I valiantly volunteer my services
and I'll have the CDQ and MDAC to contrast and compare. Excellent fun.
MDAC first listen (part V)
- Thread starter Oktane
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I valiantly volunteer my services
and I'll have the CDQ and MDAC to contrast and compare. Excellent fun.
PhilCTTE
Senior mumbler
from windows start up icon on bottom left of tool bar theres a prompt to search for program files , in this type msconfig , and away you go. Click on startup tab and it will highlight all processes which get kicked off when you switch on laptop.
I have a constant battle with my 7 yr old boy who manages to use his mothers password to download allsorts, so every know and again I remove them. :0 Not one to stunt a young ones enthusiasm .. but.
Also right click for task manager and check out CPU heavy processes. Before you remove or stop them from startinf, what I do is google the process name to understand what it is ... as you don't want to stop windows.
BTW I'm no expert either ... so make sure you backup or make a restore point prior.
PhilCTTE
Senior mumbler
therixonator
pfm Member
ASIO is what I'm using atm the mo', with 1000ms buffer. After I uninstalled all the USB devices and switched usb port, after a while the pops started happening again. So then I looked into CPU and Memory. Every 7-10 sec the the CPU was hitting 60%-70% and then dropping back to around 10%. About 1 in3 times, that corresponded to a drop out. I've been running Synctoy over the last few days to sync the music folder on the NAS to the Laptop HD as I can't take the NAS with me to the wedding (mine has to be plugged into a router, can't plug it directly into the laptop). So once i stopped that software the CPU reading dropped right down and everything was boogie wonderland.
Will have a proper listen tonight as I was very tired and glum after many hours of fiddling last night. Also this means that I can now to a blind Hi-Res test to see if I can tell the difference. I downloaded some 24bit stuff off Society of Sound last night. Not sure if it is 96kHz or 192kHz though, so not sure if I need to downscale it before I can play it? Do I need to change any settings in Foobar to play Hi-Res stuff?
therixonator
pfm Member
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
USB Device Review. That's the link I used which Larkone sent me on AVF.
JemHayward
pfm Member
The Society of Sound stuff is nearly all 48KHz, and the overall sound quality is pretty good, but some definitely better than others. If you can get 24bit and 16bit versions of the Peter Gabriel stuff, you'll hear the difference through the MDAC quite easily, pretty obvious through my old Behringer in fact.
therixonator
pfm Member
Thanks Jem. Should I take the 24bit tracks and resample to 16bit, or can I be sure that they all started from the same master recording?
PhilCTTE
Senior mumbler
Nope.
Murphys law.. my laptop started dropping out with USB showing "inactive". Had a quick "butchers" on processes and noticed my young lad (*bless him) had been downloading again so stopped those processes via msconfig and re-booted and for the remaining hour or so ( bit of a late one last night 3am !) worked fine. Not sure what the cause was , but I also accepted an update to spotify and hadn't re-booted.
Think its about time I invested in a dedicated music serving machine.
PhilCTTE
Senior mumbler
Cheers for the link , will check out later.
The one I downloaded , on first use I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on , and no idea what the captured results mean. Will need to invest some time reading up.
JemHayward
pfm Member
SoS allows you to download 16 and 24bit files of the same stuff. I'm sure that in the case of the PG stuff they will be from the same source and the 16bit will have been downsampled from the 24bit, as PG's people seem to know what they are doing, and seem to care.
Some stuff is actually mastered at 16/44.1 so that's the best we'll ever get, but if hi-res ever catches on, I'm sure we'll get some of the lower bit recordings being upsampled and offered at a premium.
Always an upgrade scheme in this game
Fine by me, it's when there isn't an upgrade scheme I get antsy
Ouch...
JohnW
pfm member
Fine by me, it's when there isn't an upgrade scheme I get antsy
Well I hope its going to be an upgrade - still not tested yet
I was just reading the manual ahead of my weekend dem and noticed you can use an iPad as a source with the apple camera adapter- has anyone tried this? If it's bit perfect, the iPad might in theory be a reasonable source, as it's got a long battery life and you can turn off the screen and wi-fi - who knows in audio though, gotta listen, but would be worth knowing if it's bit perfect out. I have an iPad 2 lying around, but no camera adapter...
