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1. Better than Hi Res Meridian s Breakthrough MOA th absolute sound JADIS DAGOS INTEGRATED AN n a gt hi i fe ae i j TrA ER nai t a m i oe T a j i lt s A t COMPUTER MUSIC FROM T a Neil Young Everything You Tony Bennett Need to Know Ww Duke Ellington AMAZING 3 GREAT EUROPEAN and more INTEGRATED AMP SPEAKERS PLUS The Best Rowland s Avantgarde Hi Res Downloads Continuum 2 Kharma and Estelon KILLER G00D STATE OF THE ART PSB s 1295 Moon 430 Tower Speaker Headphone Amp MOE ayaa i Bpan Goa Cover Story Jadis DA88S MkII In Content 142 pe amp says Jacob Heilbrunn f E mt E fegrated Amplifie J Pp The iconic French marque has created a musical technical and visual masterpiece with this new 4 F 50 y Beyond High Resolution Meridian Audio s Maste Qualit Authenticated MQA Robert Harley brings you an in depth look at a revolutionary new technology that not only delivers sound quality better than 192 24 but does so at a bitrate that can be streamed to your phone Plus 34 QA co architect Bob Stuart reveals the inside story behind MQA in this candid interview nderstanding Digital Music Systems r Confused by all thenew component categories renderer streamer server bridge Dr Jeffrey Barish tells you everything you need to know about the new digital architecture in this2. about a digital one of those Well no That term is not quite right either Music system is the whole of many components that we use to play music most of which are analog We want to refer only to the part that is digital Digital music system is too encompassing but digital music subsystem is abominable One other possibility is the name that I use for the product that my company manufacturers music management system The product makes music it manages the music by storing it cataloging it and playing it and it is a complete system I like that term best surprise because it focuses on the function music management rather than the technology digital or computer It leaves computer audio for systems with things that actually look like computers It doesn t accidentally subsume a record player under the digital rubric I sorely wanted to use it in the title but once again I am trying very hard not to grind any axes I think that we can do better than computer audio but I fear that the train has already left the station as that term is Understanding Digital Music Systems pretty widely used despite its shortcomings What are your thoughts The User Experience I am guilty in the full form of Table 2 of perpetuating a bias The table provides a little information about hardware characteristics but it says nothing about the software other than its id
3. certainly survive Your new system will need to support the codecs that you used and it probably will unless you chose exotic ones Note that network devices retrieve sound files from a NAS If you replace a network device with another network device you will not even have to move the sound files In any other case you will have to transfer the sound files over the network most likely 2 System upgrades Future proof could mean that the system you purchase is able to accommodate technological advances without replacing the entire system What techno Understanding Digital Music Systems logical advances could potentially obsolete the hardware If you purchase a player then your system will have a DAC of its own If you are subsequently seduced by the sound quality of a dif ferent DAC do you have to replace your player If the player provides digital outputs then you could simply connect an ex ternal DAC and ignore the one in the player Just be sure that the player you purchase provides digital outputs and that the outputs support the resolution and sample rate that you might need for the new DAC e g 24 96 or 24 192 You don t have to worry about higher resolutions e g 32 bits Samples with 24 bits are theoretically capable of providing a dynamic range of 144dB which is at least 20dB beyond what contemporary DAC chips actually provide and even further beyond what you can hear so 32 bit samples are just wastin
4. direct bridge direct player direct bridge direct bridge direct player direct bridge direct player network bridge network player combo bridge direct bridge direct bridge direct Understanding Digital bona fide mistakes I apologize I do have an ax to grind but I am not grinding it in this article One More Term I wasn t sure what to name this article because we don t even have a good term for the product category Many people use computer audio The products that we are discussing are basically computers but I feel that the term computer audio triggers inappropriate associations with desktop or laptop systems Prior to the advent of computer based systems purpose built for audio actually did refer to computers with keyboard and monitor attached Sometimes it still does Some audiophiles audio computer use a desktop system or laptop in their audio system some computer users especially gamers have computer systems with surround sound and a subwoofer Does it make sense to extend the term now to products that look and feel like audio products Computers are present in other audio products portable media players portable digital recorders and even CD players that are not called computer audio I find the term atavistic I thought digital music system was a better choice Music systems are what we listen to at home so I figured that we are talking
