I can wholeheartedly endorse the purchase of the DiyParadise Monica USB dac. I just worked all the bugs (all my fault) out of mine and it just rocks. Before I was using a total bithead usb headphone amp and I thought it was pretty good. When I hooked up the Monica, it was no contest. It blew the bithead away. It's a true bargin.
I'm in the same boat as pjanda1. I have a pretty good vinyl rig going and do not wish to digitize the signal. going 24/192 isn't an option as I don't belive my G4 mac mini has the horsepower to do all that math. I'll stick with doing things the hard way
I'm in the same boat as pjanda1. I have a pretty good vinyl rig going and do not wish to digitize the signal. going 24/192 isn't an option as I don't belive my G4 mac mini has the horsepower to do all that math. I'll stick with doing things the hard way
Bob Brines said:
I agree!, there's definintely merit to using DSP instead of notch filters. It's on a really nice spot in the complexity vs. benefit curve. Especially if you're starved for watts.
Here's some pretty complicated DSP linear-phase notch EQ-ing for the Cyburgs Needles:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1096666#post1096666
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1164094#post1164094
I just went over those posts I wrote and I can't understand half of what I'm saying anymore. If anyone has questions, shoot.
OzMikeH said:
It took a while for PC's (mac or windows) to be able to utilize 100mbits, even now many can't saturate 100mb ethernet. Gigabit is a total waste for most users right now. I own a small IT company, and I do some home installs. It cracks me up that people insist on having gigabit ethernet, or the latest wireless standard, to hook up to their DSL.
Still, I would hope that a Mac G4 could handle 24/192 because I know a supposedly lesser PC can do it.
Better sound with Foobar and HRT Music Streamer +
Hi, I have recently upgraded my A126 horns with a pair of FE126eN.
A big step forward, but still not an ultimate compromise for the living room.
Some records sounds great, while other sucks.
I have played with Foobar using a creative X-FI USB sound card for a while, not a hifi sound card but goood enough to see the possibilities with Foobar and FLAC files.
I read a review at 6moons.com audio reviews: High Resolution Technologies Streamer+ and order a Music Streamer+ , tried it for a couple of days and now I´m hooked.
I´m replacing my Pioneer PD-DJ6 player with a modest HP latop (5 years old), Foobar and the Music Streamer+. It´s not an upsampled USB DAC, but it sounds really good compared to the PD-DJ6.
Anders
Hi, I have recently upgraded my A126 horns with a pair of FE126eN.
A big step forward, but still not an ultimate compromise for the living room.
Some records sounds great, while other sucks.
I have played with Foobar using a creative X-FI USB sound card for a while, not a hifi sound card but goood enough to see the possibilities with Foobar and FLAC files.
I read a review at 6moons.com audio reviews: High Resolution Technologies Streamer+ and order a Music Streamer+ , tried it for a couple of days and now I´m hooked.
I´m replacing my Pioneer PD-DJ6 player with a modest HP latop (5 years old), Foobar and the Music Streamer+. It´s not an upsampled USB DAC, but it sounds really good compared to the PD-DJ6.
Anders
Dave, any chance to see an eNabled macintosh in the future? 
really, do you or any one else know of a software equalizer that can be used under OSX? the one in itunes just seems to destroy the signal...
Has anyone noted that in Windows 7, the upcoming and for the first time ever stable and fast OS from micro$oft, in the mixer utility there is a ROOM OPTIMIZATION option which ask you to connect a microphone to do automatic eq??? i still have to try it, but it seems really interesting step in consumer tech
really, do you or any one else know of a software equalizer that can be used under OSX? the one in itunes just seems to destroy the signal...
