imac & chordette gem problems.

[shooter]

Hello all. I've just ripped a couple of cd's (apple lossless) onto my imac connected the chordette gem (via bluetooth) to my 2-1 hifi and frankly it sounds rubbish. Firstly the sound keeps dropping away through the song? If i go on the www. and play a game it does the same thing so i'm putting it down to the gem. Has anyone else had this problem or should i send it back, its frequent (3,4 or 5 times during a tune). Secondly is apple lossless the best format for ripping cd's or should i do it in some other, i.e mp3. The thing is its pretty poor quality, i'm getting alot of sibilance on vocals and some guitar sounds muddled and stodgy. If i plug my grado's into the imac i can sit and listen all night without any problems so could this be the gem also.
Please help.

 

[manicm]

At a possible sacrifice of some convenience - why not connect the Gem to the Mac via USB and test again?

Also, is your Mac's bluetooth A2DP compliant? If not, that might explain the dropouts and/or poor sound.

 

[shooter]

Thanks for the reply. The new imac is a2dp compliant no probs their. I will try the usb connection and see whats happening and let you know in the next 24hrs, its a matter of moving the pc next to the hi-fi as the distance from one to the other is around 12 meters. Unfortunately usb has a 5m drop off in signal, there are 10m cables out their with boosters but this wont reach so wireless is the only option. If there is any other way of connection i could try this if the gems a no goer.
Cheers.

 

[John Duncan]

Hm, I was trying to hook up an iPhone to my Mac the other day and one or other of them said they had to be within 30ft of each other. This might suggest you're right on the limit of the Bluetooth range of one or other of the components. Certainly sounds like it...

How about a wireless USB Hub - don't know if it would work with the Gem?

 

[shooter]

Cheers john, i can get the gem within 6 meters of the mac then run some 8m rca's i have. I'ii post all my findings sometime soon.
Regards.

 

[shooter]

Thanks for all your replies. I've moved the gem within 6m of the imac and it does sound better and the drop off's have gone, thats good news.
I still have sibilance problems on some tracks but not all but overall it's a better sonic picture. I'm still wondering if apple lossless is the best format. The other options are aac, aiff, mp3 & wav, any thoughts welcome. If i cant get over this problem i'll enquire about the apple airport express to see if its possible to use it as a wireless hub and stream the tunes through it then to the gem through its usb. Unless anyone knows this is possible.
Regards.

 

[manicm]

shooter69:Thanks for all your replies. I've moved the gem within 6m of the imac and it does sound better and the drop off's have gone, thats good news. I still have sibilance problems on some tracks but not all but overall it's a better sonic picture. I'm still wondering if apple lossless is the best format. The other options are aac, aiff, mp3 & wav, any thoughts welcome. If i cant get over this problem i'll enquire about the apple airport express to see if its possible to use it as a wireless hub and stream the tunes through it then to the gem through its usb. Unless anyone knows this is possible. Regards.

I think the sibilance issue might be down to your hifi itself - excluding the Mac and Gem. I know lossless is lossless, still my ears find Apple Lossless a bit smoothed out and less open sounding than other formats.

Just for kicks rip one CD to AIFF - but this may exaggerate the sibilance!

 

[shooter]

Cheers manicm for the reply, the hifi it self hasn't a sibilance problem through cd playback so i'm putting it down to either the gem or the ripping process. Moving the gem closer to the pc helped so it could be that the signal is deteriorating but its been said that the 6 meters i'm at with the gem is good enough, so i doubt its that. It could be that the gem likes to run warm so i've left it on and i'll post those results later. That leaves the ripping process itself. Out of the encoders available it seems to come down to WAV and Apple Lossless the later compressing the file. The complexity of the cd ripped has bit rates over 1000 kbps which could meen the lossless encoder is struggling with the process. Instead of ripping that cd in AIFF i might do it in WAV as this is nearer to cd than any of the other encoders and see what results i get from that. If this works then i'll get myself an extenal hard drive dedicated to the WAV. I'll post all results some time soon.
Regards.

 

[shooter]

The saga continues!! Ripped some troublesome cd's to WAV yesterday. Playback from imac/gem/hi-fi still troublesome with sibilance on vocals.
So this morning moved the imac to the hi-fi, hardwired with USB cable from imac to gem (cheap free-be that came with HP printer) and used some old MIT Terminator III interconnects from Gem to hi-fi.
The sound quality is much better with no sibilance on vocal's and better sound staging, a better sonic picture all round.
This presents itself as a problem as the whole with the A2DP (Bluetooth) being primary in choice. The Hi-Fi and imac are 12 meters apart and running cable all round the house, through door thresholds with extensions ect, ect being a chore and unsightly to boot.
Paid a visit to Apple store yesterday and enquired about using the Airport Express as a streaming device bypassing it's own DAC and hard wire from that point, but seems to be a no go, unless the AE can be hacked.
Not sure what to do now, i have two choices. One, send it back stating the problem and get a refund or live with the cables!!
I'll post my decision sometime soon, but in the mean time if anyone has any idea's please feel free.
Regards.

 

[manicm]

I think that's correct - as the Airport Express has an optical audio out only - so you can't use it with your Gem.