5. the new technology intimidating Terminology is inconsistent architectures for complete systems are amorphous configuration options are bewildering obsolescence is always a threat Though procrastination might seem prudent the potential benefits are enticing Digital systems allow you to store a large music collection in a box no larger than a CD player Cataloging software makes it easy to find recordings and control software makes it possible to play them without leaving the comfort of your sofa Storage capabilities also provide convenient safekeeping for music downloads Support for HD audio promises a listening experience superior to that of CDs and LPs The potential rewards are great but the risk of an inauspicious purchase is real This article attempts to lower anxiety by confronting the bugbears I will present the architecture of a complete digital system and show how products from different categories map onto different subsets of this architecture Using this mechanism I will define a set of terms that unambiguously describes components in a digital music system I will also respond to questions frequently asked by newcomers After reading this article I hope you will feel more confident as you embark on your quest for a modern audio system The Terminology Problem Much of the confusion surrounding digital music systems results from inconsistent terminology Different manufactur ers use different terms to describe comp
6. to decode and transfer audio is typically insignificant compared to the capabilities of the CPU Hard disk drives fail so why would put my entire music collection at risk by consigning it to unreliable devices All hard disk drives fail eventually because they have moving parts but all SSDs fail eventually too even though they do not have moving parts Digital circuitry fails on occasion and even analog circuitry fails Singling out hard disk drives as the source of all woe displays a curious bias The inevitability of failure does not militate against digital music systems but it does demand a simple precaution that audiophiles back up their digital music systems regularly If you are wise you will keep a copy of your collection at some other site your office perhaps or a friend s house so that your collection will survive even if your house burns to the ground A few digital music systems perform backups themselves Your music collection is precious as is the time you will invest PRI MAN y sy A X Er A in creating your catalog Many computer users know that they need to perform backups regularly but they forget Many music lovers forget that their digital music system is basically a computer No other device in an audio system needs to be backed up nor do CD or LP collections Remembering to back up a digital music collection is not natural A system that performs the backup automatically protects you from you
7. without any encoding Many audiophiles advise newcomers to reject compression because disk drive capacity increases more rapidly than the ability of music lovers to consume it This argument might be valid for many music lovers but here are a few other points to consider A large music collection stored without any com pression could consume many terabytes Whatever comple ment of HDDs you need to store that collection double that number to accommodate a backup as well Ideally you will keep a third backup at some other location so you should ac tually triple the number Performing the backup takes longer because it takes time to move data With the storage capac ity of smart phones now reaching 128GB you could actually put a sizable music collection in your smart phone if you use a lossy compressor You could back up your collection to a flash drive instead of a suitcase full of HDDs If you would like to be able to store your collection in the cloud for back up or for access from anywhere the cost for storing a multi terabyte collection would be prohibitive If you plan to move your digital music system between venues your primary home and a vacation home perhaps a small self contained box will be more convenient Balance your quest for perfect sound quality with these practical considerations Understanding Digital Music Systems Which encoder should use I believe that most readers of these pages choose FLAC Because
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9. 8758 or e mail rharley nextscreen com Newsstand Distribution and Local Dealers Ingram Periodicals 18 Ingram Blvd LaVergne TN 37086 7000 615 213 5223 Publishing matters contact Jim Hannon at the address below or e mail jhannon nextscreen com nextscreen VICE PRESIDENT GROUP PUBLISHER Jim Hannon NEXTSCREEN CHAIRMAN AND CEO Tom Martin ADVERTISING REPS Cheryl Smith Marvin Lewis 512 891 7775 718 225 8803 MTM Sales Scott Constantine 609 275 9594 Publications Mail Agreement 40600599 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to Station A P O Box 54 Windsor ON N9A 6J5 NextScreen LLC 8868 Research Blvd Suite 108 Austin TX 78758 512 892 8682 fax 512 891 0375 tas nextscreen com info theabsolutesound com 2015 NextScreen LLC Issue 253 May Jun 2015 The Absolute Sound ISSN 0097 1138 is published 10 times per year inthe months of Jan Feb Mar April combined issues in May Jun amp Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov and Dec 29 90 per year for U S residents NextScreen LLC 8868 Research Blvd Suite 108 Austin TX 78758 Periodical Postage paid at Austin Texas and additional mailing offices Canadian publication mail account 1551566 POSTMASTER Send address changes to The Absolute Sound Subscription Services PO Box 469042 Escondido CA 92046 Printed in the USA Understanding Digital Music Systems Jeffrey Barish any music lovers considering the leap to a digital music system find
10. 9 All In One System Aria Music Server Klimax Exackt DSM Network Music Player player network player network player network player network player network player network player network bridge direct player network player network bridge combo player network DAC then the system is a player otherwise itis a bridge If samples come from the net work then we use the qualifier network if they come from a directly attached disk then we use the qualifier direct There is alas a small ambiguity in the naming scheme A bridge has digital outputs encapsulate it with a DAC and it becomes a player Does the player still have digital outputs If you look through Table 2 you will see that almost every player does still have digital outputs but there are exceptions If this issue is important to you check the specifications The Terminology Data The full version of Table 2 available on TAS s website summarizes the salient features of every digital music system I could find In the print version to the left I ve listed 36 manufacturers and 79 products in alphabetical order even though doing so suspiciously places my company first The table demonstrates that the proposed terminology is necessary and sufficient Every product category has at least a few products assigned and every product has a suitable assignment There are 28 products that already use the correct term in the produc
