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Confused With Options To Obtain BestQuality iTunes

I have been reading a lot these days and still confused on the plethora of options available in hooking up a computer based digital system and the pros and cons to each and every selection. I am quite new in this so please bear with me.

I have friends who stream wireless music(Itunes) via an Apple Airport Express that supported this idea and do know many folks are using this setup in their homes. Others who are into Logitech stuff advocated the Squeezebox Classic and Touch. However, another group who uses top-flight gears in their systems(upper range MBL and Revels) advised that wireless degrades sound quality, and the best option is to hook it all up with wires.

Suggested options to play Itunes in WAV or AIFF format are as follows.

1) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => Mac Mini/Macbook => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

2) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => Logitech Squeezebox Classic/Touch => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

3) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => PC => Apple Airport Express => wireless => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

4) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drives => wireless => Apple TV => DAC

Out of the four options above, is it a general consensus that option 1 will yield the best sound reproduction from iTunes followed by option 2? Will options 3 and 4 come close to options 1 and 2? Are there any other alternatives to do all this?

Basically my priority is to use an iPad to control playback from iTunes stored in 1TB/2TB external hard drives WITHOUT using a Mac/PC. Apple Airport Express and Apple TV were said to degrade sound quality. What other cost-efficient options do I have?

An advice would be most appreciated.
ryder
ryder OP
1,682 posts
 
4est, Bwp, thanks for the useful advice. I'm slowly moving in the direction of the Mac Mini + iPad now. It is certainly good to read similar opinions supporting the Mac Mini's choice which surely make things easier for me.

Cheers.
4est
507 posts
 
Ryder,

Might I suggest upping the RAM on your mini. Memory play is the ticket. For whatever reasons, lots of RAM and a solid state internal disk drive for the OS makes a difference. You may want to check out the "computer audiophile" site, there is lots of info there. I find it a little easier to understand than say audio asylum and such.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
I am no expert in this field but having just completed the process, after much research, I'll share what I learned. BTW, when I say just completed I mean I finished ripping cds yesterday and hooked everything into my system last night. I can tell already that my cdp won't see as much use as it did.
All of my research pointed to a Mac Mini with external HD feeding a dac as the best way to implement the system. I ended up with:
Mac Mini (latest version)
ipod touch for remote control
Western Gigital HD
PS Audio DLIII dac
Choosing equipment was easy, it was deciding how to rip that gave me the most trouble. Trouble because after deciding which way to go I would read some contradictory information.
Cds were ripped to itunes with AIFF. I downloaded EAC software mentioned above to my pc and ripped some cds that way. If I were using a pc instead of Mac I'd go with EAC as you are assured of an exact duplicate.
I also downloaded the MAX software mentioned above but found it difficult to use. If I were to do it over I might chose WAV files instead of the AIFF, not for quality but because they seem to be used more readily by the other programs.
The ipod touch was chosen as remote because I had one. It works great.
The HD I purchased is only 500gb, may be a problem but my intention was not to rip all of my cds, only those I listen to. I ended up loading 453 albums, according to itunes, which is about half of my cds and I used 200gb. I don't know about you but I have cds that will never get listened to. If I really want to hear one I'll use the cdp.
At this point I have no intention of streaming music throughout the house so can't help there.
tpy's avatar
tpy
68 posts
 
Could someone clarify if iTunes will stream high rez files to a Squeezebox Touch? And what the best way to get high Rez downloads into (and out o_ iTunes on a Mac?

I too am going through the learning process this week and downloaded the HDtracks free sampler to see if I can get it to work before buying some other interesting high rez downloads they have. I converted from flac to wave with XLD. and that would play through iTunes on my computer but not stream to the SQbox. Then I converted them to AIFF and they stream fine and sound noticeably better than 16 bit, but there is drop out when playing, as if the streaming is not keeping up with the music.

Any suggestions?
tobias
1,534 posts
 
iTunes will output hi-res files via FireWire to my Apogee Duet, up to a max of 24/96. The resolution switching has to be done manually using Audio MIDI Setup.

Same for my Apogee Mini-DAC but the resolution goes up to 24/192.

However if you use Pure Music for $129, you get not only resolution switching on-the-fly but also much cleaner sound. iTunes alone seems to add nasties. Pure Music latches on to your iTunes Library and playlists so you don't have to do any configuring.

Free AyrePlay software from sbooth.org will also bypass iTunes' "contribution" and switch on-the-fly but unlike Pure Music, it needs OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. (I'm stuck at 10.5.)
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