Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] SACD and DVD-A recordings?
MahlerFreak;182828 Wrote: I have been using a player modified by these folks: http://dvdupgrades.ch/digital_audio.html for a couple of years now to convert SACD to 24bit 88.2 Khz PCM for input into my Meridian system (which doesn't have DSD digital input). It outputs 24/96 from DVD-Audio, too. I haven't tried to use it to rip audio, though, and I doubt I will - it would be awfully cumbersome and slow, in the best case. I've seen this system, it's interesting. It is certainly an option for ripping as well, but the downside of a hell of a lot of diskspace etc are still there of course. I had another problem when I experimented with higher sampling frequencies as well (which was another reason I shelved it); I'm using a SoftSqueeze to play the music from Slimserver through my soundcard (Lynx Two) connected further to upsampler + DAC. It turned out (about 1 year ago, don't know if it has been fixed) that SoftSqueeze did not check the sample frequency in the sound file (or if it was Slimserver, don't know). What happened was that when I played a 48 kS/s file through Slimserver + SoftSqueeze, the sound was sent out as 44.1 kS/s. I could then only get it right if I manually adjusted the master clock, i.e. my soundcard clock to 48 kHz. This option is no option, I can't keep track of which soundfile is which sample frequency and I can't handle this with a little IPAQ as remote. I needed Slimserver + Softsqueeze to correctly identify the sample frequency in the file and send it at the correct rate. Apparently not working at least a year ago. I tried using other players (on pure WAV files) and that worked fine, sample rate switched where it should. So it seemed to be a Slimserver/Softqueeze thing. Anyway - ripping SACD, even if ripping it to 44.1 kS/s can actually sometimes also be interesting. One example is the old Mercury Living Presence recordings. They were remastered in the early 1990's to CD by Wilma Cozart herself with very good result. Lately, they have come out on SACD as well, now remastered again from the original source (35 mm film). But the CD layer on the SACD's is the older Wilma Cozart remastering. By ripping such a SACD and downsampling to CD (44.1), it is possible that the sound quality is better than if you rip the CD layer. After all there is 10-15 years between the Cozart remaster and the newer SACD remaster so technology could have improved. I have thought about trying this just for fun, but it is a lot of work so I'll probably shelf that project... 'Using FLAC lossless encoding for streaming hifi' (http://www.lossless-music.net) -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32976 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] SACD and DVD-A recordings?
Ripping SACD's can be done but has a couple of major drawbacks: 1) It takes expensive equipment (see below) 2) It takes a lot-of-hard-disk-space!!! 3) It is difficult to play the high resolution music. Slimserver/Squeezebox/Transporter etc can't do it, you need other players. Even so, you may not get the full resolution when playing. How to do it: You need a SACD player with a digital out, this is the expensive bit. A dCS Verdi will sort it, but it will set you back a serious amount of money. The digital out will be a firewire. The format of the audio is not PCM, as pointed out above, but rather DSD and it is copy protected (that is a native feature of the firewire). So you need to shift it over to a non-copy protected format. To do this, you can use a digital filter like the dCS Purcell. That is a digital up/down sampler. The later versions of this will take firewire input (DSD format) and resample/reformat it to whatever you like and what you like here is Dual AES. The AES format contains no copy protection, so the Purcell kindly removes the protection and puts out a 192 kS/s PCM formatted audio signal. Now, handling this signal is a bit of a nightmare. The dual AES means exactly that; It is two AES cables. You want to feed this into a computer sound card and record the digital signal to hard disk. Unfortunately, not many soundcards will handle a dual AES which is a pretty extreme format. You can find one though, but it will again set you back a lot of money. The whole setup of a dCS SACD player, a digital filter and a soundcard able to receive the 192 kS/s signal is - expensive. I don't know of any other consumer SACD player capable of producing digital DSD out, but they might exist. There is also some studio equipment, notably dCS again, that can do this. I've compared the quality of SACD to an upsampled 44.1 kS/s source of the same music (so the CD layer of an SACD recording) and the quality difference is there, but it is small. I haven't found it worth bothering really so I use streaming audio via Slimserver and 44.1 kS/s into an upsampler and very rarely actually play an SACD recording. Some general info on high quality streaming audio is here: http://www.lossless-music.net [/shameless plug] -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32976 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] TP: Upsample any source up to 96 kHz in slimserver?
