Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
I got a great tip from a Toslink user, Victor Lee, at another audio forum ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). He soldered in a 0.1 uF ceramic cap between the 5V pin and the ground pin of the Toslink module of his SB1 and got much better sound. He found that there was no local filtering for the toslink transmitter of the SB1. I have SB2s and I have done the same treatment for it. The result was much smoother sound with clearer bass extension. I have no idea if the SB3 is equipped with the filtering or not, but if you are a SB3 user, you should check. I highly recommend this minor tweak to the Toslink users. Hiroyuki On Dec 2, 2005, at 12:58 AM, PhilNYC wrote: ezkcdude Wrote: So, which do you prefer? I've always heard that the coaxial output was better than toslink. I recently did an A/B test between a Wireworld SuperNova 5 glass toslink cable and an Acoustic Zen Silver Byte coax digital cable and strongly preferred the AZ Silver Byte. Deeper soundstage, more open sound, etc. A friend also did the same test in his system and preferred the Wireworld toslink; felt it had better pace and immediacy. So...personal taste has a lot to do with it... -- PhilNYC Sonic Spirits Inc. http://www.sonicspirits.com -- -- PhilNYC's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=837 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17948 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
Hiroyuki Hamada wrote: I got a great tip from a Toslink user, Victor Lee, at another audio forum ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). He soldered in a 0.1 uF ceramic cap between the 5V pin and the ground pin of the Toslink module of his SB1 and got much better sound. He found that there was no local filtering for the toslink transmitter of the SB1. Sean, Any comment on the above? ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Best mod?
sleepysurf Wrote: FYI, the off-the-shelf Elpac linear PSU that most folks were originally recommending was the Elpac WM075-1950-760 (not the WM050-) I bought mine from electronicsurplus.com However, I believe the WM075- model is/was in limited supply, so perhaps folks tried the lower powered model and found it suitable as well. I'm not an EE, but perhaps somebody else with sufficient knowledge can chime in. Looks like Elpac upgraded this (at least the model No.) to WM080-. It's $28.70 at allied electronics. -- mbonsack mbonsack's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1398 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18491 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Accuracy of EAC
In 99.% of cases you won't lose anything, so in theory it will still be lossless. But then it's jumbled up lossless which on studio albums won't matter so much as most tracks start/end with silence. But on a live album you'll have a nanosecond of the applause at the start of the next track etc. When dealing with lossless nanoseconds are important! I've thought sometimes to go through a few of the popular CD's and produce a list of fingerprints of the tracks (FLACs) so another user could do the same to ensure correct offset. One stage further than this could be fingerprinting the file 2000 times with a fake -1000 to +1000 offset (I chose these numbers cause I don't think offsets get any bigger). User could then see exactly what there offset needs to be without relying on EAC's old mysterious internal checking. -- Jim Jim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=213 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18717 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Best mod?
Nope, the WM080 has entirely different specs. See spec comparison here... http://www.elpac.com/uploads/documents/datasheets/WM%20REV%20A.pdf -- sleepysurf squeezebox2 (with elpac wm075-1950-760 linear psu) direct to amp using slimserver preamp vol control, 300gb buffalo linkstation (remote flac audio file storage), sunfire cinema grand 200 ~five (vertically bi-amped) driving martin-logan aerius i's, blue jeans cables. 'Click to see pix of my system' (http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=732) sleepysurf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=14 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18491 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Receiver / Speaker Recommendations?
