Yer know what

[Alec]

Don't really understand Steve's point, but then I'm fairly sure he isn't making one. Maybe when he calms down.

Machines of all kinds fail now and then.

 

[SteveR750]

I have indeed calmed down a little now, I posted that in a moment of red mist frustration. Yes, machines do go wrong, but a CDP is not as fragile as a windows PC. Caveat Emptor if you decide like I did to forego the former for the latter to save some money, it probably doesn't in the end. Wha really got my back up was the total lack of effective help, support, even basic knowledge from the "tech support" at windows - we are talking basic customer service stuff like logging the details of an hours call / remote check of a machine so that the next time you call they can carry on where they left off..."call us immediately it does a BS again and we'll take a look at the logs" followed by "sorry, who are you?" Sony's attitude to fixing it was how can I put it politely "relaxed" . Machines break, but so does customer tolerance.

JD, turns out it was a hard drive failure, according to the people that are fixing mine, it's an increasingly frequent problem, seems like the BQ is not what it once was. Like cars, most lappies have the same stuff in them, so (Macbook probably excepted to a degree) there is little point paying for a semi premium badge like Sony any more (bit like Audi vs Skoda) unless the name means sometjhing to you.

So, rant over, new PC ordered (an asus n56 as it happens) better specced than the Viao for around 2/3 price. This time I bought a 3 year warranty. Viao gets repaired for £80 or so, and youngest son has a quad core gaming machine as an early xmas pressie.

 

[JamesOK]

Using a PC as a source is areally dumb idea.

yours

Really, no really hacked off Windows User.

- Ineffecticve customer support (how about losing an hours interaction / session ID notes for starters: you are Mr who again?)

- Spotify doies its own thing anyway

- Really crap customer support when it stops working (and it will)

Contrary to all the advice I have ever given on here, biased as it is given my predicament: don't ever, ever choose a PC as a main source of your music.J RMC can go shove it, what an ultimately pointless exercise: what was I thinking, silly me.

Go Mac Steve, you wont regret it.

Control all your music via the iTiunes remote control (assuming youve got an iDevice of some kind!).

Cray Supercomputer - really?

 

[SteveR750]

James, what put me off a Mac is that it appears not to be bit perfect configurable with iTunes without using some 3rd party software, like a PC then, only from what I've read it's more complicated / challenging to get it to work consistently. JRMC is slick as it comes.

 

[Overdose]

iTunes is 'bit perfect', or rather it can be if the settings are correct, but this is no different to any other software in this regard.

As long as the input bit depth and sample rate are set to match the actual files being played, no resampling will take place.

Granted, this is not altered on the fly and if your file resolution changes, then you would need to manually change the settings, but the ability is there for 'bit perfect' play back.

I've had a try with the various settings and haven't found any differences worth noting, so just set to 16/44, as this is the most common file resolution in my collection.

 

[SteveR750]

As long as the input bit depth and sample rate are set to match the actual files being played, no resampling will take place.

Granted, this is not altered on the fly and if your file resolution changes, then you would need to manually change the settings, but the ability is there for 'bit perfect' play back.

So how does it know when to or not to resample? I can't see that it checks the native rates, if matches the outputted rate then do not sample, else resample to outputted rates. I'd be surprised, very suprised if it doesn't simply resample to the outputted rates, whatever you set them to. I could be wrong, but it seems an obscure protocol to go to the trouble of designing, might as well not resample at all......

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I've recently dumped my iMac with Puremusic in favour of a PC with JRiver. I got fed up with it not recognising my Firewire drive at boot up and losing my USB DAC and reverting to the internal speakers. I'd have to go and redo my Audio Output device settings which was very tiresome and not user-friendly for the other half.

The PC replacement has a fresh install of Windows 7 running and I'm very happy with it at the moment. Sound quality is excellent.

 

[Overdose]

Oh well, never mind.

Works fine for me.

 

[SteveR750]

I've recently dumped my iMac with Puremusic in favour of a PC with JRiver. I got fed up with it not recognising my Firewire drive at boot up and losing my USB DAC and reverting to the internal speakers. I'd have to go and redo my Audio Output device settings which was very tiresome and not user-friendly for the other half.

The PC replacement has a fresh install of Windows 7 running and I'm very happy with it at the moment. Sound quality is excellent.

