DacMagic and general digital/computer based audio questions... Please help!

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Hey there folks

I've just purchased a CA DacMagic for the main reason of listening to music through my computer (and to see if I get an upgrade in sound from my 640C v2).

My questions are as follows...

  • I have currently connected my DM to my laptop using the USB connection, I have heard from various posts that the USB connection can be detrimental to the data, if so what is the best connection to use and why?
  • I intend to convert my CD's into lossless audio files, I am familiar with the Apple lossless and FLAC file types, are there anymore types of files I should consider when wanting to convert my CD collection into lossless?
  • Are all lossless audio formats of equal quality and can anyone reccomend a program for encoding these file types?
  • If anyone is fimilar with the filter settings on the DacMagic could they please expalin in layman's terms the benefits/disadvantages of each of the filters.
  • To the best of my knowledge CD's are encoded at 16bit/44.1khz, I have seen flac files at 24/96 but surely these files come from the same 16/44 CD's? Is it worth upscaling a lossless file from a CD? and what are the advantages/disadvantages?

Thankyou in advance for all your help and time on these questions...

Gary
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hello,ÿ

1) If you have an optical out on your laptop and are willing to sacrifice your hard earned wages on a digital optical cable I would go that route. The differences are minute and through budget systems it is questionable, on the other hand it will open up another USB port.

2) What type of laptop do you have? Do you use itunes? AIFF and FLAC are the ones I'd go for given your circumstances.

3) Sound quality yes, though different file types have different qualities for different reasons. What OS are you on?

4) No.

5) Very high quality download sites now encode their files at 24/96, they are few and far between. To my knowledge of the DM it will output a 16 at 16. DACs a little more expensive are much better at upsampling, I'm not sure what will happen with the DM to be honest, it could be worse.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Cheers for the link PJ, I thought this wouldn't happen for some time. exciting. I will now try.
 

chebby

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Jun 2, 2008
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Don't you just love Stereophile?!

They say (in Gary's link above)...

"By contrast, it is possible to operate the USB interface in what is called "asynchronous mode," which allows the DAC to control the flow of data from the PC, which in turn very much reduces the amount of jitter. However, at the time of writing, there were very few USB DACs available that operated in this mode. The least expensive is the Wavelength Cosecant ($3500)" (My emphasis)

Oh yes, 'time of writing' was this month.

I have just ordered a USB DAC for £105 that operates asynchronously. There are a few others for similar prices and of course the new DacMagic is asynchronous. Cambridge Audio say it is here... http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/assets/documents/DACMagic2_A5.pdf where they call it ATF (adaptive time filtering).

I guess nothing below $3500 is detected by Stereophile's radar :)
 
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Anonymous

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In your opinion do you think the advantages of feeding the DacMagic with an optical signal rather than USB are minute???
 
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Anonymous

Guest
It depends what you refer to as minute. The science or the sound. I would always choose S/PDIF over USB and I can't use coax. It's up to you I guess.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I'm purely interested in sound quality, as I can appreciate the science is different.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
PJPro:How do you say S/PDIF?

sccchhpdiff to quote Steve McLaren.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Gary, did you get an answer to the last part of your question about the 16/44.1KHz and 24/96 FLAC as I don't remember that Stereophile article mentioning it. Short answer is no, most lossless encoders do the work for you and don't give the choice anyway. You didn't mention if you are using a Mac or Windows computer - or if you are using an iPod. If you are using a Mac or even if you have a Windows computer and use an iPod, I would stay with Apple Lossless over FLAC. Lossless files are a wash as far as quality differences and since iTunes doesn't work natively with FLAC and there is currently no way to get an iPod to work with FLAC files, its just more trouble than its worth for no benefit. I have tried the Fluke plug-in when I started buying high resolution FLAC files and wanted them in my iTunes library. It can work, but I found it very flakey as to its ability to recognize all FLAC files and playing them back in iTunes was a little too hit or miss. Maybe in the future it will be a better option as I"m sure somebody will eventually add the ability to play back FLAC in iTunes dependably but for now, Apple Lossless is the way to go. If you buy or have FLAC files you want to add to iTunes, I use Max which converts lossless FLAC to Apple Lossless perfectly.ÿ

ÿIf you do use Windows and have a different media player besides iTunes, then I'd use EAC (exact audio copy) which does a great job of getting a perfect lossless FLAC rip of your CD. If using a Mac, I'd use iTunes with error correction turned on to get Apple Lossless rips or use MAX which also has a great ripper included, I'd turn on 'full paranoia' mode as it checks its rips to make sure it got a good copy. I'd also add to the comments that said to use optical/SPDIF if possible over USB, not because of theÿasynchronous issue in this case, simply because the USB input on the DacMagic is limited to 16bit/44.1KHz files whereas the optical connection is not. Either way, you should get a real benefit by including the DacMagic in between the computer and amp wether using USB or optical. Finally, haven't looked into the filter settings technically and have been playing around with them myself and haven't decided which I like best so if there is somebody here that can speak up to the benefits I'd apprecaite it too... ÿ

- Mark (PJPro, mcd0234 is a mouthful, started using it years ago as it was always available so its easy for me to remember now!)
 
