satkinsn
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music server issues
jazzfan
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Quote:
I'm looking for thoughts on a couple of problems I'm having with a music server.

I bought a used Olive Musica (like the Symphony, but with larger hard drive) several months ago to store and playback my flac files.

I finally got around to hooking it up the other night. As noted many times, my system is nothing fancy: PSB B25s, an Oppo universal player, a 't amp' with the 2024 chip.

I'm really, really happy with the sound of the system when listening to cds.

I put a cheap pre-amp into the system in order to use the Olive, and was very disappointed. The music was thin and lifeless. So I disconnected the pre-amp and used the same cabling that was going to the Oppo to hook up the Olive.

Same result.

I'm using analog outs on eveything.

John Atkinson's review of a few years back suggests the analog outs were decent, which leads me to ask, what am I doing wrong? Or is my gear simply so insufficient a lot of equipment will just never, ever sound good?

s.

What are you doing wrong?

1) You didn't get a Logitech Squeezebox Touch

2) You're not using an external DAC, such as the giant killer Cambridge Audio DAC Magic

3) You're listening to jazz (as per our friend Teddy Ray)

satkinsn
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I keep edging up to the Touch, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. As the owner of a v.3, Boom, Radio and Duet I'm, ummmm, kindly disposed toward them.

How well does the direct hookup to a usb drive work?

Likewise I come close to buying the v-dac (or the Cambridge) but...not yet.

As for jazz, I have a co-worker who's just like TR. Smart lady, decent taste in music and one day out of nowhere she looked at me and said "Y'know, I can't stand jazz."

Since I don't much feel like I have to defend such things I just grunted, but she went on to say "It doesn't make any sense to me."

Which is, I think, the equivalent of "It's just a bunch of noise."

Most people, including many music lovers, are simply indifferent to jazz. (Well, most people don't even live in the same galaxy as jazz.)

But for a certain number of folks, jazz is an offense; it's not just that they don't like it - it's something they have to speak out against.

I have no idea whether TR fits that description, but my co-worker's sense of order is disrupted by jazz. She hears it playing on a late Friday afternoon (and yes, know that there is one tv station in America where you can occasionally hear Albert Ayler's "The Truth Is Marching In" blaring from the news director's office as the weekend approaches) and though she is too polite to say anything, is bothered.

s.

jazzfan
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Quote:
I have no idea whether TR fits that description, but my co-worker's sense of order is disrupted by jazz. She hears it playing on a late Friday afternoon (and yes, know that there is one tv station in America where you can occasionally hear Albert Ayler's "The Truth Is Marching In" blaring from the news director's office as the weekend approaches) and though she is too polite to say anything, is bothered.

s.

Now I wouldn't consider someone taking offense at Albert Ayler's "The Truth Is Marching In" as a condemnation of all jazz since Ayler's music is quite a bit different from the toe tapping sounds of Count Basie. Try playing something a little more mainstream and see if the reaction is the same.

satkinsn
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Oh, Ayler is very far out of reach, I know, but she pretty much doesn't like any jazz.

s.

btw - You heard the new Dave Douglas yet?

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Quote:
btw - You heard the new Dave Douglas yet?

Douglas puts out new music at such an alarming rate I have difficulty keeping up. Just what "new Dave Douglas" are you referring to, i.e. this week's or last week's?

satkinsn
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Ha!

The new Keystone movie soundtrack 'Spark of Being,' which is part one of a three cd set.

I'm a huge fan, so his output never, ever strikes me as too much, but YMMV.

s.

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