USB Audio
Posted: July 8th, 2015, 1:44 am
I get the sense that not a whole ton of folks in this group are into computer audio yet, but since we are having a RARE thunder storm here in Southern Oregon and my wife and daughter are monopolizing the living/music room to watch a Disney movie on an iPad, I thought I;d share my recent experiences.
I'll keep it short. In the past year I've tried dozens of configurations and just about every software suite out there. At one point I almost gave up on USB--so flat and gritty sounding. A cheap blu-ray player sounded better! But I persisted and here's what I've found sounds the best:
A recent Intel Mac Mini connected to a USB DAC of your choice (mine is the Arcam irDAC, a superbly musical and flexible critter) with files streamed from a 4TB Seagate "Personal Cloud" storage drive ($200) directly connected to the Mini via BlueJeans ethernet cable. The nice thing about the new Minis is that the ethernet port lives on a completely separate card from the USB ports, thus you are not cluttering the USB output with incoming information. In the network preferences, you can set up two network sources, Ethernet and Wi-Fi...OR, even better, Ethernet and Thunderbolt Ethernet (with an adapter) for internet access. This keep Wi-Fi off. The Mac Mini recognizes the Seagate and establishes a closed "network" for music files only and the Seagate shows up as a server on the Mac desktop. To my ears this provides the cleanest, smoothest delivery of files, without question.
I run a little optimizer script on the Mini that shuts down excess processes. You can find this by googling "optimize Mac for audio." It's from one of the pro audio web sites. There is also an optimization script from CAD that goes further, but in my system it's a little too much.
For software, well, I've tried (and paid for) them all. JRiver Media Center is, in some ways, indispensable, in that it scans and catalogues your collection in the simplest way, and the search function is powerful and comprehensive. You can also use the JRemote app as a remote control or to stream music to any i-device you like--phone, pad, whatever. But sonically it's a little generic on the big system. I keep a copy for searching and remote listening. For critical listening I've found that HQ Player offers the most accurate sound. You can hear the acoustic space in which the performance is taking place. I have it set to maximum upsampling (192 on the Arcam) with the custom filters the author has provided (the manual makes this easy to set up) and it preserves the quality of the original file while clearing away a lot of digital haze. Amarra adds a lush halo to everything. Audirvana 2+ is very good but not as good as HQ Player, and the options can be daunting, to say the least. PureMusic is actually quite nice if you need to use iTunes and/or want a minimalist player (it offers both). But HQ Player is the best I've heard. HOWEVER***-- HQ Player only plays FLAC, WAV or AIFF, so if you have iTunes stuff or mp3 you have to convert it. AND it's expensive--$150.
The other issue is library functions. I am a minimalist in this regard and simply prefer to drag-and-drop files from my server to the player when I want to hear them. I find tagging to be a godd*mn, shoot-me-now, seventh-level-of-hell nuisance. I have files of old classical broadcasts, 78rpm rips and all kinds of crap I've downloaded, and I frankly prefer to shove it in a folder I recognize and just drag it to the player when I want to hear it. HQ Player lets you do this. Some of the other players have complex library managers so beware. Most of them also allow drag-and-drop as well. I avoid any player that doesn't allow this function.
So this is my current configuration and it's BETTER than my best CD player and mucho convenient to boot.
In terms of ripping CDs, avoid iTunes because it s*cks at tagging and organizing. Use Max and a script from Doug's iTunes scripts that will transfer the Gracenote tags from iTunes, a very handy thing for obscure discs or imports. For the new Mac Minis, you'll need to buy a $50 external CD-ROM.
Just about all of this you can do on a cheap Windows laptop (HQ Player and JRiver come in Windows versions) but I think it sounds worse than Mac. Optimized OSX sounds much, much better to me. The current base model is $499, which is a steal. Add $200 for the Seagate, $70 for a Supra USB cable, $20 for a BlueJeans ethernet cable (this is very important, BTW) and $$$? for a DAC and you've likely spent less than a high-end CD player.