11. C chip as a DAC as well The audio component called DAC typically provides a variety of interfaces USB SPDIF TosLink or AES EBU most commonly through which it receives the digital audio signal It presents the line level audio output on unbalanced RCA connectors and sometimes on balanced XLR connectors Some DACs have an integrated amplifier built in in which case they will also provide connectors for loudspeakers and a volume control The digital audio stream presented to the DAC originates with a computer That computer receives the samples either from sound files stored on a hard disk drtve HDD connected directly to the computer or from the local area network LAN in your home When they arrive via the LAN the source is some other computer with its own HDD That computer might be your desktop system or it might be an appliance known as NAS network attached storage The source could also be located on the Internet There are six product categories that map onto these elements They are summarized in Table 1 A player has a DAC If there is no DAC then the product is called a bridge The input is digital in either case but it can come 36 May June 2015 theabsolute sound to analog system Network attached storage Hard disk drive from either an HDD connected directly to the computer direct or from the network network In some cases products are able to retrieve sound data from either sou
12. Combo Input from either disk or LAN analog out Table 1 New terminology for digital music systems components Some companies refer to their products as a server or music server or media server The term comes from computer science A server is half of a so called client server architecture This architecture partitions tasks between a setver and a client which typically communicate over a network A server does nothing until it receives a request from a client to perform a service NAS is a familiar example of a server It receives requests from other devices on the network to provide the contents of files that it stores Only a few of the products in Table 2 called servers are actually servers A network bridge or network player is actually a client Neither a direct bridge nor a direct player is a server because they do Understanding Digital Music Systems not respond to requests for samples they simply present a stream of samples to a DAC either internal or external and assume that the DAC can digest them Media renderer is a term from the UPnP AV protocol which specifies how devices connected to a LAN can cooperate to play a media file stored on one device a media server on another device a media renderer Although we are dealing with architectures in which devices are connected directly as well as ones in which they are connected over a network it might have made sense to ex
13. comprehensive primer the absolute sound EDITOR IN CHIEF Robert Harley EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jonathan Valin ACQUISITIONS MANAGER AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR Neil Gader MANAGING AND DIGITAL EDITOR Julie Mullins MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Wilson PROOFREADER Mark Lehman CREATIVE DIRECTOR Torguil Dewar ART DIRECTOR Shelley Lai PRODUCTION INTERN Rachel Holder theabsolutesound com WEBMASTER Garrett Whitten SENIOR WRITERS Anthony H Cordesman Wayne Garcia Jim Hannon Robert E Greene Ted Libbey Arthur Lintgen Dick Olsher Andrew Quint Don Saltzman Paul Seydor Steven Stone Alan Taffel Greg Weaver REVIEWERS AND CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Duck Baker Soren Baker Greg Cahill Stephen Estep Vade Forrester Jacob Heilbrunn Andre Jennings Sherri Lehman David McGee Kirk Midtskog Bill Milkowski Derk Richardson Karl Schuster Reprints Nick lademarco Wright s Media 877 652 5295 281 419 5725 niademarco wrightsmedia com Subscriptions renewals changes of address 888 732 1625 and outside the U S 760 317 2327 or write The Absolute Sound Subscription Services PO Box 469042 Escondido CA 92046 Ten issues in the U S 29 90 Canada 45 90 GST included outside North America 64 90 Payments must be by credit card VISA MasterCard American Express or U S funds drawn on a U S bank with checks payable to NextScreen LLC Address letters to the editor The Absolute Sound 8868 Research Blvd Suite 108 Austin TX 7
14. e of the information I would need is not publicly available because manufacturers generally do not discuss characteristics of their products that would facilitate your move to a competing product Moreover the answer depends in part on how you tag your sound files If you listen primarily to pop music then a basic set of tags album title artist track title genre and possibly a few Jhe Cable Library is huge The Hi End Headphone Library s is just the latest expansion of our 25 year old Cable Library Add this to other try at home Powerline Conditioners Resonance Control Footers Isolation Platforms Acoustic Treatments Components Accessories and thousands of Cables There has never been a better time to visit the Library The Cable Company The Cable Library Record amounts of great stuff Understanding Digital Music Systems others might be satisfactory The basic set is more likely to be universal so chances ate good that you will see the same metadata regardless of a change in music manager software If your musical tastes encompass other genres and especially if they encompass classical then you will probably be interested in using more sophisticated capabilities of your tagging software Some systems support tags for composer composition instrumentation label and more Some allow you to define custom tags If you take advantage of these capabilities then you have to determine whether the s