Has anyone noted that in Windows 7, the upcoming and for the first time ever stable and fast OS from micro$oft, in the mixer utility there is a ROOM OPTIMIZATION option which ask you to connect a microphone to do automatic eq??? i still have to try it, but it seems really interesting step in consumer tech
@kmair: are you sure about the optical out thing from the mac? i'm using an airport express, which is both a wireless for internet and a wireless music streamer for itunes, and when i bought it i red in a review that the digital signal coming out of the spdif is identical bit-wise to the wave source file (altough i still don't have a dac after it)...
reagarding windows 7, i'm not a big fun, i run a mac which i hate too, but must say that 7 is incredibly fast and smooth/stable on the macbook compared to snow leopard. but perhaps i make money when i'm not studiyng doing flash/web stuff and those things runs better under win/chrome in general.
i'm also using linux to develop a customized platform for a hotel these days and i really cannot reccomend it to anyone, it has the big advantage for audio that a process can be runned 'real-time', which means it will have some kind of 100% priority on the resources, and maybe this will be used in embedded music front-ends one day, but as a home system is not suitable... until google realease its linux-based system will i sincerely hope will make everything else a bad memory... than having a process in 'normal multitask' mode has that hi-tech version of vynil taste each time it breaks and continue during the playback...
which machine are you using to test win7?
reagarding windows 7, i'm not a big fun, i run a mac which i hate too, but must say that 7 is incredibly fast and smooth/stable on the macbook compared to snow leopard. but perhaps i make money when i'm not studiyng doing flash/web stuff and those things runs better under win/chrome in general.
i'm also using linux to develop a customized platform for a hotel these days and i really cannot reccomend it to anyone, it has the big advantage for audio that a process can be runned 'real-time', which means it will have some kind of 100% priority on the resources, and maybe this will be used in embedded music front-ends one day, but as a home system is not suitable... until google realease its linux-based system will i sincerely hope will make everything else a bad memory... than having a process in 'normal multitask' mode has that hi-tech version of vynil taste each time it breaks and continue during the playback...
which machine are you using to test win7?
for the ones with osx, i used this OSS3D once
» Download OSS 3D for Macintosh
it has mainly dsp things and also a many bands eq, but i has been discontinued, and i remember it was not working in leopard... under tiger yes it was better than i-tunes built in: with the audionirvana super 8" the itunes eq destroyed life and dynamics, and i was using it always dropping sliders under the zero, so that i could sort-of-bsc and not have the bass clipping.
» Download OSS 3D for Macintosh
it has mainly dsp things and also a many bands eq, but i has been discontinued, and i remember it was not working in leopard... under tiger yes it was better than i-tunes built in: with the audionirvana super 8" the itunes eq destroyed life and dynamics, and i was using it always dropping sliders under the zero, so that i could sort-of-bsc and not have the bass clipping.
Howdy Human.bin!
Maybe it's just Google Chrome is faster than Safari?
Wow, that has never happened to me, and my Linux machines are mostly very old (Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, 9.04) What is pre-empting the audio? Is it swapping? Or insufficient CPU? (I use WAV).
I'm using a HP Core2 Duo, E8300 @ 2.83 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM (seems to want at least 4 Gb).
But if I boot the same machine into Ubuntu 9.04, it's a speed demon and never stutters on audio playback. The machine is a couple years old.
Good luck with your hotel application -- it sounds interesting!
Maybe it's just Google Chrome is faster than Safari?
i'm also using linux... as a home system is not suitable... having a process in 'normal multitask' mode... each time it breaks and continue during the playback...
Wow, that has never happened to me, and my Linux machines are mostly very old (Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, 9.04) What is pre-empting the audio? Is it swapping? Or insufficient CPU? (I use WAV).
I'm using a HP Core2 Duo, E8300 @ 2.83 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM (seems to want at least 4 Gb).
But if I boot the same machine into Ubuntu 9.04, it's a speed demon and never stutters on audio playback. The machine is a couple years old.
Good luck with your hotel application -- it sounds interesting!
just to keep of topic...
chrome and safari have the same core, it just happens that java implementation for win is faster, so does flash plug-in at about 200% rates...
flac palyback is likely to to jump sometimes on both win and mac, if you have some adobe programs running same time and everything is fighting for the same harddrive and always 90%-80% dual-core, but speaking hi-fi the fact about real-time process is just a thumb-up for linux thinking of a dedicate machine, one core graphics front end, one core real time decoding...
btw latest ubuntu with ext4 is not just fast, it's the edge, and i really hope google will transform all of that in a usable system, with some software to use too
just to take this back to audio: Bob when you eq the bass in the positive range don't you fear the lowthers can be damaged?? i did fear it with the AN, then i broken it crashing one on the floor...
chrome and safari have the same core, it just happens that java implementation for win is faster, so does flash plug-in at about 200% rates...