On another point entirely, my Olimex usb wonder noise destroyer arrived yesterday. Considering I ordered it only the day before at 5.30 in the evening, this is an amazing level of customer service! I do wish they'd been a bit clearer that it's USB-A to USB-B though as now I'll have to use an extra cable? I believe the other design used a USB-A into the computer and a female USB-A on the other side allowing the use of one cable... hm... I guess if I end up staying with it I could solder a different connector on, it's only shrink wrap anyway!
Lastly, does anyone know whether the upcoming transport will still have a CD spinner in it, or if not, does anyone know if you can modify a Rega Apollo to clock-lock?
James
On another point entirely, my Olimex usb wonder noise destroyer arrived yesterday. Considering I ordered it only the day before at 5.30 in the evening, this is an amazing level of customer service! I do wish they'd been a bit clearer that it's USB-A to USB-B though as now I'll have to use an extra cable? I believe the other design used a USB-A into the computer and a female USB-A on the other side allowing the use of one cable... hm... I guess if I end up staying with it I could solder a different connector on, it's only shrink wrap anyway!
Lastly, does anyone know whether the upcoming transport will still have a CD spinner in it, or if not, does anyone know if you can modify a Rega Apollo to clock-lock?
James
JohnW
pfm member
Hi Kevin,
Dom's found a method to recreate the issue - so is now debugging,
Thank you for the very detailed feedback - its help us to 'Find" the issue in the lab,
John
Edit - ops, sorry this posting should have been for klipschman70 - my bad, I confused posters...
PhilCTTE
Senior mumbler
I think this will be my interim choice as well, and I'm sure there are a couple out there using it with the MDAC. Would also like to know if its bit perfect.
Not sure whether to go Itunes + flac plugin or pure music .. shame JRiver Media Centre is windows only.
Thats was the plan with USB to optical 192 conversion built in.
What would be cool is if John made various versions with the USB 192 conversion; one with transport MTRN, one without transport MUSB and one with Mini-ITX built in MITX
Not sure on timescales mind ...
I think this will be my interim choice as well, and I'm sure there are a couple out there using it with the MDAC. Would also like to know if its bit perfect.
Not sure whether to go Itunes + flac plugin or pure music .. shame JRiver Media Centre is windows only.
Thats was the plan with USB to optical 192 conversion built in.
What would be cool is if John made various versions with the USB 192 conversion; one with transport MTRN, one without transport MUSB and one with Mini-ITX built in MITX
Not sure on timescales mind ...
I actually found a link on the benchmark website after googling that the iPad should indeed be bit perfect, and even over wi-fi- they had some readings showing no *apparent* difference between that and a MBP over optical or USB with one of their DACs. I'm not by my home computer but will send the link later for you
A full featured clock-locked transport would be great. I still like spinning CDs. Wonder if the drive will be optimised for re-reads and buffered to ensure all the data is retrieved...?
Space is the Place
pfm Member
JohnW can you clear a bit of room in your inbox, got a PM for you.
A couple of questions for you users of this DAC is you dont mind
Does anyone use this DAC and a pre-amp to good effect? I have a pre that I want to keep but it doesnt have a remote so I would like to use the volume on the DAC should I get one, any experience of this?
Also just to confirm, the volume is digital? Does it do this without any degradation of the signal? My main source is a SB touch and I used to use the volume on that but it suffered with hiss, when I by-passed the volume by setting it to 100% the hiss went and it sounded much better, there wouldnt be any danger of the problem being re-introduced, or would there? Thanks very much.
Does anyone use this DAC and a pre-amp to good effect? I have a pre that I want to keep but it doesnt have a remote so I would like to use the volume on the DAC should I get one, any experience of this?
Also just to confirm, the volume is digital? Does it do this without any degradation of the signal? My main source is a SB touch and I used to use the volume on that but it suffered with hiss, when I by-passed the volume by setting it to 100% the hiss went and it sounded much better, there wouldnt be any danger of the problem being re-introduced, or would there? Thanks very much.
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