15. entity It is hard to characterize software in a table yet the software is pivotal in defining the user experience Unfortunately evaluating software requires that you first master it a task that can take considerable time and effort It may not be possible for potential buyers to learn much about the software in a showroom demonstration especially as many salesmen barely understand it themselves Reviewers get more time to familiarize themselves with a product but they have time pressures too Previous experience with widely used soft wate such as JRiver or VorteX Box will ease the evaluation of systems that happen to use those products but many systems use custom software half the companies in Table 2 Evaluat ing software is hard but potential buyers should not overlook this critical component of the user experience Here are some suggestions of issues to consider when evaluating the software of a potential purchase e Try to get a sense of how hard it is likely to be to learn the software Is the operation intuitive Is there a user manual Are there videos What is the nature of the technical support that the manufacturer provides Some companies are able to connect to your system remotely with your permission to guide you through an operation Is there a user forum How cumbersome is it to use the software Some prod ucts require you to learn multiple programs for example one for ripping and another for playing A table
16. er should be reserved for products whose sole purpose is to play media from the Internet The naming scheme in Table 1 has elegant symmetries They are also evident in the block diagram Fig 2 If there is a Table 2 a more complete version of Table 2 is available on line at theabsolutesound com 3beez Wax Box 2 Music Management System player direct Antipodes DX Music Server bridge direct DXe Music Server bridge direct DS Music Server player direct Auralic ARIES Wireless Streaming Bridge bridge network Auraliti L1000 Music File Player bridge network PK100 PCM and DSD File Player bridge network Aurender S10 Music Player bridge combo W20 Music Player bridge combo X100S Music Player bridge combo X100L Music Player bridge combo Ayon Audio S 3 Network Player player network S 5 Network Player player network NW T Network Transport bridge network Baetis Audio Reference Media Server bridge combo Reference NAS Ripper server network XR2 Media Server bridge combo Bryston BDP 2 Digital Player bridge network Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 v2 Cocktail Audio Novatron Core Audio Technology Cyrus DigiBit Linn Upsampling Network Music Player amp Preamplifier Minx Xi Digital Music System NP30 Network Music Player X40 Music Server X30 Music Server Network Streamer X12 Music Server Network Streamer X10 Music Server Music Streamer Kryptos SE Music Server Lyric O5 All In One System Lyric O
17. er what they represent so digital systems are able to use elements to carry a variety of sionals The same internal buses that carry digital audio at one moment carry control signals or unrelated data at others A USB interface can be used to communicate with a mouse a keyboard a monitor a network interface a hard disk drive a DAC and much more Analog systems do nothing comparable because the purpose of an analog interface is defined by the function of the device it is attached to not by an abstract description encoded in numbers Finally the function of digital circuits is determined in large part by software not just by the interconnection of electronic components Software is easy to change because it too is composed of numbers The same hardware can perform radically different functions simply by altering the software For these reasons digital systems are much more pliable than analog systems are Sound sources Receiver haphazard way in which language evolves The terminology for analog music systems does not suffer from these problems Use the words per player Integrated amplifier 23 Cs amplifier integrated amplifier 23 c6 preamplifier 23 c6 Va ETa s tuner receiver or loudspeaker in the right company and no one will misunderstand you Preamplifier Power amplifier Moreover most people in this group implicitly understand
18. g space Codecs are not an issue because they ate software Any system that you purchase today should be able to handle a new codec through a software upgrade because the samples conveyed to the DAC are always PCM regardless of the format of the sound file Well almost always DSD is a 1 bit stream so it is fundamentally different Some systems handle DSD by converting it to PCM Others handle it by disguising DSD as PCM DoP Upgrading a system to handle DSD is not simply a matter of installing a new software codec so DSD could obsolete your hardware If DSD support is important to you you should investigate further Exceeding the capacity of internal storage could obsolete a direct bridge or direct player Find out whether the manufacture is willing to upgrade internal HDDs Is it possible to attach external HDDs to supplement the internal ones A network bridge or network player simply transfers this issue to some other device Does your NAS accommodate additional HDDs Can you substitute ones with larger capacity 3 Metadata salvage When you replace your digital music system it is possible that the new system uses the same software as the old one You will find JRiver Media Center foobar2000 MPD and VorteXBox on products from several manufacturers If the software is the same then the metadata will survive If the software is not the same then I cannot make a definite statement about whether your metadata will survive Som
