best way of listening to Studio Master FLAC through Grado GS1000 cans?

[gooner26]

i am a novice so please be gentle, is it just a case of purchasing say a Sneaky Music DS , then in turn connecting the sneaky DS to my laptop and also to say a high quality headphone amp like the graham slee solo? thanks very much.

 

[Anonymous]

Also check products listed on this thread;

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/best-amp-grado-gs1000-constraints-339105/

Should help you out a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

Just download the files to your laptop, and use in conjunction with a DAC capable of those high resolutions.

A MacBook will output 24/96 natively from its built-in opticial port.

 

[John Duncan]

gooner26:i am a novice so please be gentle, is it just a case of purchasing say a Sneaky Music DS , then in turn connecting the sneaky DS to my laptop and also to say a high quality headphone amp like the graham slee solo? thanks very much.

or you could miss out the Sneaky and just use your laptop as a source, add a DAC and headphone amp and you're away (for about 600 quid less).

 

[daveyjay]

I`m glad I`ve picked up on this thread early - there`s a question I`ve been meaning to ask. I`m a novice, just like the originator. I`m thinking about getting a Beresford 7520. Am I right in thinking that I can just hook it up to my laptop, plug in my Grado SR60s and off I go? If I rip my cd collection to my laptop using Window`s Media Player Lossless, or whatever, I`ll be getting cd quality sound out of my Grados through the Beresford, correct? If I`m way off the mark, tell me - I can take it.

 

[The_Lhc]

Don't use Windows Media Player, it's rubbish, use FLAC and something like DBPowerAmp or MediaMonkey.

 

[daveyjay]

Why does it make a difference? If it`s a lossless format, then it`s a lossless format, isn`t it? It`s just 1s and 0s, surely?

 

[The_Lhc]

Windows Media Player is not very well regarded for the quality of it's ripping by all accounts.

I can't comment personally, I've never used it (DbPowerAmp for me), but a number of people on here have stated they find WMP rips inferior to other software.

 

[Anonymous]

Although WMP might not be fashionable, its WAV rips are bit-for-bit identical to one from EAC.

What we are seeing here are audiophile prejudices.

I personally dislike the WMP interface though. I use iTunes as the Macs have built-in optical that are bit perfect to 24/96, and iTunes can be controlled by iTouch very nicely.

 

[The_Lhc]

Don't think the OP was using WAV though.

 

[Anonymous]

the_lhc:Don't think the OP was using WAV though.

Lossless

...

is

...

lossless

 

[The_Lhc]

does WMP even support FLAC? I've never managed to get it to work and I'm pretty sure you can't rip to FLAC from WMP. Well, not last time I looked anyway, although that was a little while ago.

 

[daveyjay]

Hang on guys, you`re losing me again. As Eddie Pound states - lossless is lossless, is`nt it? This is not a rhetorical question, it`s a genuine question. I don`t know anything about anything, but this is how I see it from what I`ve read so far (which is not much): I put a cd into the disc drive of my laptop or pc, choose to rip losslessly, and that`s what happens - it takes all the 1s and 0s from the cd and stores them as 1s and 0s and my computer`s hard drive. Is this difference in the quality of software that people speak about something to do with the way the information is stored, or read...or what? Again, when it comes to actually listening to the music that is stored as 1s and 0s on your computer, it`s all about the DAC, amp and speakers/headphones - these are what determine the quality of sound, yes? no?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes.

Lossless is lossless.

When an Apple Lossless, FLAC or WMP Lossless is extracted to WAV all files will be identical.

 

[PJPro]

daveyjay:[snip]....it takes all the 1s and 0s from the cd and stores them as 1s and 0s and my computer`s hard drive......[snip]
That's what happens when all is well. But it does depend somewhat on the ability of the software to detect when something isn't quite right and what it subsequently does about it.

So, something like EAC will run a test read and then re-read the track and see if it gets the same result both times. If it doesn't, it keeps re-reading until it gets two identical reads. It also performs error correction.....but I don't know what it does to achieve this.

Once the rip is complete, it compares the read results with an online database of results for that particular CD and notifies the user if the results differ.

I don't know about other ripping software because I only use EAC.

 

[PJPro]

daveyjay:[snip]....it takes all the 1s and 0s from the cd and stores them as 1s and 0s and my computer`s hard drive......[snip]
That's what happens when all is well. But it does depend somewhat on the ability of the software to detect when something isn't quite right and what it subsequently does about it.

So, something like EAC will run a test read and then re-read the track and see if it gets the same result both times. If it doesn't, it keeps re-reading until it gets two identical reads. It also performs error correction.....but I don't know what it does to achieve this.

Once the rip is complete, it compares the read results with an online database of results for that particular CD and notifies the user if the results differ.

I don't know about other ripping software because I only use EAC.