Hi Res Music

[gingersmarty]

Hi all,

Having joined HD tracks i am at a loss as to playing the tracks through my set up.

I have an Apple TV2, into Rega Dac and onto a Cyrus Pre/Power, i have also

downloaded Media Monkey, i can play tracks this way, however the input on

the Dac remains the same as when playing Spotify premium.

How can i tell whether the Music playing is Hi res? Do i make a connection

direct from the laptop to the Dac? and bypass the TV2

thanks

Sean

 

[Paul.]

Hi,

ATV2 is only capable of 48kHz, so you need to bypass it and go direct form laptop to DAC

 

[amcluesent]

Yep, ATV actually resamples everything to a fixed sample rate of 48Khz, there's no means to deafet this on the device.

 

[gingersmarty]

thanks,

2 points

I have an old airport express if this would help........

and failing the airport route how do i connect my laptop directly? i dont think

the headphone socket is an optical out so is it via USB

 

[amcluesent]

>so is it via USB<

The Musical Fidelity V-Link is well regarded, async USB-S/PDIF converter that's good for 24/96.

 

[bezza79]

Hi Sean,

The simple answer is you will be able to tell you're playing a high resolution track when the light on the front of your Rega DAC tells you that a 96kHz signal is being received. How you get to that stage is a little more difficult!

As has already been explained the Apple TV2 has a set output of 48kHz, so won't help and although its hard to find exact technical specs for the Airport Express it too is limited to 44.1kHz as far as I know and I can find out.

The Rega can accept upto 24 bit 192kHz signals through its Coaxial or Optical inputs but it limited to upto 16 bit 48kHz through its USB input.

As has been suggested if you don't have an optical out from your laptop the Musical Fidelity V-Link or the m2tech Hiface are two options of turning your laptop's USB port into either a Coaxial of Optical output which can then in turn be linked to the Rega and will be suitable for playing Hi-Res music files. The V-Link is limited to 24 bit 96kHz whereas the M2Tech can output upto 24bit 192kHz. There are I'm sure others products capable of this task but I haven't come across them.

Now that was the easy bit....

Mediamonkey needs an ASIO plugin to be capable of outputting bit perfect high resolution audio, I haven't experimented with it much but effectively it will allow the player to output the source music at whatever resolution it was made in or purchased in.

I have however tried another free media player called Foobar and together with the WASAPI plugin am able to play high resolution music at its native bit-rate. This post would go on for some time if I tried to explain how to do both of these but PJPro has done some excellent threads on Foobar and if you google Mediamonkey and ASIO I'm sure it will explain it much better than I could.

Itunes for windows is allegedly supposed to offer bit-perfect playback but having tried it at best you have to change the computers audio output settings everytime you change from a normal 16/44.1 ripped CD to a downloaded 24/48 or 24/96 track.

Good Luck, I also found some of the FAQ's on Computer Audiophile's website very helpful in understanding all of the above!

 

[gingersmarty]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to comprehensively explain the situation, last night i downloaded

foobar/wasapi. It will play all my hi-res downloads, which is an improvement!!! However

it appears i can alter the volume from my taskbar, the helpful thread says i should not be able to do this,

(is this because everything currently is internal on the laptop, will this change once i use the USB output?)

I will get the MF v-link later this month to try to bypass the ATV.

thanks again

 

[gingersmarty]

Hi All,

Just a brief update...

I have sorted this problem, i changed media player to JRiver and use a HiFace from a usb on my laptop to play 192khz/24 bit files

thanks for the advice.

 

[daveg56]

Interested to know how you joined HDTracks, as they currently only support the North American market. I'm *eagerly* awaiting them becoming available here in the UK.

 

[michael hoy]

Interested to know how you joined HDTracks, as they currently only support the North American market. I'm *eagerly* awaiting them becoming available here in the UK.

I believe it is only certain record labels that are restricted

I have downloaded several recently and only found one that said I was not in America and could not download it.

 

[davejberry]

Interested to know how you joined HDTracks, as they currently only support the North American market. I'm *eagerly* awaiting them becoming available here in the UK.

Use a hotmail.com email address and paypal for your transactions. some tracks will still be unavailable though, as michael mentions above.

i successfully opened am account this way and i'm in Spain

 

[SteveR750]

Hi Sean,

The simple answer is you will be able to tell you're playing a high resolution track when the light on the front of your Rega DAC tells you that a 96kHz signal is being received. How you get to that stage is a little more difficult!

