New DAC Fan

[Lost Angeles]

78finn:Up until recently I had considered a laptop / DAC combo.......but I demo'd a few setups and wasn't all that impressed at all really. Sounded ok, but not better than a CD - probably about the same. And it will NEVER touch vinyl in terms of warmth and richness of sound!!!! .
Besides I think downloading music or playing music from a computer is just completely soulless and lazy. There's no excitement, no anticipation.....no record store.....it's a fast food musical concept for people that don't really like music on any real level. Buying a single track at a time off of iTunes...hmmmm......iTunes, basically a try hard corporate giant that claims to be down with the kids, wraps itself in stainless steel and shiny white plastic.... Oh and anyone who thinks MAC or iTunes is cool should basically take a long hard look at their lives...because something is badly wrong. Seek urgent medical attention.
I for one will never touch a wav, MP3 or whatever the next generation of tat is.
Throughout your CD players maybe....but whilst you're at it throw out your laptop as well................and get down the record store and buy a really real album..........on vinyl - not on a virtually real lossless lump. So to some up....vinyl, it's the future past.....or something else profound sounding.

And they thought I had a problem with this

 

[Anonymous]

78finn:Up until recently I had considered a laptop / DAC combo.......but I demo'd a few setups and wasn't all that impressed at all really. Sounded ok, but not better than a CD - probably about the same. And it will NEVER touch vinyl in terms of warmth and richness of sound!!!! .
Besides I think downloading music or playing music from a computer is just completely soulless and lazy. There's no excitement, no anticipation.....no record store.....it's a fast food musical concept for people that don't really like music on any real level. Buying a single track at a time off of iTunes...hmmmm......iTunes, basically a try hard corporate giant that claims to be down with the kids, wraps itself in stainless steel and shiny white plastic.... Oh and anyone who thinks MAC or iTunes is cool should basically take a long hard look at their lives...because something is badly wrong. Seek urgent medical attention.
I for one will never touch a wav, MP3 or whatever the next generation of tat is.
Throughout your CD players maybe....but whilst you're at it throw out your laptop as well................and get down the record store and buy a really real album..........on vinyl - not on a virtually real lossless lump. So to some up....vinyl, it's the future past.....or something else profound sounding.

No one is forcing your to throw away your own vinyl. I find that services like Spotify allow me to explore many more types of music than I'd generally have time or money to buy. Certainly there are a huge group of people whose primary experience of music is now 128/256k AAC files from iTunes listened to on small in ear headphones, but they are not hanging out on this message board, so hold your fire. eg "fast food musical concept for people that don't really like music on any real level" is just rude.

There is a parallel argument happening in publishing at the minute, will paper books survive. I suspect both vinyl and paperbooks will be around for a long time. Some formats will die, anyone miss cassette tapes or VHS?

 

[78finn]

I cry myself to sleep thinking about all those poor little unwanted VHS and Tapes.....they have feelings as well....

 

[Anonymous]

78finn:
I cry myself to sleep thinking about all those poor little unwanted VHS and Tapes.....they have feelings as well....

Mostly they end up in landfill or attics... at least they'll be with friends

 

[Alec]

First, where is The Messiah when you need him?!

Secondly, come on all you computer/hd music fans, it is a faff relative to just using a CD player. I too am a hdd music user (exclusively. i have no cd player, tho i have a couple of devices capable of playing CDs but they are never used that way...).

Around 6 years ago now i naively used wmp to rip a few songs, then discovered tha a 20gig hdd was tiny lol! This lead to a hdd upgrade, my interest then lead to making CDs for the car with nero 6...

I swore i would never use the PC for my main music playback solution. But i did - i had to get rid of the unit that the JVC stood on, and started experimenting with the pc and it stuck. With a set of rubbish PC speakers, then a bigger uglier set of rubbish PC speakers. I used WMP exclusively, and leaned the hard way that taht if i dont mark tracks read only, Windows likes to reorgainise them for me (thanks Windows boffins, but leave my music alone, eh?)

