.2 player that RH raved about last year. I don't know if the 808.3 is better or different, since TAS had AHC review it instead of RH. Also, the Hifi Critic had a huge gap in their score for the Meridian playing classical music (pretty much as good anything) vs. rock (mediocre). AHC likes it, but he doesn't rock out. They sure don't make this stuff easy.
If I were to guess the difference between the 808.2 or the .3 version would be like splitting hairs. I would guess that it is still at or even better level as the older model that R.H. Reviewed. I haven't heard the 808.3....so u might want to ask those who have or better yet audition it. And you make a good point this player may not be the best for everyone. If it blends well with your taste in music and your liking only then should it be considered....that's why like all components if possible it should be auditioned...but I don't know if its possible with you or where you live it. In some areas people just don't have access which is a big bummer.
David,
If you want to know what a Sooloos Source One consists in, I mean, have a look inside... click here.
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/HD_players.html
As you will see, now you have the right technical and understandable information in your hands. You decide...
And, if you want to know what a very trained technician thinks about some digital products (specially some older CDs), etc. Have a look at this:
http://www.lampizator.eu/
And also, more information here: www.computeraudiophile.com
Those sites are ruled by technical (mostly digital engineers) say about some products... The Well Tempered Computer is totally objective: Vincent Kars is a very neutral gentleman.
And, last (and trully, least), if you like, you can have also a look to mine :-)))) www.audiofilodigital.com but just for UPnP/DLNA programs that maybe useful to rip CDs, cloud computing, control free software for a NAS with your iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad, streaming available content (as well as our Facebook site "El Audiófilo Digital" ).
Hope you enjoy them !
OK I will put my 2 cents into the discussion. Can you build a digital playback system for less than 7K? Sure. Will you get what the Sooloos provides? No. I have read so many discussions about the price of the Sooloos unit and I have heard so many people say it is only a PC and the price of hard drives are so cheap. And so on and so on. What you are paying for is a turn-key system that gives you the ability to view your music collection like no other. I have yet to see any product that handles a music collection like the Sooloos. Is Sooloos worth the money? That is up to you. If you don't want, need, or feel it is worth the cost, buy something else. I for one will be getting a Sooloos as soon as I can afford one unless someone comes out with something better. But to me the Sooloos is the best for what I want.
Well said! I agree with all that you have said and it is a personal choice based on individuals needs and specific setup.
RE: "I for one will be getting a Sooloos as soon as I can afford one unless someone comes out with something better".
bstew brings up a good point with his statement. One other thing to keep in mind for those considering any server of any brand is that this area is changing very rapidly...even sooloos and qsonix have completely revamped some of their older models a few times from ground up with changes in hardware as well as software. It is "likely??" that in a very limited time the older machienes "may" become boat anchers.......so if you have the money and are ok with expensive upgrades while technology is at work then nothing to worry about. Its easier to dump a $500 to $1000 computer or to just use it as an extra computer in the house for web surfing. Other expensive items might not be that easy to dispose off. Just something to keep in mind. But not a biggy for some. Ultimately its what your priorities are and what you are happy with.
I have an Esceint Fireball I got from Audiogon for $450. It has a digital output which I'm running to my reciever, will add a DAC soon. My system is low end audiophile mid end at best (Pioneer SC25 - AV123 Strata Mini's - Oppo DV-981HD - Pro-ject Xperiance TT - Sumiko Blue Point No. 2 - Pro-ject Phono Box SE). My wife complained about how much of a pain it was to listen to a CD (open one cabinet open the cd drawer find the CD close drawer close the cabinet, open the door to the CD player open the player listen to the CD) way to much work. I found the Fireball on Audiogon, now listening to music is pretty easy. Everyone in the family now listens to far more music than they ever did before. You can take the sound quality to whatever level you'd like by using an outboard DAC. You control it from your TV, the interface maynot be as nice as the Sooloos but it works. I only have a 160 GB hard drive (about 550 CD's in FLAC quality) I found this to be more than enough. There is no computer interface to be bothered with just sit back and enjoy your music. And in the long run for me that is what this hobby is all about. Unfortunately Escient is no longer around but I always see something on Audiogon. Their products may turn up under the Marantz or Denon line since they were owned by the same parent company. Anyway this works for us and I believe it's a viable option for anyone ready to start listening to their music, instead of just tweaking their system. Don't get me wrong I'm not done with my system (don't let my wife know that) by any means. But I am to a point where I really do enjoy just sitting down and listening to my music. And this makes that much easier and much more enjoyable.
