Recent content by philbirch

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    Ripping Vinyl to Flac....Help!

    If its just the volume of the recording it might be worth investigating the ReplyGain tag in the FLAC metadata. Not every player supports it but it allows the gain to changed to normalise play back levels.
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    HDTracks - Audiophile-quality downloads.......not exactly

    I agree with you. I've had some great sounding music from HD-tracks - but not with a 100% success rate. I always do some research now on the sound quality before openning the wallet.
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    Does Volume Leveling Affect Bit Perfect

    I believe the overall loudness of the a track is controlled by the ReplayGain metadata tag so changing this will not affect your bit perfect rip. Not all playback software uses the tag. Since the ReplyGain is applied digitally, the playback will no longer be bit perfect.
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    USB vs. Toslink

    I think it all depends on the specific DAC and macbook as to which sounds best. There are some advantages to both methods but I've come to the conculsion that the specific implementation of the technology has a greater impact than the choice of technology. The only way to know is to do a blind...
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    USB vs. Toslink

    I think it all depends on the specific DAC and macbook as to which sounds best. There are some advantages to both methods but I've come to the conculsion that the specific implementation of the technology has a greater impact than the choice of technology. The only way to know is to do a blind...
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    External soundcard for laptop

    Rather than a sound card with an optical out, I would suggest a dedicated USB to SPDIF converter such as the Music Fidelity V-link 192.
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    Music Fidelity M1 for 320kbps MP3?

    I'd say the M1 would be a big improvement over the computers audio output, but it not worth doing if you are putting into bargin basement speakers.
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    audio cd

    Your CD-ROM drive might actually be outputting its own analogue audio. There is sometimes a cable that connects the cd drive to the sound card directly. This could explain your poor sound. You need to use a Digital Audio Extraction capable media player - this will extract the music digitally...
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    ANY Musical Fidelity V-DAC MKII owners? Need help pls. Very strange USB click noise problem.

    I would ask Music Fidelity directly. It sounds like a faultly DAC to me. (I have an M1-DAC rather than a V-DAC and that doesn't happen)
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    M4A files

    There are several types of m4a files. Lossy and loseless are the main two that are produced by itunes. It could be that your player doesn't recognise one them.
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    Ethernet Switch Device Priority

    It probably will only make a difference if you use all these things at once. HD video and music are more time critical than photos, and general files so I would give them the highest priority.
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    FLAC music stream

    How are you getting the sound into the amplifier? An external DAC or the computers sound card? It sound's like you need an NAS with a Network Streamer if you want to take the laptop out of the equation. Some streamers might be able to mount the USB drive directly removing the need for the NAS...
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    Options: Sonos or Vortex rip thingy... HELP

    I use a Vortexbox straight into my DAC via USB. I control it with my iphone and it works great.
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    Upgrade help

    I've currently got an old NAD C340 amp and a pair of Mission 780SE speakers that I'm planning on replacing. I guess the speakers were purchased about 1995 and the amp about 2000 I'm using a Music Fidelity M1 DAC driven from a linux server via a Music Fidelity V-Link192. This weekend I tried a...