19. how those components map onto a block diagram of an analog music system Fig 1 Through long use these terms are widely understood CON CD Player to refer to one thing A power amplifier for example takes a small signal at its input and transforms 34 May June 2015 theabsolute sound Fig 1 Block diagram for a complete analog music system Understanding Digital Music Systems Bridge direct HDD HDD sound backup LAN W a a D J3 o ot s z Glossary Tablet EE T NAS HDD ODD Optical disc drive DAC Digital to analog converter LAN Local area network Fig 2 Block diagram for a complete digital music system The Terminology Solution To define terms for describing the variety of products in digital music systems we start with a block diagram of the elements that comprise a complete digital music system Fig 2 Then we will look at how various products map onto this block diagram I will justify the choices that I made with some discussion of the thinking behind them Let us start by identifying the main elements of digital music systems One is easy Your ears respond to sound waves so the numbers used to represent audio in a digital music system have to be converted to analog This conversion is performed by a digital to analog converter DAC A DAC is a chip but audiophiles refer to the component that encapsulates a DA
20. it is lossless it is possible to recover exactly the same samples after decoding However the compression ratio is only about 2 1 Some listeners believe that they can hear a difference between audio that has been encoded and decoded using FLAC and audio that has not been subjected to this processing even though the two streams contain exactly the same data There is no scientific basis for this belief but if you hear a difference then you will want to stick with WAV files Don t use MP3 unless you have to for compatibility MP3 is ubiquitous but it is ancient technology For a given bit rate Ogg sounds better for a given sound quality Ogg compresses more Ogg might not be ubiquitous but it is rare these days to encounter a platform that does not support it Although it may be heresy to suggest it in these pages Ogg is a valid choice for many audiophiles See whether you can hear a difference between Ogg and WAV to help you decide Editorial note We consider lossy data compression anathema RH Many listeners with digital music systems want to be able to listen to recordings using portable devices such as smart phones If you use a codec for the recordings in your digital music system that is not supported by your smart phone then you will have to decode the audio and re encode it using a seit hafler com ON FEEDBACK SELECT D codec that is supported You are more likely to hear artifacts if you perform such
21. me are no longer playable The explanation might be disc rot see Wikipedia And I shouldn t have to mention that LPs also degrade Even with proper storage they often warp and develop clicks and pops If your house burns to the ground your collection of CDs and LPs goes with it whereas the backup of your digital music system that you stashed at the office will survive A digital music collection with proper backup is actually ore secure than CDs or LPs even though disks fail How does the digital music system handle software updates All digital music systems have software that determines what functions the device can perform and how it performs them Updating the software makes it possible for devices to offer new capabilities refine the way in which they handle existing ones or correct bugs Manufacturers rarely describe how they handle updates The ends of the spectrum are fully automatic the system detects that an update is available downloads it and installs it all automatically and no updates With some products Windows prompts when an update is available it downloads and installs the update automatically if you click OK With other products you download an installer from the manufacturer s website and then manually activate it At least one company requires that you take the product to a dealer to have it updated How does the manufacturer handle technical support If you have questions about how to use the soft
22. of the Moon by Pink Floyd Jeff Beck has an album called Emotion Commotion on which some of the tracks are supposed to play without a gap and some with Classical music fans will know of many examples Many opera recordings have acts divided into tracks even though the music is supposed to play without gaps The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto has no gap between the first and second movements but then there is a gap between the second and third Be sure to check whether the software for the systems you ate considering supports proper playback of recordings like these If your system is a network bridge or network player then it probably adheres to the DLNA standard DLNA is based on UPnP AV but it specifies capabilities that devices must support The DLNA specification is not publicly available so I can t confirm statements I have read on the Web One such statement is that DLNA does not require support for gapless playback However UPnP AV supports it Thus you cannot be certain that devices advertising DLNA certification support gapless playback but they might If you care and you should you will have to investigate further Is my investment in a digital music system future proof This seemingly innocuous question is almost impossible to answer fully Let s discuss the easy parts first 1 Sound file salvage If you decide to replace a digital music system the sound files that you created by ripping ot downloading will almost
23. oftware in your new system will support them Even if the software is not the same the metadata still might survive Most systems store metadata in the sound files themselves in a wrapper Even when systems avail them selves of custom tags they are still using standard capabilities of the sound file wrapper e g Vorbis comments in the case of FLAC A different music manager will understand these capabilities in the same way so it should be able to extract and present the information contained even in custom tags A few systems store metadata in separate files At least one company Olive encrypts the metadata file so you won t be able to salvage your metadata unless you can figure out how to break the encryption If the manufacturer of the system you are considering uses metadata files find out whether they Components Accessories Essentials Ask about the award winning fully automatic ultrasonic Vinyl Cleaner COMPANY Power Line Products amp AC Cables Dozens of Line Filters Legions of AC Cables Resonance Control available for in home audition Supreme Fuse from HiFi Tuning 99 Silver 1 Gold 100 State of the Art make any provisions for salvaging the metadata My products for example do use separate files but the software provides an export function which transfers most of the metadata into tags in the sound files Moreover the files are unencrypted text One final iss
