Have succombed to computer music

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idc

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Richard Allen:
OK.

I'll report my findings in the next 48 hours. I wonder if Mr. Everard will permit a mini mini review from my point of view??. Don't think he'll give me the space to do it somehow

I and others have posted specific product reviews and if a product is on the site in the reviews section, you are encouraged to add to it. Just do it as an "amateur" and don't try and sell it.
 

Richard Allen

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idc:Richard Allen:
OK.

I'll report my findings in the next 48 hours. I wonder if Mr. Everard will permit a mini mini review from my point of view??. Don't think he'll give me the space to do it somehow

I and others have posted specific product reviews and if a product is on the site in the reviews section, you are encouraged to add to it. Just do it as an "amateur" and don't try and sell it.

This isn't on the reviews.
 
A

Anonymous

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chebby:
JohnDuncan:Ah but do you have a license to play it in public?

According to Mark Thomas it's ok in public so long as it's used for Morris Dancing.

Hire a Morris troupe for your next hifi show.

These guys might oblige...

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Photos ¸ mine

Chebby! Why do you have to keep bringing the family photos out????
 

idc

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Richard Allen:idc:Richard Allen:
OK.

I'll report my findings in the next 48 hours. I wonder if Mr. Everard will permit a mini mini review from my point of view??. Don't think he'll give me the space to do it somehow

I and others have posted specific product reviews and if a product is on the site in the reviews section, you are encouraged to add to it. Just do it as an "amateur" and don't try and sell it.

This isn't on the reviews.

Then post one on the forum. I have reviews of the B&W P5 and Radius DMM headphones and the FiiO E5 headphone amp on the forum, of the ones I can remember off the top of my head.
 

wireman

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Richard Allen:I don't need the multiple inputs that the Magic has. All I need is a USB Dac.
Another option here - if you already have a good separate hi-end DAC available for your shows - is the Trends USB 10.1.

The advantage with this device is that it has optical, coaxial (both RCA and BNC), and also AES/EBU (XLR) digital outputs so that you can connect it directly with your existing hi-end DAC (assuming you have one!) rather than using the cheaper/poorer DACs as are usually fitted within these sorts of devices. The Trends uses a Burr Brown DAC if you want to take an analogue output or use headphones with it too.

You can use Foobar/Winamp/whatever as a player on your laptop, ASIO4ALL (free) as the driver to bypass the windows mixer, and from your USB socket through this Trends device with or without resampling directly into your quality DAC. I've got mine plugged through and using the DAC in my Mark Levinson 390s CD player, and even though this Levinson is hardly the latest word in DACs by todays standards, it still sounds a shed-load better (IMHO) than certainly a DACmagic as you might expect... often difficult to differentiate between a server source or the actual CD.

Obviously, the Trends 10.1 USB is a tad more expensive route than the £32 Behringer you're looking at, and it'd only be worth it if you've got - or can beg, borrow, or steal - a top-flight quality outboard DAC!

Details here: http://www.trendsaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=17&lang=en
 
A

Anonymous

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I have just down loaded the remote app for iTunes and it works great inconjunction wih the 202.
 

Richard Allen

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Hi all.

Well, I've finished evaluating this here Behringer thingy. My thoughts?. For £32 quid, not bad. Not bad at all.

First thing I did was spin all the tracks I was going to use on my CDP to get a feel of what I was listening to. Then, all those tracks were put into the laptop. First, I used the soundcard output and this was very warm, maybe a little soggy at times. Quite enjoyable but not HiFi. Then, I plugged the UCA202 in. The laptop found it straightaway. The sound from this was nowhere near as good as the CDP. Quite disappointing. Then I had an idea.

I disabled media player and downloaded Winamp. I tried the same routine again. Chalk and cheese. The soundcard output was still lush and soggy but not as bad as before. Going to the UCA202, ha ha. Now, we had a lot to consider. Increased height, width, depth and overall clarity. This prompted an AB with the CDP using the same track. Verdict?. At £32 quid there's nothing in it. I double checked and found the same again.

I'm not saying this little gadget is the be all and end all but it's a good starting point. After all. It only cost me 32 quid. Brilliant.
 

Andrew Everard

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Interesting: just ordered a 202, but online shop called back to say out of stock but would I accept a Numark unit instead. As it was £23 and in the interests of research, I said yes...
 

Richard Allen

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idc:Thanks for the review Richard. Any idea why Winamp would sound better that WMP?