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Anonymous

Guest
mcd0234:
Gary, did you get an answer to the last part of your question about the 16/44.1KHz and 24/96 FLAC as I don't remember that Stereophile article mentioning it. Short answer is no, most lossless encoders do the work for you and don't give the choice anyway. You didn't mention if you are using a Mac or Windows computer - or if you are using an iPod. If you are using a Mac or even if you have a Windows computer and use an iPod, I would stay with Apple Lossless over FLAC. Lossless files are a wash as far as quality differences and since iTunes doesn't work natively with FLAC and there is currently no way to get an iPod to work with FLAC files, its just more trouble than its worth for no benefit. I have tried the Fluke plug-in when I started buying high resolution FLAC files and wanted them in my iTunes library. It can work, but I found it very flakey as to its ability to recognize all FLAC files and playing them back in iTunes was a little too hit or miss. Maybe in the future it will be a better option as I"m sure somebody will eventually add the ability to play back FLAC in iTunes dependably but for now, Apple Lossless is the way to go. If you buy or have FLAC files you want to add to iTunes, I use Max which converts lossless FLAC to Apple Lossless perfectly.ÿ

ÿIf you do use Windows and have a different media player besides iTunes, then I'd use EAC (exact audio copy) which does a great job of getting a perfect lossless FLAC rip of your CD. If using a Mac, I'd use iTunes with error correction turned on to get Apple Lossless rips or use MAX which also has a great ripper included, I'd turn on 'full paranoia' mode as it checks its rips to make sure it got a good copy. I'd also add to the comments that said to use optical/SPDIF if possible over USB, not because of theÿasynchronous issue in this case, simply because the USB input on the DacMagic is limited to 16bit/44.1KHz files whereas the optical connection is not. Either way, you should get a real benefit by including the DacMagic in between the computer and amp wether using USB or optical. Finally, haven't looked into the filter settings technically and have been playing around with them myself and haven't decided which I like best so if there is somebody here that can speak up to the benefits I'd apprecaite it too... ÿ

- Mark (PJPro, mcd0234 is a mouthful, started using it years ago as it was always available so its easy for me to remember now!)

Well done for your well explained response. I could not have put it more simply myself. Is this not the sort of explanation we should have seen in WHF many moons ago?ÿ
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Thanks for the reply there, I'm using a Vista laptop and will encode my CD's using Exact Copy. I need to add an optical output to my laptop... any reccommendations?

So far I've been looking at the AirportExpress and the M-Audio Transit

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.html

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit.htmlThe M-Audio Transit can output a 24/96 signal, does anyone know if the Airport can do the same?

Can anyone reccommend the quality of USB optical over wireless optical? or will it be identical?ÿ
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Can anyone get Fluke to directly import FLAC to itunes? I've tried setting up a terminal path for it but it doesn't work. Any ideas?ÿ
 

Gerrardasnails

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Sep 6, 2007
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gary_london:
Hey there folks

I've just purchased a CA DacMagic for the main reason of listening to music through my computer (and to see if I get an upgrade in sound from my 640C v2).

My questions are as follows...

  • I have currently connected my DM to my laptop using the USB connection, I have heard from various posts that the USB connection can be detrimental to the data, if so what is the best connection to use and why?
  • I intend to convert my CD's into lossless audio files, I am familiar with the Apple lossless and FLAC file types, are there anymore types of files I should consider when wanting to convert my CD collection into lossless?
  • Are all lossless audio formats of equal quality and can anyone reccomend a program for encoding these file types?
  • If anyone is fimilar with the filter settings on the DacMagic could they please expalin in layman's terms the benefits/disadvantages of each of the filters.
  • To the best of my knowledge CD's are encoded at 16bit/44.1khz, I have seen flac files at 24/96 but surely these files come from the same 16/44 CD's? Is it worth upscaling a lossless file from a CD? and what are the advantages/disadvantages?

Thankyou in advance for all your help and time on these questions...

Gary

I connect my DM to a Windows Media Center Extender (Linksys DMA2100) using coaxial. I rip my cds using WMP into WMA Lossless files. The sound is fantastic. I use the Linear filter setting. I don't notice much difference between the three, although I've not bothered with extensive testing.

To be honest, I thought that FLAC, wav, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, were all the same quality as they are all lossless.
 

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