As has already been explained the Apple TV2 has a set output of 48kHz, so won't help and although its hard to find exact technical specs for the Airport Express it too is limited to 44.1kHz as far as I know and I can find out.

The Rega can accept upto 24 bit 192kHz signals through its Coaxial or Optical inputs but it limited to upto 16 bit 48kHz through its USB input.

As has been suggested if you don't have an optical out from your laptop the Musical Fidelity V-Link or the m2tech Hiface are two options of turning your laptop's USB port into either a Coaxial of Optical output which can then in turn be linked to the Rega and will be suitable for playing Hi-Res music files. The V-Link is limited to 24 bit 96kHz whereas the M2Tech can output upto 24bit 192kHz. There are I'm sure others products capable of this task but I haven't come across them.

Now that was the easy bit....

Mediamonkey needs an ASIO plugin to be capable of outputting bit perfect high resolution audio, I haven't experimented with it much but effectively it will allow the player to output the source music at whatever resolution it was made in or purchased in.

I have however tried another free media player called Foobar and together with the WASAPI plugin am able to play high resolution music at its native bit-rate. This post would go on for some time if I tried to explain how to do both of these but PJPro has done some excellent threads on Foobar and if you google Mediamonkey and ASIO I'm sure it will explain it much better than I could.

Itunes for windows is allegedly supposed to offer bit-perfect playback but having tried it at best you have to change the computers audio output settings everytime you change from a normal 16/44.1 ripped CD to a downloaded 24/48 or 24/96 track.

Good Luck, I also found some of the FAQ's on Computer Audiophile's website very helpful in understanding all of the above!

I didn't think it was, for the simple reason iTunes cannot be configured to gain exclusive access and control over the soundcard, therefore Windows will resample and mix it with all the other sounds that it generates....

 

[Alec]

AFAIK, even if you change the volume digitally (in any system), bit perfection is lost. So really, isn't it academic?

 

[BigH]

I just been looking on HD tracks to download some albums but all say not available in your teritory or something similar so Im surprised to see you say only a few are not available, certainly all the jazz and rock ones say not available.

I have found that the Doors and some OJC jazz is available but most are not.

 

[ngibbs]

I've found no restrictions as of yet (living in Belgium). As others have said, use a hotmail address and pay via PayPal (and give no address on your HD account), and you should be OK. Whether some of these Hi Res albums are worth the money is, of course, another matter (sorry if I'm going off the OP's topic here). As always, it seems to depend on the master, and even that doesn't necessarily mean a huge difference: both Beck's 'Sea Change' and the Stones 'Let it Bleed' sound superb on Hi Res, i.e. a cut above the CD versions (to my ears); the latter's 'Beggers Banquet' , ironically, not much different to the (admittedly very good) ABKCO remastered CD. A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

 

[ngibbs]

A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

Talking Heads 'Remain in Light' as well. Sounds as if it came from the pre 2005 (i.e. non- remastered) master. The CD is streets ahead.

 

[ngibbs]

A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

Talking Heads 'Remain in Light' as well. Sounds as if it came from the pre 2005 (i.e. non- remastered) master. The CD is streets ahead.

+ Getz & Gilberto (the jazz classic): the CD is fuller and with better balancing. Very hit and miss these High Res files. Listen carefully before you buy.

 

[ngibbs]

A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

Talking Heads 'Remain in Light' as well. Sounds as if it came from the pre 2005 (i.e. non- remastered) master. The CD is streets ahead.

+ Getz & Gilberto (the jazz classic): the CD is fuller and with better balancing. Very hit and miss these High Res files. Listen carefully before you buy.

 

[ngibbs]

A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

Talking Heads 'Remain in Light' as well. Sounds as if it came from the pre 2005 (i.e. non- remastered) master. The CD is streets ahead.

+ Getz & Gilberto (the jazz classic): the CD is fuller and with better balancing. Very hit and miss these High Res files. Listen carefully before you buy.

 

[ngibbs]

A few manage to sound worse (again, to my ears) - Natalie Merchant's 'Tigerlily' for instance.

Talking Heads 'Remain in Light' as well. Sounds as if it came from the pre 2005 (i.e. non- remastered) master. The CD is streets ahead.

+ Getz & Gilberto (the jazz classic): the CD is fuller and with better balancing. Very hit and miss these High Res files. Listen carefully before you buy.