Then i came here and that lead to an amp and speakers, and loads of people telling me how rubbish WMP is (and for ripping, it almost is that rubbish. Maybe. Arguably). But after so long familiarising myself with it, can i find a player i like as much? Can i cobblers!

Then you start looking for remote control devices, and its all "buy this apple thing thats designed for something completely different but will do th ejob/get a pda/etc...".

Then you have to select your fav bitrates and formats, and most of you wont need me to rehearse, again, the things that make that complicated for many people.

Backing up should be done even if you dont have music on your PC? Sure, but as some have said it becomes more importnat for some of us once we have our music on our PC (sorry chebby, we dont all have your family). Then how do you do it? Manually or go for something like Acronis or Ghost? Are they that good anyway, or too good to believe?

All this stuff anout how we all have PCs is irrelevant. We dont all know how to use them perfectly. Some of us are just frustrated non-techies who know that hdd music is a tremendous faff but who want to listen to music in the fickle way hdd music allows us to (playlists, not having to listen to rubbish albums al the way through when they only have one decent song, the "shuffle/random" function...). The only other ways to achieve anything like this being MP3 disks via my BDP, which would allow a long listening session but no random function. Or MP3 disks with only songs you like played back by a multi CD drive...

There are lots of things you can do to mitigate the boredom of ripping? Sure there are, and lots of ways to distract yourslef from the ***-up you PC or software is making of your collection. Im paranoid and liek to keep an eye on the process.

All im saying is lets not mock people to easily.

Just the rantings of a frustrated non-techy who wants to listen to hours of good music in the way i want with as few obstacles as possible, and who cant decide whether to buy a 640H at half price; who wants to get it all sorted, then get the hell out! No more questions/debates/struggles to learn which bit goes where!!!

Im hope some of you think theres some substance herein.

Now excuse me while i have my connery in peace.

 

[chebby]

78finn:
I cry myself to sleep thinking about all those poor little unwanted VHS and Tapes.....they have feelings as well....

I almost believed the sincerity of your previous post regarding vinyl (I love vinyl too) but VHS and casettes?

That is when I saw your tongue is firmly lodged in your cheek

Any half decent ADC connected to your phono-preamp will slay even the Nakamichiest of Dragons!

I speak as the ex owner of a Sony WM-D6C 'pro Walkman' and an Akai 4000D open reel and as someone who used to record BBC R3 radio plays onto Nicam VHS in audio only from a Denon tuner with a good roof aerial. (Using a wonderful Philips VHS Nicam machine with cast metal transport and adjustable sound recording levels that gave open reel a run for it's money.) I have now transferred all the radio plays to DVD and fed them into a white plastic and stainless steel iMac using Mpeg Streamclip software to de-mux and de-soullify them into AIFF audio files on iTunes. No perceptible noise or hiss at all.

But cassette? Not worth it. Binned the lot. Landfill.

 

[Alec]

78finn:Up until recently I had considered a laptop / DAC combo.......but I demo'd a few setups and wasn't all that impressed at all really. Sounded ok, but not better than a CD - probably about the same. And it will NEVER touch vinyl in terms of warmth and richness of sound!!!! .
Besides I think downloading music or playing music from a computer is just completely soulless and lazy. There's no excitement, no anticipation.....no record store.....it's a fast food musical concept for people that don't really like music on any real level. Buying a single track at a time off of iTunes...hmmmm......iTunes, basically a try hard corporate giant that claims to be down with the kids, wraps itself in stainless steel and shiny white plastic.... Oh and anyone who thinks MAC or iTunes is cool should basically take a long hard look at their lives...because something is badly wrong. Seek urgent medical attention.
I for one will never touch a wav, MP3 or whatever the next generation of tat is.
Throughout your CD players maybe....but whilst you're at it throw out your laptop as well................and get down the record store and buy a really real album..........on vinyl - not on a virtually real lossless lump. So to some up....vinyl, it's the future past.....or something else profound sounding.

I know im being really split personality today, but i do have to point out - as you well know - using a computer for music does not mean never going to a music shop (tho you'd not find one here) or buying a CD or even...what are they....oh yeah, record again.