You guys are missing the boat. Having been an avid reader of these posts and reviews, I was buying into this new, already antiquated "Asynchronous USB" thing. Well, I got to spend 4 nights with ARC's DAC 8 and compared it to the PS Audio Wave/Bridge. Sorry guys, no comparision. The difference is HUGE, not subtle.
I am now a believer in a server solution and quite frankly willing to wait until PSA gets their user interface perfected as the sound is that good.
In testing, I compared the same high res files through the ARC DAC 8, using Pure Music as an interface on my MacMini. All was double and triple checked and all was working correct. The PS Audio just has an ethernet connection to their bridge which interfaces with standard music server software, one package they are currently developing but is not yet prime time ready. I use Twonky and let my ears do the testing.
If you haven't heard the Wave/Bridge, I think all of you owe it to yourselves before making any further comments as to the solutions out there.
It is about the sound and with a few bugs still to be worked out, the app from PSA gives you the convenience as well.
ARC DAC is not really a reference. I'm sure PWT is great sounding but at least compare to few others before dismissing everything else and declaring one player the ultimate winner. Only 2 players compared and one of them is the best digital out there?
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It may not cost 12K like a dCS, but it is sure using the same USB interface and in many cases a more advanced USB than these so called "references", particularly the dCS "reference".
Look, in this crazy world of audiophillia, there is never room for a comparison of a "type" of amp, preamp etc., v. the other and declare a winner for all of a particular type, HOWEVER, when we are comparing a computer interface that seems to becoming the "defacto" standard for using the DAC as a computer, through USB 2.0 Asynchronous mode, we can pretty much have a unique and appropriate comparison and conclusion between the two approaches-and it is NOT CLOSE.
Trust me, money was not the object of my comparison and I was not trying to justify a purchase, there was just such a HUGE diifference that I personally could not believe it.
As a DAC tethered to a transport, I can and will not comment as the WAVE may or may not be competitive, BUT that is not how I compared the two nor how I would use a DAC in these days, particualary since PSA, IMHO, has developed and is now selling a real watershed product that WILL change the approach to those of us seeking a computer solution.
I am using NOLAs Micro Grands, McIntosh MC2301 dual monos and ARC Ref 5 preamp. The system is very capable and I can tell you the differences not small. But hey, I am just one person, who listens.
My thoughts:
Just got into computer audio from CD. I have a brand new iMac (TOTL) and I use iTunes with a Airport Express using a Toslink cable to my DAC directly. Sound is better than my CDP with a $700 digital cable to DAC. I have only 44.1/16 files right now. No high res. I have all ripped from CD to AIFF. Sound is streamed and it is superb. Rich, detailed (treble is noticeably better) and no issues yet. I would like to know how to use Amarra with the Airport Express if anyone knows how. I tried the "free download" and did not hear much difference. But this is not the TOTL version either. I don't know why iTunes gets a bad rap: maybe most into high res can't use it?
And I am told it only gets better? I can't wait.
Your weakest link might be a toslink connection. Have u tried other digital connections? Did u find no difference?
Actually Toslink is the only option for digital out on an iMac. I could go USB but the USB input on the DAC is resolution limited. I suppose I could get a USB to S/PDIF converter.
I am actually looking for a 30' Toslink cable to remove the Airport express directly, since it is limited to 44/16 itself. But I am in no rush since I have no high res files yet (my music is not in demand enough for high res).