24. onents that do es sentially the same thing A device that plays a digital record ing might be called a network player a music player a digital audio player a media server a music server a streamer or a media renderer Part of the explanation for this hash of ter minology is poor choices by the developers of related tech nical standards part is the desire of manufacturers to differentiate their products and part is simply the it to a big signal at its output no matter which company manufactures the product Manufacturers differentiate their power amplifiers by characteristics such as the class of the output stage A AB B or D whether they use tubes or transistors or the appearance of the casework but users can always count on connecting a line level signal to the input and loudspeakers to the output Digital systems are more amorphous The binary numbers that comprise the digital representation of an audio signal are robust You can transfer them through cables optical fiber metal traces or air You can store them on hard disk drives DRAM solid state drives or flash drives You can subject them to electromagnetic interference ground loops or transmission line effects You can perform mathematical operations that make it possible to pack more of them in a given amount of storage None of this matters as long as the numbers you started with are the ones that ultimately arrive at the destination Numbers are numbers no matt
25. ords Frank Sinatra Barbra Streisand Steely Dan Yo Yo Mah Listening to music through headphones should be more than simply shutting out the world It should be about enhancing the listening experience so that you get more Enter the HA75 Tube Head It features a high voltage tube drive for incredible warmth and a dedicated control that lets you fine tune the negative feedback from clinically accurate to old school To bring greater realism to the experience the Focus control employs a unique matrix to simulate the sound as if listening to music in a room And for those that want to kick up the beat turn on the three position bass extender and start dancing With two headphone outputs you can share the experience in quiet comfort I have been using Hafler for over 25 years and i har e Nevet been disappointee l The pe rjormance 1s outstanding and the di AMICS are ae just whal i look for The Hafler HA75 Tube Head Excitement and realism for your listening pleasure Hafler and Dynaco are trademarks of Radial Engineering Ltd 1588 Kebet Way Port Coquitlam BC V3C 5M5 Understanding Digital Music Systems the audible effect will be obvious there will be dropouts or wotse On one of my products the change in the load on the CPU which is normally 1 2 when playing a FLAC or Ogg file is unmeasurable because it is smaller than the fluctuations that occur due to operating system activities The processing required
26. p 7 4 p wv d P gt s f lt r rmp spend all the money you want allie money PRIMACOUSTIC on audiophile electronics but your room acoustics are the single most important Se e YEI macou sti C COmM factorinhow good your audiophile system will sound A div of Radia Engineering Ltd 1588 Kebet Way Port Coquitlam BC V3C 5M5 Understanding Digital Music Systems one drive fails you still have the copy on the other drive this method is called RAID 1 There are more sophisticated forms of RAID as well RAID is important in applications where it is critical that data remain available even when a drive fails Indeed RAID devices often allow the defective drive to be removed and replaced without turning off the power so that users never perceive that the failure occurred This level of reliability is important in enterprise networks but probably not in audio systems Disk failures are sufficiently rare that the inconvenience of having your system out of commission while it is being serviced is probably bearable And RAID has disadvantages It is probably more expensive bigger noisier and hotter I do not recommend RAID for audio systems but if you are determined to use it anyway no harm done All of this discussion about disk failure might have you thinking that it would be safer to stick with CDs but CDs fail too Many music lovers are surprised after deciding to rip their CDs to discover that so
27. r SuperUniti All in One Player NaimUniti 2 All in One Player UnitiLite All in One Player UnitiQute 2 Allin One Player One HD Music Player Tiki Digital Network Player Toko Digital Audio Player Stream Box RS audio streamer Stream Box DSA music streamer Stream Box DS streaming client Stream Box DS net audio streamer PerfectWave MKII DAC with PerfectWave Bridge F3 Multi zone Media Server Moon 180 MiND streamer C A PS micro Zuma server Rendu Network Audio Player HAP Z1ES Music Player sSMS 1000u Music Server sMS 1000d Music Server SMS 1000a Music Server Music Vault M7 Music Vault Diamond Ultra Music Vault Emerald Music Vault MII Roomplayer with amp di server MAN301 network player Music Server MS 1 Music Server MS 2 HD Ref 3 Music Server Transport 40 May June 2015 theabsolutesound player network player network player network player network player network server network player network bridge combo player combo player combo server network player network bridge network bridge direct bridge network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network player network bridge network bridge direct bridge network player combo bridge