 

[John Duncan]

78finn:Up until recently I had considered a laptop / DAC combo.......but I demo'd a few setups and wasn't all that impressed at all really. Sounded ok, but not better than a CD - probably about the same. And it will NEVER touch vinyl in terms of warmth and richness of sound!!!! .
Besides I think downloading music or playing music from a computer is just completely soulless and lazy. There's no excitement, no anticipation.....no record store.....it's a fast food musical concept for people that don't really like music on any real level. Buying a single track at a time off of iTunes...hmmmm......iTunes, basically a try hard corporate giant that claims to be down with the kids, wraps itself in stainless steel and shiny white plastic.... Oh and anyone who thinks MAC or iTunes is cool should basically take a long hard look at their lives...because something is badly wrong. Seek urgent medical attention.
I for one will never touch a wav, MP3 or whatever the next generation of tat is.
Throughout your CD players maybe....but whilst you're at it throw out your laptop as well................and get down the record store and buy a really real album..........on vinyl - not on a virtually real lossless lump. So to some up....vinyl, it's the future past.....or something else profound sounding.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

 

[John Duncan]

al7478:Now excuse me while i have my connery in peace.

Of coursh.

 

[Lost Angeles]

I've changed my mine and am going back to my Dansette, least I can play 6 LP sides before I need to turn them over.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Lost Angeles:
So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

 

[Alec]

Gerrardasnails:Lost Angeles:

So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

Cool. Is the remote functioning stable? Can you do it all with the remote or do some things require a keyboard?

 

[Lost Angeles]

Gerrardasnails:Lost Angeles:

So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

Presuming they are CD covers then it's like looking through your collection every time you go on which is brill.
Not sure I'd want to use my TV for that but thanks for the info.
When I buy my new ipod in November I will have to investigate further as there will probably be something new out by then.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

al7478:Gerrardasnails:Lost Angeles:

So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

Cool. Is the remote functioning stable? Can you do it all with the remote or do some things require a keyboard?

Everything with the remote control which works fine. I normally have the list showing as Album Artists which shows Artists names in alpha order and then all their albums underneath. Press a letter on the remote to go straight to that Artist's name (L for Lennon, J for The Jam....) and hey presto.

 

[Alec]

Gerrardasnails:al7478:Gerrardasnails:Lost Angeles:

So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

Cool. Is the remote functioning stable? Can you do it all with the remote or do some things require a keyboard?

Everything with the remote control which works fine. I normally have the list showing as Album Artists which shows Artists names in alpha order and then all their albums underneath. Press a letter on the remote to go straight to that Artist's name (L for Lennon, J for The Jam....) and hey presto.

Cheers. By everything i mean making playlists and the like, which may require typing? Id probably mostly use playlists, set to shuffle.

Can you go to a tv prog then back to that ^ screen easily enough?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

al7478:Gerrardasnails:al7478:Gerrardasnails:Lost Angeles:

So returning to something I wrote earlier
I can sit in my armchair with my laptop connected to Airport Express(or similar) which beams a signal to a second AP in my rack and I can control what I listen to by the laptop?.
If I use an ipod as a remote control does that send a wireless signal to a dock in my rack which connects to a DAC?
Can I use the ipod to retrieve music from an external hard drive in my rack or would that need to be done from computer?

Thanks. I am converted.

Just to add, you don't have to use ITunes or an Ipod or an Airport Express. This is what I see on my TV screen when I choose my music....

"/>

Cool. Is the remote functioning stable? Can you do it all with the remote or do some things require a keyboard?

Everything with the remote control which works fine. I normally have the list showing as Album Artists which shows Artists names in alpha order and then all their albums underneath. Press a letter on the remote to go straight to that Artist's name (L for Lennon, J for The Jam....) and hey presto.

Cheers. By everything i mean making playlists and the like, which may require typing? Id probably mostly use playlists, set to shuffle.

Can you go to a tv prog then back to that ^ screen easily enough?