flac palyback is likely to to jump sometimes on both win and mac, if you have some adobe programs running same time and everything is fighting for the same harddrive and always 90%-80% dual-core, but speaking hi-fi the fact about real-time process is just a thumb-up for linux thinking of a dedicate machine, one core graphics front end, one core real time decoding...
btw latest ubuntu with ext4 is not just fast, it's the edge, and i really hope google will transform all of that in a usable system, with some software to use too
just to take this back to audio: Bob when you eq the bass in the positive range don't you fear the lowthers can be damaged?? i did fear it with the AN, then i broken it crashing one on the floor...
hey guys, i found a really interesting equalizer that is both vst and AU, that means it can run under osx too... or foobar under win
apulSoft - apEQ
it is in demo mode and a bit pricey at 50€, but quite impressive:
64bit precision, oversampling
full range, with curve editing, no sliders
built in high and low shelf, and other things i don't understand BSC in a touch!
to use it under mac read here
Plugin Equalizer for iTunes? | Computer Audiophile
hijackpro, which i have does work correctly, the freeware one i don't know
reagarding the buil-in eq in itunes i find this
Equalizer Plug-in for iTunes? - AppleSpy Forums
it's dated back to 2004, but 8bit processing??? itunes still dosen't go trough audio core...
maybe a better solution will come out, i'll keep searching if you guys say that it's better or comparable to passive circuits, which i thought not, it will be a big time/money saver to newbies like me
apulSoft - apEQ
it is in demo mode and a bit pricey at 50€, but quite impressive:
64bit precision, oversampling
full range, with curve editing, no sliders
built in high and low shelf, and other things i don't understand
BSC in a touch!to use it under mac read here
Plugin Equalizer for iTunes? | Computer Audiophile
hijackpro, which i have does work correctly, the freeware one i don't know
reagarding the buil-in eq in itunes i find this
Equalizer Plug-in for iTunes? - AppleSpy Forums
it's dated back to 2004, but 8bit processing??? itunes still dosen't go trough audio core...
maybe a better solution will come out, i'll keep searching if you guys say that it's better or comparable to passive circuits, which i thought not, it will be a big time/money saver to newbies like me
Hi rjbond3rd,
A126 is a very selective speaker, voices, piano, acoustic guitar, saxophones etc. on good recordings are to die for. Poor recordings or heavier stuff without EQ sounds thin or "strained" in my living room. I have found some room modes e.g. 110hz, 220hz and 440hz (same as in the foobar EQ) which are causing some of the problems. I´m not a purist so I believe that adjusting and correcting the response with some software-EQ is best practice in 2009.
/Anders
A126 is a very selective speaker, voices, piano, acoustic guitar, saxophones etc. on good recordings are to die for. Poor recordings or heavier stuff without EQ sounds thin or "strained" in my living room. I have found some room modes e.g. 110hz, 220hz and 440hz (same as in the foobar EQ) which are causing some of the problems. I´m not a purist so I believe that adjusting and correcting the response with some software-EQ is best practice in 2009.
/Anders
Just a nagging sniggle-point.
Fixing the response anomalies with acoustic action is best. This means room treatments and system design.
But, given a fixed speaker, software EQ can work miracles.
i tried the room equalization function in win7: it reports just a R/L balancing and delay, no equalization it seems... altought it explicitly asks if the user is using a professional flat response mic before starting... the difference after that was... nothing... altought i cannot really tell, since i'm playing a pair of alpair 10 in some cardboard boxes, waiting for Scott to give news about the BVR...
also for mac users i noticed there is a 31 bands eq within the default Apple audio units! this can be used trough the jack software as well
@rjbond: what player do you use under ubuntu? i found there is a good thread in the ubuntu forums about setting the eq system wide
also for mac users i noticed there is a 31 bands eq within the default Apple audio units! this can be used trough the jack software as well
@rjbond: what player do you use under ubuntu? i found there is a good thread in the ubuntu forums about setting the eq system wide
Hi badman, I agree you can't fight room modes with EQ (cancellation is cancellation) so my method is to move the listener.
Hi human.bin, wow, I would be interested to learn more. I use XMMS on my oldest machine, and on my fastest, AmaroK (lately). I have tried many others. What I really need is 32-band EQ per channel. What is the best player, in your experience?
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