28. rce I refer to those products as combo The Terminology Rationale Table 1 is the crux of the discussion on terminology What follows is the reasoning that led to these terms First I decided not to deviate more than necessary from existing terminology which was part of the reason for collecting the information in Table 2 As you will see there player is a term that is already applied widely to devices that contain a DAC The term bridge is used currently to refer to a device that takes a digital audio stream from the LAN and outputs it in some other digital format USB AES EBU SPDIF or TosLink I generalized the term so that it refers to a device that takes a digital input and produces a digital output Devices that receive the digital input from the network are a network bridge those that receive the digital input from a directly attached HDD are a direct bridge I borrowed the qualifiers direct and network from computer circles where dzrect attached storage DAS refers to HDDs connected directly via USB ot eSATA to the computer in contrast to network attached storage NAS which is accessed over a network Direct Input from direct attached disk digital out Bridge Network Input form LAN digital out Combo Input from either disk or LAN digital out Direct Input from direct attached disk analog out Player Network Input form LAN analog out
29. rself If the system that you are considering does not perform backups automatically learn what steps are necessary to perform a backup read the article by Vade Forrester in Issue 248 Many digital music systems make internal storage visible on your LAN as a network drive You should be able to drag and drop folders from this network drive to a backup device Set up a backup program so that it performs this procedure for you automatically on a regular basis Some systems require that you connect a backup drive using a USB port Are you going to remember to perform this chore regularly Will you be content to leave the backup drive connected long term If you have a NAS device on your LAN you might want to use it for backups You might encounter the term RAID in connection with backups during your investigation RAID refers to technology for protecting against the failure of an HDD by incorporating additional redundant drives The simplest version of RAID keeps a copy a mirror of one drive on a second drive If AACOUSTIC MAKE OUND GOOD Primacoustic has everything you need to bring your listening space out of the stone age Panels are made from high density glass wool for even absorption across the spectrum Easy to install safe and so effective they will make any cavesound amazing d 3 k London 10 room kit 499 4 A a 7 d Rr m n 4 3 Da j p e k Pa a 4 E gt a ies s
30. t is the most convenient way to interact with your system but can you ac cess all the capabilities of the software remotely With some remote software you see only a subset of the metadata you entered Can you edit tags 7 situ or do you have to bounce sound files back and forth to your desktop system Can you rip CDs using the digital music system or do you have to use your desktop system and then transfer the sound files Are you able to organize your catalog in a way that makes sense to you and that makes it easy to find a specific recording A good way to tackle the problem of comparing the software of several digital music systems is to devise a challenge Choose some CDs from your collection that present the challenge Try ripping the CDs on all the systems you are considering and evaluate the results Which comes closest to your imaginary ideal Can the system store all the metadata you need to help you locate recordings and to enhance your enjoyment while listening How do you access a recording made from two or more CDs If a CD contains more than one work which happens frequently with classical recordings how hard is it to find the recording of one of those works Some systems permit you to carve up such recordings into individual works How hard is it to 42 May June 2015 theabsolute sound do that It helps to have had some experience with a digital music system when devising the challenge If possible ask a friend Think abo
31. t name so the proposed terminology is well short of radical Extensive research went into the prepa ration of Table 2 Readers should appre ciate that manufacturers rarely publish all the specifications I sought Indeed there were times when the specifications were so elusive that they seemed to have been Lumin Marantz Meridian Musica Pristina NAD Naim Olive Plinius Pro ject Audio Systems PS Audio ReQuest Simaudio Small Green Computer Sonore Sony Sotm Sound Science Simple Audio Totaldac Weiss Wyred 4 Sound YourFinalSystem intentionally hidden Sometimes they were buried in user manuals Sometimes I found them in product reviews De spite my efforts I would not be surprised to learn that I did not get everything right Before hurling brickbats manufac turers who find an error should ask themselves whether their websites present information as clearly as they could For any Klimax DSM Network Music Player Klimax DS Network Music Player S1 Music Player A1 Music Player T1 Music Player L1 Music Server NA 11S1 Reference Network Audio Player and DAC Control 15 Digital Media System Media Core 200 Digital Media System Media Core 600 Media Drive 600 Digital Media System Storage Media Source 600 A Cappella Network Player A NP1 A Cappella SSD Library Player A LP1 Rivulet Streamer RS 1 M50 Digital Music Player NDS Network Player NDX Network Player ND5 XS Network Playe
32. tend terminology meant for the network scenario if the terminology were brilliant Unfortunately it is not Rendering is a term borrowed from computer graphics where it refers to the process of generating an image from a model e g a wireframe sketch The samples that we want to convey to the DAC to produce the desired analog output are not a model of an analog signal they are a digital representation of the signal Media converter would have been a better description of the device Note that this defect applies to video as well so even in the context of UPnP renderer was a bad choice The term is also very techy or as Neil Gader said in a recent review TAS 248 just a bit too Black Ops creepy One final term that is sometimes used in this context is streamer However streaming is used to describe content delivery over the Internet based on the continual download ing of chunks of data rather than a single downloading of an entire file prior to playing it We stream music from services such as Tidal and Spotify and we stream movies from Netflix or Amazon Conceptually the term could be applied to digital music systems because the transfer of digital music over a LAN often but not always occurs in chunks However the potential for confusion with Internet streaming services is too great and some audiophile players actually do download entire files first to avoid the vagaries of the network Stream
