Musical – Hi-fi News, opinions and other miscellanea

My sentiments entirely

Posted on 20090516 by Steve

Very interested to read on Amarra’s website and I paraphrase ‘it’s easy to make music sound good on a computer but hard to make it sound fabulous’. I think they have been listening to my conversations.

Next week I’m in Munich for the High End show and by coincidence will be sharing a booth (or to be more exact one of my clients Thorens is sharing a booth themed Sources of the future as it’s vinyl and streaming with Higoto who are Germany’s streaming experts.

The demos will be of Thoren’s new Tri-Balance turntable, the Logitech Transporter and a Macbook running iTunes with the Amarra software into a Weiss DAC.

ASIO v K Mixer v Kernel Streaming

Posted on 20090506 by Steve

Computer audio seems to generate emotions when discussing what products to use that really are odd. Ideally one would take a computer, connect a good DAC and play one’s favourite music using one’s favourite app.

If only it were that simple. The more I experiment the more I realise that CA is absolutely similar to analog audio or indeed any audio when taken seriously. Every change is audible.

Of course, just because a change is audible doesn’t mean it matters.

The expression bandied about on forums about Computer Audio is bit transparent. The theory is simple: it’s getting the bits from the Hard Drive out of the computer without them being manipulated/changed in any way.

I’ve tried many music playing apps and they all seem to sound subtly different. Even different releases of iTunes are reported to sort different. Life is far to short to bother to try different releases. As they say tried it once and didn’t like it.

For convenience for quick playback I tend to use VLC www.videolan.org. It seems to play almost everything audio and video and can even stream stuff over my network. It works well for Radio Paradise too.

Times Online reports younger music fans deaf

Posted on 20090505 by Steve

Jonathan Berger, Professor of Music at Stanford University, California has theorised that young people are getting used to the sound of MP3s to the point where they are beginning to prefer the sound . For the past eight years his students have taken part in an experiment in which they listen to songs in a variety of different forms, including MP3s. “I found not only that MP3s were not thought of as low quality, but over time there was a rise in preference for MP3s,” Professor Berger said.

Another DacMagic power supply trial

Posted on 20090504 by Steve

Decided to use Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, but slightly more unusually the DVD-A rip so the source is 24/96. Unlike quite a few DVD-A’s this one appears to have some content above 22k. Amazing though that given the total available dynamic range they still needed to ‘clip’ the recording. Still sounds rather good though.
To start I compared the standard power supply with the MaplinL54BR. Pleasant surprise, the Maplin delivers a subtlety of delivery that doesn’t emphasise any particular instruments. The original in comparison seems to make the bass line and the hi-hat a little more obvious in the mix of Dreams and decreases the importance of Stevie Nick’s voice.

Wolfgang’s Vault

Posted on 20090429 by Steve

This site should truly sort the music lover from the hi-fi lover. Register for free on www.wolfgangsvault.com and listen to a choice of a huge amount of live recordings of great bands from years ago. So far I’ve listened to Elton John, Black Sabbath, Little Feat and Grateful Dead.

Naim launches NaimUniti

Posted on 20090219 by Steve

On demonstration for the first time at the Bristol Sound and Vision show February 20-22, and on sale from April 2009, the NaimUniti – the more music box – will deliver the customary Naim sound quality and emotional connection to music to a new generation of customers as well as existing ones. Naim developed the…

Funk LP12 Vector Link

Posted on 20081214 by Steve

All the kit of parts of my new Funk Vector Link arrived on Friday. Fit and finish look good. Reading through the installation instructions it appears that there is a good deal of work to do in fitting it. Not being a LP12 guru I have asked a friend who is to assist with the…