Aha. I set playlists from my pc but you can queue up songs and press shuffle no problem (I only bother with playlists for parties). You can switch to tv whilst the music is playing. I have the extender running through my AV amp, as is my Sky HD box so a simple click is all that's needed.

 

[Alec]

Sorry, can you break your last sentence down for me?

Im now seriously considering making a unit with media centre, in a "hifi style" "horizontal" case.

 

[the record spot]

chebby:
the record spot:....but the process of uploading and ripping is a little more detailed than making a Word doc copy no?

No, not really. Pop in the CD and iTunes rips it. I can play other stuff while it is doing so or start playing the ripped files as soon as the first track is done. (Typically a few seconds.)

Ok I have to click on the 'eject' symbol afterwards so yes it is a bit complicated.

Your call if you want to get sarcastic about it. The underlying point is the process isn't as straightforward to manage all of the music and secure it as you make out - then rely on sarcasm to reinforce your point.

As others have stated, it's not as straightforward, has its' drawbacks and these are valid points. I take it when you click eject, or go to rip it doesn't automatically back-up the file? Or do you backup every disc to external HDD each time your uplaod to your laptop? Or do you do it once a week/month/quarter? Like I say, you can talk up the pros by all means - and given I use an iPod, I'm already clued up on that, or you can come out with a smarta**e comment and throw it in my face when I proffer my opinion. That's your choice and you're welcome to it.

You make some good posts chebby, but leave the sarcasm out and I'll check the disdain in at the door. Still a faff mind...

 

[Gerrardasnails]

al7478:
Sorry, can you break your last sentence down for me?

Im now seriously considering making a unit with media centre, in a "hifi style" "horizontal" case.

No problem.

I have on my rack my BD player, Sky HD box, AV receiver, stereo amp, DAC and media center extender. I have my screen connected to my receiver. I then have my Sky box, BD player and MCE connected to my receiver. For audio, I have my receiver and stereo amp connected and my DAC connected to my stereo amp. The MCE has coaxial running to DAC. When I listen to music, I press PC (hdmi 4) on my receiver remote and the extender shows on my screen. I set the stereo amp to connect to the DAC. Away we go. If I want to watch tv (football results for instance), I just press Sat (hdmi 1) on my receiver remote.

 

[Alec]

the record spot:Still a faff mind...

Alas, tis true.

 

[Alec]

Gerrardasnails:al7478:

Sorry, can you break your last sentence down for me?

Im now seriously considering making a unit with media centre, in a "hifi style" "horizontal" case.

No problem. I have on my rack my BD player, Sky HD box, AV receiver, stereo amp, DAC and media center extender. I have my screen connected to my receiver. I then have my Sky box, BD player and MCE connected to my receiver. For audio, I have my receiver and stereo amp connected and my DAC connected to my stereo amp. The MCE has coaxial running to DAC. When I listen to music, I press PC (hdmi 4) on my receiver remote and the extender shows on my screen. I set the stereo amp to connect to the DAC. Away we go. If I want to watch tv (football results for instance), I just press Sat (hdmi 1) on my receiver remote.

Thanks again.

I have a BDP but not an AV amp, and would probably use it exclusively for music. I guess theres always the possibility of "complicating" things later lol!

Now i must investigate MCEs.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

al7478:Gerrardasnails:al7478:

Sorry, can you break your last sentence down for me?

Im now seriously considering making a unit with media centre, in a "hifi style" "horizontal" case.

No problem. I have on my rack my BD player, Sky HD box, AV receiver, stereo amp, DAC and media center extender. I have my screen connected to my receiver. I then have my Sky box, BD player and MCE connected to my receiver. For audio, I have my receiver and stereo amp connected and my DAC connected to my stereo amp. The MCE has coaxial running to DAC. When I listen to music, I press PC (hdmi 4) on my receiver remote and the extender shows on my screen. I set the stereo amp to connect to the DAC. Away we go. If I want to watch tv (football results for instance), I just press Sat (hdmi 1) on my receiver remote.

Thanks again.