33. transcoding using lossy codecs However if you use FLAC in your primary sound archive the original signal is intact so a subsequent conversion to a lossy codec is no worse than encoding using the lossy codec initially On the other hand many portable media players support common codecs including Ogg and FLAC so depending on the choices you make for encoding sound files on the digital music system and for your smart phone you might not encounter this problem Also be aware that some digital music systems offer a limited set of encoders e g only WAV and FLAC If you have any special needs be sure that the system you are considering supports the encoder that you need Most systems support more codecs when playing than they do when ripping Here again you should check if you have special needs but it is unlikely that you will have a problem If you want to be able to play music on a portable device that supports different codecs than the ones you plan to use for your digital music system does the system support transcoding Can it rip to more than one format at the same time Some audiophiles worry that the computational burden on the CPU of decoding encoded digital audio compromises sound quality The scientific basis is tenuous If the CPU is unable to keep up with the timely demands of the DAC Hafler Brings Excitement to Your Ears ie a A Introducing the HA75 tube headphone amp Al Schmitt Chief Engineer Capitol Rec
34. ue concerns only people who rip to WAV Microsoft provided support for only a few tags when they defined the WAV standard However there is now a de facto standard for tagging WAV files by including the information as ID3 tags in an INFO list chunk at the end of the sound file Several music management programs subscribe to this convention If you plan to rip to WAV files and you are worried about future proofing your purchase be aware that other products might not support this standard Conclusion Technological advances tempt us with new capabilities but they also challenge us to abandon the familiar I hope that the information in this article will ease your journey tas Dr Jeffrey Banish is founder and president of 3beex Dr Barish was also founder of Sonic Solutions which introduced his NoNoise system for eliminating noise from audio recordings Awarded a Fellowship by the Audio Engineering Society he served on the review board for the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society for many years ee Oo _K Cables yer and so much more Room Acoustics Hi End and Headphone Library Se EGT 68 HFT and ECT treatments can seriously upgrade both your room Compare top headphones and electronics Money back at home in your own system for satisfaction guaranteed performance and comfort Good people Good advice Great systems one customer at a time 125 Union Square New Hope PA 189
35. ut challenges you confronted when organizing your physical media Frequently asked questions Confusion over terminology is only one of the issues hindering potential buyers In this section I shed light on several others Simply knowing the right questions to ask is more than half the battle How much disk space do need An audio CD can store 737MB of sound data according to Wikipedia After formatting you re lucky if you get 960GB of usable space from a 1TB HDD Thus a 1TB HDD can store just over 1300 CDs without any compression Le WAV files assuming that all CDs are maximally utilized FLAC encoding provides roughly 2 1 lossless compression so a 1TB HDD can store about 2600 CDs if they are so encoded For classical music FLAC does somewhat better perhaps 2 5 1 raising the estimated storage capacity to around 3200 recordings In my experience few people can detect Ogg compression with a quality factor of 6 that quality level provides a compression ratio of around 7 in which case a 1TB HDD can store over 9000 recordings As you are unlikely to need space for that many recordings you could play it safe and use a quality factor of 9 over 5700 recordings or even 10 over 3600 recordings Do you plan to store HD audio downloads in your system as well A recording with a sample rate of 96kHz and 24 bit resolution 24 96 consumes about 3x the disk space of a CD so only about 400 recordings will fit on a 1TB HDD
36. ware does the manufacturer provide support In some cases you will have to post your question at an online forum and wait for someone not necessarily an employee to respond In other cases you will have to contact the dealer Many dealers are happy to sell you a system even though they barely know how the system operates Some companies have the ability to connect to your system with your permission over the Internet so that they can show you exactly how to use the system or so that they can diagnose problems When it comes to support for hardware the problems 46 May June 2015 theabsolute sound that you are most likely to encounter will be related to the connection to your LAN Many manufacturers and dealerships will be reluctant to help you with such problems because they are not strictly speaking related to the product If you plan to use WiFi do you know how to configure it Does the signal from yout wireless access point AP extend to your audio system If not do you know how to solve the problem using a WiFi range extender a second AP powerline Ethernet or MoCA Do you know how to use Windows Explorer or Mac OSX Finder to access files on remote systems on your LAN Once these things are set up they usually work effortlessly but getting them set up can be a challenge Does the system support gapless playback On some recordings successive tracks are supposed to play without a pause One famous example is Dark Side
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