For 2-channel listening, I have my sights set on: a parasound Zamp v3 http://tinyurl.com/7kwce) and Energy C-3 speakers http://tinyurl.com/cy43a They're a little over your budget as priced, but have near-universal rave reviews. The Energy's in particular are a steal at $300. The Zamp has a remote power on feature and line attenuators that make it particularly suitable for the SB. Good luck! -- Duman Duman's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=809 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18704 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Audiophile review of SB3
tomsi42 Wrote: I am not sure if it will help. It probably depends on your kit. But if it costs $7 or $10, it is worth a try. Personally I like to compare cables once in a while, but in a sensible pricerange. But that's me. I looked at the Elpac supplies (specifically the WM080-1950-760) at Allied Electronic's and it's almost $30. Where can you get a decent supply for $7 to $10? -- mbonsack mbonsack's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1398 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18660 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Accuracy of EAC
pfarrell Wrote: The idea of having an AccurateRip process so that many users can compare each others work is great. And adding a track-level checksum to the SlimServer db is just a SMOP. Did I mention Slim, Slimserver, Squeezebox or even SlimMP3 in my post? No. This idea had nothing to do with either. -- Jim Jim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=213 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18717 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Accuracy of EAC
On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 10:38 -0800, Jim wrote: Did I mention Slim, Slimserver, Squeezebox or even SlimMP3 in my post? This idea had nothing to do with either. Jesus, lighten up. Why did you post on the SlimDevices audiophile list/forum? -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Quick question: CD's per hard drive
Thanks for the suggestions - I'm busily copying CDs to *.wav files via EAC. I used the settings for EAC recommended at the Hydrogenaudio website. Question(s) about FLAC - I haven't been able to find any suggestions on what settings to use with it. The FLAC website doesn't seem to explain much about the GUI or the various settings, surprisingly. For example, what level of encoding do I want to use (it defaults to Level 6) Should I check or uncheck replay gain (and what does it do anyways?) I have Verify, and Add Tags checked. Replay Gain, Align on Sector Boundaries, and Cuesheet are unchecked. Ogg-Flac and Decode through Errors are both unchecked. Thanks! -- Cleve Two-channel system; McIntosh MC2205 amplifier McIntosh MAC4100 receiver Klipsch CF-4 speakers Denon DR-M3 Cassette Deck Cleve's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2048 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18552 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Accuracy of EAC
pfarrell Wrote: Jesus, lighten up. Why did you post on the SlimDevices audiophile list/forum? It was a EAC question, should it have been posted on EAC's forum? The original poster was finding issues that we've all had in not having CD's that the EAC author had. Maybe if he posted the titles/serial numbers/barcodes of some of these CD's maybe someone else who is confident their EAC is set correctly and has ripped them could supply him with their FLAC fingerprints for checking. Then I thought some would be interested in an idea to automate this sort of thing, as in some areas EAC is clearly lacking. -- Jim Jim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=213 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18717 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Accuracy of EAC
On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 11:05 -0800, Jim wrote: pfarrell Wrote: Why did you post on the SlimDevices audiophile list/forum? It was a EAC question, should it have been posted on EAC's forum? There is a slim-oriented ripping forum/list Most of the slim devices forums/lists have a lot to do with squeezeboxen, slimservers, etc. I personally don't rip/extract/or compress CDs except to play on my SqueezeBoxen. The original poster was finding issues that we've all had in not having CD's that the EAC author had. Which is one of the good things that the AccurateRip folks are doing, listing calibration CDs, values, etc. (the EAC author) Maybe if he posted the titles/serial numbers/barcodes of some of these CD's maybe someone else Might be good, but I can't complain about a guy who writes free software that is useful. Not perfect, but useful. Why not write him, as it is unlikely that he reads these SqueezeBox oriented lists. confident their EAC is set correctly and has ripped them could supply him with their FLAC fingerprints for checking. Which gets into questions about what is set correctly, what does that mean, etc. And the AccurateRip approach is one that works for some people. Its free as well, so if one is a Windows user, it is an option to consider. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
PhilNYC Wrote: A good high end DAC is going to have a few advantages over the SB3. First and foremost, there is an opportunity to design a more sophisticated analog output; even from just a materials quality perspective, this is possible. Beyond that, power supply quality, physical isolation of circuits etc are things that a high end DAC can offer that the SB3 cannot. Comparing a high-end external DAC to the stock SB is unfair, IMHO. Full mods by Bolder or Red Wine Audio cost around $500, or about half of what a Benchmark costs, with more or less the same advantages but with less circuitry, less cabling, and higher-end passive parts in the modded SB. -- vdorta vdorta's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1446 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17948 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Pre-emphasis
