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Post by mtnbikerva1 on Jan 19, 2015 11:55:50 GMT -5
If I did not care about quality I would listen to that horrible!!! Sirius/XM radio or stream crappy music.
this is why I do all CDs or CD to aiff format. I find buying used CDs from Amazon at times to be reasonably priced.
but I am looking for better sound than what I have.
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Post by Gary Cook on Jan 19, 2015 14:00:22 GMT -5
Good catch mate, I must have been still asleep when I posted that  I best go back and amend it, so it doesn't confuse anyone in the future. What I do is use a lightning to USB cable + gender bender for digital input into the UCA202. iphone to USB UCA 202 direct works?! Wow. What is the gender bender? like a male to female USB adapter? Gender bender, it's a small one piece adaptor that has 2 inputs of the same gender. In the above case it has a female input both sides, so I can plug the male USB end of the standard Apple lightning cable into one side of the gender bender turning it into a female connection. Hence gender bender. Then the male USB from the UCA202 plugs into the other side. I could have used a lightning cable with a female USB end but my daughter's boyfriend is an Apple tech and he said to use the standard lightning cable. Cheers Gary |
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Post by bluemeanies on Jan 20, 2015 19:01:10 GMT -5
But not at CD resolution, which after all is higher fidelity. audiobill...are your ears that good! |
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Post by audiobill on Jan 20, 2015 22:50:37 GMT -5
Yes, I can hear the difference between 320 and 1,411 kbps, and you could too on my system!  |
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Post by bluemeanies on Jan 21, 2015 6:50:49 GMT -5
audiobill I will concede to the fact that listening to CD's both from my OPPO and Sony with the Bryston BDA1 there is a difference especially with some very well recorded music.
Good point.
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Post by mtnbikerva1 on Jan 21, 2015 9:56:42 GMT -5
I do not understand why people listen to low SQ music through any audio equipment above a boom box.
Am I crazy or does satilite radio sound horrible?
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Post by novisnick on Jan 21, 2015 10:21:40 GMT -5
I do not understand why people listen to low SQ music through any audio equipment above a boom box. Am I crazy or does satilite radio sound horrible? Yes!,,,,he,,,,he,,,,he,,,,  |
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Post by frankv on Jan 21, 2015 23:26:47 GMT -5
Tidal streamed to apple ipad, iphone or mac, then wireless to Airport Express. All bit perfect, 25 million tunes, $20 per month. All at CD resolution, haven't touched a CD in years, no need to. Done. audiobill, you list "Mac Mini for Hi-Res audio via USB" in your sig, and mention the "electrically noisy environment" of a Mac in another post, and advocate streaming via AirPlay to an Airport Express (AE). Could the latter not also feed stored hi-res music to the AE, and if so, do you avoid that because you prefer the Mac Mini via USB route over AirPlay/AE? How much difference in sound quality, if any? I'm looking to replace a Sonos ZP80 (nowadays Sonos Connect) with a USB based solution for streaming and iTunes library hosted music (the coax and optical inputs on my external DAC are already in use so Sonos or AE are out unless I want to switch cables back and forth). Intrigued by Tidal and/or Deezer but not sure how my personal taste aligns with their offerings. The Mac Mini approach would allow me to also run a multimedia client to feed video into my UMC-200 (if I can figure out how to send audio via HDMI, but that's another thread). Regards, Frank |
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Post by audiobill on Jan 22, 2015 5:28:51 GMT -5
Frank, Airplay through an Airport Express is limited by Apple to 44.1 (48 through an Apple TV).
So, in my setup, the only way to get hi res to my dac is through hard wiring (USB in this case).
I choose not to mess with Plex, DLNA, RAID, JRiver, Foobar, Wasapi, Asio, ad nauseum, but others may enjoy that hobby.
Keep things simple, reliable, and controllable by my iPad..
I don't think the Mini is especially noisy, just that my Grace DAC, being a dedicated high-end D/A converter is more quiet as a purpose-built product.
The Grace also serves as my preamp, similar to a DC-1.
I'm very happy with this setup, BTW, with most of my listening from Tidal streamed through my iPad to the Airport Express then on to my Dac via Toslink.
I hope this helps!