I have a BDP but not an AV amp, and would probably use it exclusively for music. I guess theres always the possibility of "complicating" things later lol!

Now i must investigate MCEs.

I use it 95% for music. I have the DMA2100. The 2200 was panned recently by WHF. It's the dvd player version of mine. Maybe having the extra inside causes problems but mine has not given me any grief. The only time I've had a drop out in feed is when I've charge my mobile phone via usb on the pc and then putting music on - it didn't like that and once at night a hard drive scan that I'd missed earlier ran on the pc and for some reason interfered. I now have my scans set for Monday mornings at 9am.

 

[Alec]

The pc must be on with an MCE, is that right?

 

[manicm]

al7478:

First, where is The Messiah when you need him?!

Secondly, come on all you computer/hd music fans, it is a faff relative to just using a CD player. I too am a hdd music user (exclusively. i have no cd player, tho i have a couple of devices capable of playing CDs but they are never used that way...).

Around 6 years ago now i naively used wmp to rip a few songs, then discovered tha a 20gig hdd was tiny lol! This lead to a hdd upgrade, my interest then lead to making CDs for the car with nero 6...

I swore i would never use the PC for my main music playback solution. But i did. With a set of rubbish PC speakers, then a bigger uglier set of rubbish PC speakers. I used WMP exclusively, and leaned the hard way that taht if i dont mark tracks read only, Windows likes to reorgainise them for me (thanks Windows boffins, but leave my music alone, eh?)

Then i came here and that lead to an amp and speakers, and loads of people telling me how rubbish WMP is (and for ripping, it almost is that rubbish. Maybe. Arguably). But after so long familiarising myself with it, can i find a player i like as much? Can i cobblers!

Then you start looking for remote control devices, and its all "buy this apple thing thats designed for something completely different but will do th ejob/get a pda/etc...".

Then you have to select your fav bitrates and formats, and most of you wont need me to rehearse, again, the things that make that complicated for many people.

Backing up should be done even if you dont have music on your PC? Sure, but as some have said it becomes more importnat for some of us once we have our music on our PC (sorry chebby, we dont all have your family). Then how do you do it? Manually or go for something like Acronis or Ghost? Are they that good anyway, or too good to believe?

All this stuff anout how we all have PCs is irrelevant. We dont all know how to use them perfectly. Some of us are just frustrated non-techies who know that hdd music is a tremendous faff but who want to listen to music in the fickle way hdd music allows us to (playlists, not having to listen to rubbish albums al the way through when they only have one decent song, the "shuffle/random" function...). The only other ways to achieve anything like this being MP3 disks via my BDP, which would allow a long listening session but no random function. Or MP3 disks with only songs you like played back by a multi CD drive...

There are lots of things you can do to mitigate the boredom of ripping? Sure there are, and lots of ways to distract yourslef from the ***-up you PC or software is making of your collection. Im paranoid and liek to keep an eye on the process.

All im saying is lets not mock people to easily.

Just the rantings of a frustrated non-techy who wants to listen to hours of good music in the way i want with as few obstacles as possible, and who cant decide whether to buy a 640H at half price; who wants to get it all sorted, then get the hell out! No more questions/debates/struggles to learn which bit goes where!!!

Im hope some of you think theres some substance herein.

Now excuse me while i have my connery in peace.

Al, try WMA Lossless, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised - to me it sounds better than ALAC anyway. Yes WMP does 'organise' music for you but you can override it any way you want - I pretty do much so.

For my money nothing beats WMP for playback - I think it's a bit underrated in this regard.

 

[Alec]

Oh i dont use alac. i use mp3 and/or flac just now. Nor do i use itunes. Intuitive? I cant even get it to give me a nice simple "now playing" type screen. Oh no, far to simple to just be able to see the list of the songs you're playing. Sorry, im ranting again.

What i meant re windows reorganising things is your actual folders. You move some things into a folder of various artists, and when you get up the next day it has tried to put them all in folders by band and album. Making everyhting read only seems to stop it tho.

EDIT - ive nothing against alac, mind. I'd happily use it if i had itunes/mac mini etc...