2. digital
  3. 125471-10754

Please Help!! looking to get into computer audio.

I am looking into exploring the computer audio format, I am a long time audio enthusiast. My Digital front end currently consists of a Oppo bd103 and a Bryston Bda 1 , I currently have the capability to stream my itunes library from my computer via bluetooth to my oppo player , but the sound quality is not up to my standards. Any suggestions on how to increase the sound quality would be great. Please consider that i am a newbie to this and a little confused with the formats of computer audio. Any solution would be appreciated thanks. I have been looking at the w4s remedy and or Blink or recovery. I am also considering just getting a wadia 171 ipod transport and just using my ipod. confused and not sure which route to take for best sound qaulity.

128x128whinoman

Showing 5 responses by sun-warrior

sun-warrior's avatar
sun-warrior
28 posts
 
And aren't purchased iTunes Store files in the AAC format?

Even though also lossy files like MP3, AAC tend to sound better.
sun-warrior's avatar
sun-warrior
28 posts
 
Actually on a Mac with iTunes, if you want uncompressed music files, AIFF is your choice, not WAV. AIFF can retain all metadata, including album covers if you paste them in.

My 2500-album library is a mix of ALAC mainly, with about 10% as AIFF. And I've tested several albums over the past few years, having each as both ALAC and AIFF...and I don't believe there's any difference.

What helps keep the compressed ALAC and uncompressed AIFF sound the same as been powerful enough music servers which can decompress the ALAC files quickly.
sun-warrior's avatar
sun-warrior
28 posts
 
You do not need a NAS drive for the microRendu.

Instead you can just use any computer on your home network running one of the microRendu compatible servers, such as LMS (Logitech Media Server) or MinimServer - both of which are free. The music files themselves must then be fed into that computer; an external hard drive works well for storing the music.

And you need some kind of control point app on your mobile device. For example, I use the Lumin app on my iPhone or iPad to control the music playing through MinimServer.
sun-warrior's avatar
sun-warrior
28 posts
 
But yes, the microRendu is a great little digital music gizmo.
sun-warrior's avatar
sun-warrior
28 posts
 
sbank: "One of the benefits is getting a full PC or Mac computer and its associated noise out of the listening room and galvanically isolated from the dac."

Yes, with microRendu, the computer as server or the NAS, whichever you choose, does not need to be in the same room as the music system -- it just needs to be on the same network, which can be anywhere else in your home.

So isolation has nothing to do with choosing computer or NAS as server.
More to discover