It's deeply impressive isn't it, best of all is how slick it is for the most part. It can get a bit tricky if you rip compilation CDs where you might have to rename the track file names so that they sit in the right album file.

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I rip with dBPoweramp and somehow I've managed to avoid any problems with compilation CDs and JRiver. More luck than planning!

 

[pauln]

JD, turns out it was a hard drive failure, according to the people that are fixing mine, it's an increasingly frequent problem, seems like the BQ is not what it once was. Like cars, most lappies have the same stuff in them, so (Macbook probably excepted to a degree) there is little point paying for a semi premium badge like Sony any more (bit like Audi vs Skoda) unless the name means sometjhing to you.

Consumer laptops are built to last about a year and then you're meant to buy another - it keeps the economy (of China) ticking over. If you want something that is reliable, built well and will last 4 or 5 years you need to buy a "business" class laptop from the Dell Latitude/HP Elitebook/Lenovo ThinkPad ranges. Added bonus of having virtually no pre-installed "bloatware" but obviously more expensive.

As far as Apple are concerned, they use just the same components as all the other laptop manufacturers, you just pay more for the name and the very nicely made metal unibody. Sony also charge a premium for the name, but as you say, you don't get any better quality unless you pay over £2k for the carbon fibre chassis models and even then the components inside will be the same.

As to hard drives, I think there are only 2 manufacturers left now. Even Samsung have sold up and now only make SSD's so whatever machine you get it will have an HDD made by Seagate or Western Digital.

 

[SteveR750]

Consumer laptops are built to last about a year and then you're meant to buy another - it keeps the economy (of China) ticking over. If you want something that is reliable, built well and will last 4 or 5 years you need to buy a "business" class laptop from the Dell Latitude/HP Elitebook/Lenovo ThinkPad ranges. Added bonus of having virtually no pre-installed "bloatware" but obviously more expensive.

As far as Apple are concerned, they use just the same components as all the other laptop manufacturers, you just pay more for the name and the very nicely made metal unibody. Sony also charge a premium for the name, but as you say, you don't get any better quality unless you pay over £2k for the carbon fibre chassis models and even then the components inside will be the same.

As to hard drives, I think there are only 2 manufacturers left now. Even Samsung have sold up and now only make SSD's so whatever machine you get it will have an HDD made by Seagate or Western Digital.

You're joking, right? Dell Latitude is a terrible machine, no end of failures where I work. Both the Sony and trhe Asus I own are fare better machines than any "business" laptop I have ever used, and I've had a few over the years.

As it happens, I spoke to Laptop Hut who have repaired it, and it needed a clean out of the fan and a new 4G ram block. Job done apparently all for £80 including the collection and return.

 

[chebby]

You're joking, right? Dell Latitude is a terrible machine, no end of failures where I work.

Superb machines. Apart from the iMac i've always used Latitude and Vostro. (My oldest machine is a five year-old Latitude D630 that is still working fine.)

I now use a Latitude E6420 (since February) and it is excellent.

It was because of the incredible reliability of the Dell machines at work that I started buying from their business range for personal use.

Never regretted it. Excellent next working day cover on the (very few) occasions I have needed it. In fact I have just added another 2 years cover to our Vostro PC upstairs for £80 as it's 3 year cover expires in a few months.

In ten years I have only ever been without one of the Dells from 16:00 on one day until 10:00 am the next. And that was only because the engineer had to wait an extra hour for a part to be delivered. Otherwise he'd have fixed it the same day!

 

[pauln]

As it happens, I spoke to Laptop Hut who have repaired it, and it needed a clean out of the fan and a new 4G ram block. Job done apparently all for £80 including the collection and return.

Well, a bit of maintenance now and again doesn't go amiss.

You're joking, right? Dell Latitude is a terrible machine, no end of failures where I work. Both the Sony and trhe Asus I own are fare better machines than any "business" laptop I have ever used, and I've had a few over the years.

I can only speak from my own experience. My 6 year old latitude is still going strong and is now used by my wife. I have a 2 year old HP Elitebook and it too has never missed a beat. Both have been around the world more than a few times and get used on site, not sat on a desk in an office.

 

[SteveR750]

I'm somewhat influenced by the experience of Dell Alienwars ownership, not great tbh. My empoyers have switched their global contract from Dell to Lenovo, partly becuase of the high number of failures. The most reliable machine I have owned is a Fujitsu which has survived being dropped a few times, has been used daily for several hours at a time for 6 years now.