I got hold of a second hand upsampler about a year ago, a dCS Purcell. I was using that between my SB3 and my DAC (another dCS thing). Initially, I had only the SB3 + the DAC and I did notice a large improvement when adding the upsampler in between. Things I noticed in particular was: Well defined instruments in an orchestra, such as triangles etc, got rock solid in location with the upsampler. Without it, they were slightly floating sideways. In one recording I have three male singers appearing on stage, and when switching in the upsampler, I could locate each voice precisely (even though they apparently were very close on stage). Without the upsampler, they all appeared to come from the same point. I noticed many other similar things and these are usually connected to jitter (or the lack of jitter) so I agree, the upsampler certainly seems to improve on the jitter situation. I might add that I later left the SB3 due to the lack of external clocking connector (this was just before the Transporter came out) and got a professional soundcard instead so I could use a central clock for the system. I would probably have gone for a Transporter though if it had been available at the time, even though I'm using an external DAC. I am a great fan of Slim Devices gadgets and of Slimserver in particular so I've done some promoting here: http://www.lossless-music.net [/shameless plug] -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32940 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB3 + high end DAC versus high end CD Player?
reeve_mike Wrote: Hi I have close to 500 SACDs so I am keeping mine :-) Mike You could of course rip them as wellbut it would take a serious amount of disk space. I've been thinking of simply feeding the Purcell (via the FireWire) the output from a SACD, then lifting that signal off the (single or dual) AES-EBU output from the Purcell (there is no copy protection in that format) - and feeding it into a professional sound card and simply record it. Haven't got around to testing it properly though since I think (my opinion, but I fully accept others having other views) SACD is only marginally better than an upsampled CD. -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24670 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB3 + high end DAC versus high end CD Player?
reeve_mike Wrote: I have two sources: a SB a dcs Verdi. For CD replay these feed a dcs Elgar+ via a dcs Purcell upsampler. The whole replay chain is synch'ed via a dcs Verona clock (the SB path is modified to include a word clock input). If I have ripped a CD I play it via the SB; not the Verdi, why would I ...? That is interesting - I have a very similar setup but I gave up on the Squeezebox used for transporting sound in any form, too many shortages (audiophile-wise). The things I really wanted to have were: 1) A word clock input on the SB 2) Balanced digital output And since I couldn't see myself hacking into the SB, I went for another solution: I got a professional sound card for PC with all the above included and I run a media PC (a silent build thing) with SoftSqueeze feeding the dCS system through the digital out from the soundcard. SoftSqueeze is then synchronized to a SB3 so I actually use the SB as a display and control unit. It works well, but with some minor irritating things like a very small gap between tracks due to the synch solution used. What I wonder here is - how did you get the wordclock sorted (is someone doing this as an add-on?) and since I assume you could not get balanced (AES-EBU) output from the SB3 - don't you then get a slightly better sound via the Verdi connected with XLR to the DAC? Quality-wise, I must say though that I just about never use the Verdi. Not even very often for SACD's since I feel that the quality from Red Book in the Slimserver-dCS system is so good, it's hardly worth the extra hassle for a minor increase (SACD). I have had thoughts of selling the Verdi - but then again, I'm probably not there yet. It feels strange to take the step to absolutely no CD-player. -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24670 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SoftSqueeze and 24/96
Thanks for the tip - but it won't work in my case (I think). The media server (PC) will be controlled via a SB3 and a remote (don't want keyboard + screen in my sitting room). SoftSqueeze on the PC will be slaved to the hardware SB3 which then will work as a nice interface only - no sound will flow through SB3. For this to work, I need the player on the PC to be SoftSqueeze (or any other compatible player which can be slaved to the SB3). -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22271 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] SoftSqueeze and 24/96
Hi! Does anyone know if Slimserver + SoftSqueeze supports 24/96 files (FLAC preferably, otherwise WAV)? I know SB3 doesn't (yet!) - but I'm planning to build a media server (for audiophile reasons) with a professional sound card and I just wonder if it will able to play 24/96 (or 24/192). The sound card will support that and so does my external DAC. Haven't managed to find any documentation on this (high bitrates through SoftSqueeze), all info/discussion about 24/96 is mainly whether SB2/3 will be able to do it and when. I managed to get hold of a 24/96 sample file but that only comes out as white noise in my PC...I assume my current normal sound card doesn't support that, so unable to test at the moment. -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22271 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