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Post by bluemeanies on Jan 22, 2015 7:18:09 GMT -5
Frank, Airplay through an Airport Express is limited by Apple to 44.1 (48 through an Apple TV). So, in my setup, the only way to get hi res to my dac is through hard wiring (USB in this case). I choose not to mess with Plex, DLNA, RAID, JRiver, Foobar, Wasapi, Asio, ad nauseum, but others may enjoy that hobby. Keep things simple, reliable, and controllable by my iPad.. I don't think the Mini is especially noisy, just that my Grace DAC, being a dedicated high-end D/A converter is more quiet as a purpose-built product. The Grace also serves as my preamp, similar to a DC-1. I'm very happy with this setup, BTW, with most of my listening from Tidal streamed through my iPad to the Airport Express then on to my Dac via Toslink. I hope this helps! Good morning audiobill, I feel I have to clear up what may have been misleading in a previous post. I do agree that pure streaming (example pandora) is a poor quality playback. In my personnal setup I have a Chordette which allows bluetooth playback and is hard wired to my 990. Also the Chortette is a DAC in itself. The sound quality in my opinion is very good and excellant compare to streaming from bluetooth to pandora. I use the Chordette with my iPad which has access to my music collection on my iMac. I have a collection of recordings on cd that are hi-res and some three channel recordings that I play on my Oppo which is connected to the Bryston BDA1as well as my Sony 777. |
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Post by frankv on Jan 22, 2015 14:47:08 GMT -5
Frank, Airplay through an Airport Express is limited by Apple to 44.1 (48 through an Apple TV). So, in my setup, the only way to get hi res to my dac is through hard wiring (USB in this case). I choose not to mess with Plex, DLNA, RAID, JRiver, Foobar, Wasapi, Asio, ad nauseum, but others may enjoy that hobby. Keep things simple, reliable, and controllable by my iPad.. I don't think the Mini is especially noisy, just that my Grace DAC, being a dedicated high-end D/A converter is more quiet as a purpose-built product. The Grace also serves as my preamp, similar to a DC-1. I'm very happy with this setup, BTW, with most of my listening from Tidal streamed through my iPad to the Airport Express then on to my Dac via Toslink. I hope this helps! Thanks! You have a point there re: playback of hi-res audio via Airport, I may try the Mac Mini and use it for streaming as well (afaik you cannot target it via Airplay, but there are remote control solutions (Remote HD, Screens 3, etc) that let you control the Mac Mini (or any OS/X device) from the iPad (or any iOS device). On the Mac Mini, I can run the OS/X version of the Tidal player. |
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Post by audiobill on Jan 22, 2015 15:21:30 GMT -5
Airserver or airfoil will let you target the mini from Airplay.
I use Airserver for this purpose.
And don't overlook Apple's Remote app if you use itunes.
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Post by creimes on Jan 22, 2015 16:24:09 GMT -5
I use the Apple app "Remote" to control the playback of my Mac Mini, it will also control any apple TV's as well.
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Post by novisnick on Jan 22, 2015 16:42:30 GMT -5
I use the Apple app "Remote" to control the playback of my Mac Mini, it will also control any apple TV's as well. Question for Ya, how is your iPad seeing the mini? Are you using iTunes? can I run my mini with just a iPad as my controll and screen? I havnt put a lot of thought into setting this up, but it would be great to do it as such. currently I can run jriver with the iPad app, but that only sees the program and not the whole mini. thanks |
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Post by bub on Jan 22, 2015 16:50:13 GMT -5
Tidal streamed to apple ipad, iphone or mac, then wireless to Airport Express. All bit perfect, 25 million tunes, $20 per month. All at CD resolution, haven't touched a CD in years, no need to. Done. Although I still have my Sony 777 SACD,CD,DVD player fully loaded with 400 cd's and my Oppo I find I stream most of my music. I have a CHORDETTE that I am able to stream all of my music from my computer and iPad. While I have heard many good things about TIDAL I am cheap and I resent spending $240.00 a year for music when there are so many venues to access FREE MUSIC from the Internet. 25 million tunes you can't listen to in a lifetime. I'm cheap also. Very. But when I think about buying 24 cd@$10 each @ year. Or even 24 cd's @$10 @ year for ten years. I 'd have all of 240 cd's . With Tidal I don't have to wait 10 years. I have 25 million tracks right now . I can tell the difference between 320 and 1411. Even for an old guy who has run cross country at triple digits with racing exhausts on various bikes. I set up Tidal on a PC. If you use an Apple product it automatically streams at 1411. On a PC with out Chrome you get 320. I knew something was missing but it wasn't until I played a cd and streamed the same tracks with Tidal using the same Dac ( Anedio d2 ) that I knew for sure. Then I went into settings. Sure enough. 320. D/l'd Chrome and viola 1411. Sounds great. |
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Post by audiobill on Jan 22, 2015 17:21:52 GMT -5
Nick, with your music on itunes on the mini, just download the Remote app on your ipad and you can play your music and control from your ipad.
If you wish to try Tidal, add the Airserver app to your mini and you can use the Tidal app on your ipad to control that.
Both via Airplay.
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Post by novisnick on Jan 22, 2015 17:34:22 GMT -5
Nick, with your music on itunes on the mini, just download the Remote app on your ipad and you can play your music and control from your ipad. If you wish to try Tidal, add the Airserver app to your mini and you can use the Tidal app on your ipad to control that. Both via Airplay. Thanks, but iTunes will not be installed on my Mini, I was looking to see if I could control the mini itself with an App. i use remote for JRivers though. i may try Tidal, but another $20.00 a month? I just don't get to use streaming sights that much, too many other streaming bills,,,,,,,Netflix is enough for monthly expenses, most of my music is on the mini or vinyl. to find new music I use Pandora and friends on forums. |
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Post by audiobill on Jan 22, 2015 18:03:33 GMT -5
As you wish.
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Post by novisnick on Jan 22, 2015 18:06:14 GMT -5
So, there no way to control my mini with an IPad then, correct?
Thanks for your time my friend.
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Post by novisnick on Jan 22, 2015 18:08:43 GMT -5
7 day trial for Tidal seems a little thin to me, I'm sure it sounds great but most of us just don't learn that fast, or have that kind of time to play with a new toy to see if I want it. But, that's there model and money.
I may try it someday if I ever get that kind of time.
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