BTW, I've tried the "dual computer" setup (one to do the processing and one to send the signals to the DAC) and I don't see/hear the point.
If this is boring or repetitive I apologize in advance!
I'll keep it short. In the past year I've tried dozens of configurations and just about every software suite out there. At one point I almost gave up on USB--so flat and gritty sounding. A cheap blu-ray player sounded better! But I persisted and here's what I've found sounds the best:
A recent Intel Mac Mini connected to a USB DAC of your choice (mine is the Arcam irDAC, a superbly musical and flexible critter) with files streamed from a 4TB Seagate "Personal Cloud" storage drive ($200) directly connected to the Mini via BlueJeans ethernet cable. The nice thing about the new Minis is that the ethernet port lives on a completely separate card from the USB ports, thus you are not cluttering the USB output with incoming information. In the network preferences, you can set up two network sources, Ethernet and Wi-Fi...OR, even better, Ethernet and Thunderbolt Ethernet (with an adapter) for internet access. This keep Wi-Fi off. The Mac Mini recognizes the Seagate and establishes a closed "network" for music files only and the Seagate shows up as a server on the Mac desktop. To my ears this provides the cleanest, smoothest delivery of files, without question.
I run a little optimizer script on the Mini that shuts down excess processes. You can find this by googling "optimize Mac for audio." It's from one of the pro audio web sites. There is also an optimization script from CAD that goes further, but in my system it's a little too much.
For software, well, I've tried (and paid for) them all. JRiver Media Center is, in some ways, indispensable, in that it scans and catalogues your collection in the simplest way, and the search function is powerful and comprehensive. You can also use the JRemote app as a remote control or to stream music to any i-device you like--phone, pad, whatever. But sonically it's a little generic on the big system. I keep a copy for searching and remote listening. For critical listening I've found that HQ Player offers the most accurate sound. You can hear the acoustic space in which the performance is taking place. I have it set to maximum upsampling (192 on the Arcam) with the custom filters the author has provided (the manual makes this easy to set up) and it preserves the quality of the original file while clearing away a lot of digital haze. Amarra adds a lush halo to everything. Audirvana 2+ is very good but not as good as HQ Player, and the options can be daunting, to say the least. PureMusic is actually quite nice if you need to use iTunes and/or want a minimalist player (it offers both). But HQ Player is the best I've heard. HOWEVER***-- HQ Player only plays FLAC, WAV or AIFF, so if you have iTunes stuff or mp3 you have to convert it. AND it's expensive--$150.
The other issue is library functions. I am a minimalist in this regard and simply prefer to drag-and-drop files from my server to the player when I want to hear them. I find tagging to be a godd*mn, shoot-me-now, seventh-level-of-hell nuisance. I have files of old classical broadcasts, 78rpm rips and all kinds of crap I've downloaded, and I frankly prefer to shove it in a folder I recognize and just drag it to the player when I want to hear it. HQ Player lets you do this. Some of the other players have complex library managers so beware. Most of them also allow drag-and-drop as well. I avoid any player that doesn't allow this function.
So this is my current configuration and it's BETTER than my best CD player and mucho convenient to boot.
In terms of ripping CDs, avoid iTunes because it s*cks at tagging and organizing. Use Max and a script from Doug's iTunes scripts that will transfer the Gracenote tags from iTunes, a very handy thing for obscure discs or imports. For the new Mac Minis, you'll need to buy a $50 external CD-ROM.
Just about all of this you can do on a cheap Windows laptop (HQ Player and JRiver come in Windows versions) but I think it sounds worse than Mac. Optimized OSX sounds much, much better to me. The current base model is $499, which is a steal. Add $200 for the Seagate, $70 for a Supra USB cable, $20 for a BlueJeans ethernet cable (this is very important, BTW) and $$$? for a DAC and you've likely spent less than a high-end CD player.
BTW, I've tried the "dual computer" setup (one to do the processing and one to send the signals to the DAC) and I don't see/hear the point.
If this is boring or repetitive I apologize in advance!