Thank's for the Big Ben tip - but now I've already bought or ordered most components for the media server so I'm sort of stuck with that. And then of course I'll get a convenient way of watching those .avi files that are such a nightmare to re-code for burning DVD's. Anyway the dCS gear; I got in at a good price for the Delius + Purcell. Second hand purchase, ok that was a lot of money but still much below half the new price. My previous equipment was all Linn (Karik + Numerik etc). I got the Delius first. When I switched in that - it was as if a new window into my CD's had opened. I expected a small-ish improvement, but it wasn't. I heard a lot of things I had never heard before, more bass, better imaging. Also a very annoying drift - like when you hear a very distinct instrument, say the triangle - playing and slightly moving from left to right. We know darn well that the guy isn't moving. That all disappeared with the dCS. Then I switched in the Purcell - that was a smaller improvement (when using CD's) but more with SB3 as source (probably because it re-clocks the signal very accurately, nearly as good as a central clock). The CD is clocked from the DAC so that's probably why that sounds a little bit better. I did some switch in / switch out tests with the Purcell and there was a difference, big enough so I wouldn't be without it now. The music widened with the Purcell. Example: Listening to three male voices singing, standing close together on the scene - with the Purcell I could clearly locate each individual. Without, they were all in the same spot, making it more difficult to follow the plot. There were more differences, more subtle better sound The dCS setup improves HUGHELY on CD's - and it works well for SACD's too. But the fact is that a good CD recording sounds almost as good as a SACD. I now hear much more difference between good and bad CD's than I ever did before. OK, that's it - and this is why I'm chasing the last bits with the SB3. If I get it spot on, I don't even need to keep my CD's. In fact, I'm so sure it will work, I'm already planning a sale over Ebay (and yes - of course I will destroy the backup copies 24 hours after the CD is sold). -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 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] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
...a major advantage to having a PC+soundcard is that with the dCS equipment I can rip SACD's to hard disk. With the soundcard (Lynx Two) I think I can only get a maximum of 96 kS/S on the digital inputs (not entirely sure there) but it is still pretty good. SB3 doesn't support this sample rate so for ripped SACD's I would need some other program for playback - but I'm sure that can be arranged. -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 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] Re: What Amp and Speakers Are You Using?
SB3 - dCS Purcell upsampler 44.1 - 192 - dCS Delius DAC - Linn Klimax Chakra Twin (- Quad 989). -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21643 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: SB-3 and external DAC
Hi! Well, I'm very pleased with my SB3. For the price, it is unbeatable. However, I would have loved an SB3 audiophile version which could be slaved to a word clock and with balanced digital output (AES-EBU). The PSU could possibly be upgraded but that is not as critical as long as we are still in the digital domain and if we have clock sync to the rest of the system. Obviously I don't care about the DAC - an audiophile version SB could be completely without DAC. I have a dCS system (Verdi transport, Delius DAC and a Purcell upsampler) and I have found myself using the SB3 (via upsampling) about 95% of the time. The difference is rather small compared to a CD from the Verdi (but then again, loading it with an SACD is a pretty large difference so I can't get rid of the transport yet). Anyway - I don't think Slim Devices will ever cater for the audiophiles (any further). They have done a good job for the mass market and it is even borderline high-end quality. So - I've just started a project with a media server PC. I've just bought a Lynx Two soundcard (which has word clock, AES-EBU in/out etc). Unfortunately that means I need something to put it in - i.e. a computer next to the stereo. So I found the Zalman TNN300 (Totally No Noise) - a fanless PC chassis. I will simply design a PC with this and the soundcard as a base. I was delighted to find that you could simply synchronise 2 SqueezeBoxes, so I can slave a SoftSqueeze to the physical SB3. That means I can still use the SB3 and the remote to control the music - but in fact it is the SoftSqueeze and the professional sound card that will be connected to the hifi, SB3 will only be the interface. By servicing the SoftSqueeze (i.e. using one of many programs to convert SoftSqueeze into a windows service) I can get it to start automatically so I never need to log on to the media server (don't like Windows here, but the Lynx hasn't got Linux drivers). This will cost around $2000-3000 to implement and that is basically the cost of getting a word clock and balanced interconnection to the SB3. OK, I'll get the spin-off of using the same server for video to our TV so it isn't too bad. It is all much cheaper than a high end transport anyway so I don't complain. It's just a pity they couldn't put the right gear into the SB3 from scratch, that would cost only a fraction of this. But I accept the mass market thing...SB3 is still the neatest interface I've seen and I will use it as that (only). -- CarlOtto CarlOtto's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3581 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
