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December 5, 2009 - 5:20pm
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Trying to go digital ... Help !!!
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You are trying what I am trying...WAV files into an IPOD classic through the computer...so far not pretty. I am having the normal and ever present program/PC/compatibility problems and the wav files ripped have an audible low frequency rumble when played back on the PC. If the WAV files are crap, loading them on the iPOD makes no sense.
I love my setup. Logitech Duet and Cambridge Audio DacMagic. All music ripped in lossless (flac) to a 1TB USB hard drive attached to my computer. Budget around $1000. Need a new computer to handle all this? Buy one with the money you saved.
Forget the Bose option the drop in sound quality would be MASSIVE from the system that you are currently enjoying.
I would recommend against encoding your collection as WAV files. While WAV has great comparability the artist name, album title, and most other data are not part of the the meta data. If the the master folder containing the music is moved improperly all of that information will be lost. I'd recommend figuring out which playback solution you are going to go with be fore deciding which file format is right for you. Apple Lossless is great, having sound that is comparable to the original CD, but it's compatibility outside of the Apple world is limited. FLAC is wonderful, but it doesn't have out of the box comparability is iTunes nor iPods.
I have read that Wadia is for now the only company that has access to the Apple code, so that coupled to a good DAC you will get true Hi-Fi from an iPod source.
How does the Squeezebox manage to give true Hi-Fi, or is it somewhat diluted to an inferior level ? How does Sonos do it too and there is no need for a DAC apparently ?
The Squeezebox system sends up to 24 bit 48kHz files via ethernet or a wireless home network to its receiver, which has digital Toslink and S/PDIF outputs to connect to your DAC. It does not use an iPod.
I feel I must inform you of the trouble I had with the 80GB iPod Classic I bought a little over a year ago. Even with Apple's own ALAC lossless files, it exhibited buffer underrun problems. That is, every so often it would stop playing for a second or two (in the middle of a song) while the music was transferred from the hard disk to the RAM. Then it would continue playing from where it left off. A visit to Apple's iPod Classic forums confirmed that this was not an issue with my sample only, but common to all the 80 GB classics. Apparently this model only has 32 MB of RAM. Perhaps the newer ones have more, perhaps not.
I'm leaning towards ...
iPod>Wadia i170>DAC>A3 reciever
or
Sonos or Squeezebox Duet
The iPod solution is quite simple, however I do not like the idea of no video transmission of playlists, albums, artists, etc to the remote or TV. Does anyone know if Wadia is about to correct this?
One last question: do Sonos and Squeezebox deliver high quality sound ?
Thanks
Though not shabby on its own, to obtain high quality sound from the Squeezebox one needs to use an external DAC. In that configuration I have found the Squeezebox to be a capable front end and to sound as good as the DAC it's feeding. As always, YMMV.
True . . . or you go with the Logitec Transporter, which for $2,000 (I believe) compares favorably to $6,000 CD players according to Wes Philips review.
The Transporter even supports 24 bit 96kHz files.
Thanks for all your comments.
My final choice is the following:
- Sonos ZP90
- Sonos Bridge
- iTouch as remote
- Lacie or WD NAS (1TO)
I am going with Sonos mainly for it's expansion possibilities. Eventually I will perhaps add a DAC if needed; but I will wait and see if the sound quality warrants one.
I also plan to get a S5 for portability.