Pre-emphasis. A now seemingly obsolete Red-book CD spec flag, not used these days but appearing on old pressings of some CD's and some new classical ones apparently. http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-copy/19034-pre-emphasis-use-eac.html http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=38312st=0 Other than using cue sheets it seems even FLAC is not geared up to handle this, I'd of thought in a .flac file there'd be a flag to at least pass to the decoder? EAC notices it in most cases and applies to any cue sheet made, but there is a detection bug (see threads above). One could apply the effect manually on a audio file, but then it's not lossless. What does the Squeezebox hardware do with pre-emphasis (traditionally it is the role of the CD player to apply it). A board search reveals this hasn't been discussed before. -- Jim Jim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=213 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18738 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Pre-emphasis
A board search reveals this hasn't been discussed before. And for that, let us give thanks. http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocf1010a.htm -- JJZolx Jim JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18738 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Pre-emphasis
JJZolx Wrote: And for that, let us give thanks. http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocf1010a.htm haha. I humbly salute your thank you. Yes, I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Lossless Disorder. But to get back on topic, this is actually an audio issue, it affects the audio, it questions the true losslessness of the Squeezebox and raises a question about FLAC. So IMHO it deserves to be noted, commented on or at least appearing in the search results of somebody thinking about it in the future. -- Jim Jim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=213 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18738 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Quick question: CD's per hard drive
Cleve Wrote: Question(s) about FLAC - I haven't been able to find any suggestions on what settings to use with it. The FLAC website doesn't seem to explain much about the GUI or the various settings, surprisingly. For example, what level of encoding do I want to use (it defaults to Level 6) Should I check or uncheck replay gain (and what does it do anyways?) I have Verify, and Add Tags checked. Replay Gain, Align on Sector Boundaries, and Cuesheet are unchecked. Ogg-Flac and Decode through Errors are both unchecked. Thanks! type flac -help at a command prompt for details on the switches. Level of encoding isn't that important, you'll get the same audio quality. Replay gain causes a tag to be added which a player program can use to normalise all the tracks you are playing to a consistent loudness. Be careful doing WAV first with EAC and then producing FLAC separately: the advantage ofgoing straight to FLAC is that EAC will look up the metadata and populate your tag information for you, which won't happen if you do it in separate steps - you'll have to use something else for the lookup. Ceejay -- ceejay ceejay's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=148 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18552 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Pre-emphasis
On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 14:47 -0800, Jim wrote: Anyhow, I was thinking pretty much along the same lines as you but then I found this: http://www.digital-inn.de/105765-post13.html Interesting. Of course, pre-emphasis was specified for a reason, and it was supposed to make the music more realistic. Do you have other citations on what the curve should be? Since the RedBook was essentially pre-microcontroller, I expect that you can implement it in a simple LRC circuit, the cited article talks about just pushing it thru a multiband EQ. And I did look at the FLAC spec before posting, and saw no mention of it other than it being held in cuesheet-embeded FLAC's. That's kinda weird. I'd expect it to be in the header metadata within each track if it was supported at all. Not that having it be half implemented would surprise me. I'd guess that this correction belongs server side, mostly because server side cycles are free. And because mere mortals can program plugins on the server. Might be fun to whip up a quick query tool to see how many tracks folks have in their libraries, if any, that have the flag set. I'd guess that none of the MP3 packages know about it, from the German site above, most of the CDs are classical or jazz, and the early MP3 dudes mostly rocked. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
What model are you suggesting? I'm not suggesting or recommending a specific model. There are in fact many contenders depending on one's taste. I own an example, but there are many more to be found. My point was that you don't have to spend a grand on a DAC to get a decent one. The DAC's I own are built by an engineer in Taiwan who builds under the label MHDT labs and sells via ebay. He builds non-oversampling DACs based on the 1543 and the 1545 chips. I own both the Digital Dialogue II and the Digital Renaissance which is similar, but has a pencil tube in the output section. Dialogue II: http://tinyurl.com/b5l88 It doesn't look like he has any Renaissance DAC's on sale now, but he has added other models to his lineup. And how do you compare it to the built in DAC in the SB3? wrt to the DAC the diff would be: Non-oversampling vs. oversampling. wrt to the difference in sound, I have not made a critical comparison. Right now I use the analog outputs from the sb3 in my room to feed a cheap 100wpc Pioneer receiver into Alesis Monitor Twos. I use the digital output into the Dialogue II and then into a Singlepower PPX3 into Senn HD600's. The headphone rig sounds wonderful. There are other regarded DAC's in the price range. Long list of DACs: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=139906 (mhdt dac, moodlab dac) http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=140074 Another DAC: http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=139545 -- dwc dwc's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1892 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=17948 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