Maybe WMP was corrupted. Laptop second hand so anything could be. WMP uninstalled and using Winamp instead. Maybe Winamp is bypassing the windows kernel like AEJim was talking about earlier. Dunno. Don't want to know really if the truth is known.
 

Richard Allen

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Andrew Everard:Interesting: just ordered a 202, but online shop called back to say out of stock but would I accept a Numark unit instead. As it was £23 and in the interests of research, I said yes...

£23??. Now that will be interesting. I've used Numark stuff before. Their twin CDP's are amazing. Lost little if it's rubbish Andrew.
 

Alec

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Richard Allen:

al7478:Which OS were you using Richard?

XP home. The WMP was version 11. Version 0 now!.
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Cheers, I gather Win7 is supposed to sound better.
 

Richard Allen

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al7478:Richard Allen:

al7478:Which OS were you using Richard?

XP home. The WMP was version 11. Version 0 now!.
emotion-2.gif


Cheers, I gather Win7 is supposed to sound better.

I wouldn't know about W7 as I've never used it. One thing I'm convinced of and that is that WMP11 on XP is junk. My works PC has WMP9 and that sounded much better if I sampled at 48kbits. It's almost as if it gets confused (bless!).
 

PJPro

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Take a look at my useful threads for optimising windows and using foobar2000 to produce bit perfect playback.

For XP you're going to have to use ASIO4ALL to bypass the kernel mixer or use kernel streaming directly. There is a plugin available for kernel streaming which works with foobar2000. See the foobar2000 site. Note: WASAPI is an architectural change for Vista.

Many people avoid using foobar because it's a bit tricky to configure. So, I have provided a guide to configuring a pretty front end. You'll find this in my useful threads as well.

There's also a thread which covers media streaming using foobar.

Hope this helps.
 

Richard Allen

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PJPro:Take a look at my useful threads for optimising windows and using foobar2000 to produce bit perfect playback. For XP you're going to have to use ASIO4ALL to bypass the kernel mixer or use kernel streaming directly. There is a plugin available for kernel streaming which works with foobar2000. See the foobar2000 site. Note: WASAPI is an architectural change for Vista. Many people avoid using foobar because it's a bit tricky to configure. So, I have provided a guide to configuring a pretty front end. You'll find this in my useful threads as well. There's also a thread which covers media streaming using foobar. Hope this helps.

Thanks PJ. I think I've found what I'm looking for. The laptop is now performing better than the CDP. I won't be seeking the holy grail, just what I find satisfying for music repro. But thanks for the input anyway.
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Gerrardasnails

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AEJim:
Richard Allen:Anyway, to get back on track, if this little box is any bottle, maybe your magazines should look at reviewing it. £32 quid delivered, USB, in and out phonos, optical out AND a headphone amp as well. £32 quid????. Just up your street. IF it's any good that is.

Might give that a look, we did a lot of experimenting with laptops and DAC's a couple of years back - the end result being that if you did it the right way (I can't remember the complete details but some DAC's didn't completely bypass the laptop internals) and use the right media player then you can get extremely good results. In'fact it worked so well we used an AE branded DAC at the CES show going through a £3k amp and our £1500 floorstanders - nobody (and I mean nobody) even noticed as we had it tucked to the side of a cabinet.

Even the top reviewers from Stereophile were extremely impressed by the system - when I told them the source was a laptop they looked confused, when I checked the file that was playing and said "Oh, it's not a lossless one either - only 192kbps!" they looked even more confused... The end result was that we had a very positive write up but they attributed much of that to the amp (which was frankly dire - luckily not a brand I've seen in the UK but I didn't know amps could sound that poor!??) and no mention of the laptop!

So I think it's well worth experimenting with, and in a blind test I'd like to see how many can tell a difference of a decent budget DAC and laptop and a £1k or so CD player... I'll try and update with what software we used as Windows Media Player and the like do not give you the full benefit - can't remember the details of why not but I'll check in with RnD later and find out what it was...

This doesn't surprise me. For the last couple of years, I've used a Media Center Extender, HDX BD1 and now Popcorn Hour A-200 as source to my DacMagic. You would have to spend a lot on a cd player to get close. The DAC cost me £200, I already had a computer, a 1TB drive cost me £70 (just got one for £54) and each media player costs around £150. Definitely the way forward.
 

Richard Allen

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Andrew Everard:Interesting: just ordered a 202, but online shop called back to say out of stock but would I accept a Numark unit instead. As it was £23 and in the interests of research, I said yes...

And has it arrived yet?
 

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