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Thread: The Audiophile Thread

  1. #976
    Member LASERCD's Avatar
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    You have lots of options. You don't have to use a Mac or PC. You can use a streamer from Bryston which is built on Linux and has its own mobile app. Other companies like Auralic as well.

  2. #977
    I use Linux and use optical out direct to a DAC. Tons of software/codecs available for Linux, including Slimserver and DLNA software.
    For streaming, I've been using Slimserver (now called Logitech Music Server) for ages, which will stream to a variety of devices other than Squeezebox... I just built a Rasberry Pi with HiFiBerry audio card, and recently bought a Beep (thisisbeep.com). Another option is to use DLNA software, which is very extensible.
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  3. #978
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  4. #979
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by strawberrybrick View Post
    I am not smart enough or educated enough to judge the manufacturer's claim that the silver coating is "excellent for very high-frequency applications, like Ethernet audio," and that the high-frequency signals "travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor" and thus "use" the silver instead of the underlying copper. I leave it to commenters to weigh in on if that actually, you know, means anything.
    Well I am smart enough to know that ALL Ethernet signals, regardless of the audio frequency encoded into their binary code, travel at pretty close to the speed of light down ANY cable. Silver coating or copper, the ones and zeros will be decoded at the other end regardless. LOL

  5. #980
    Bits are bits. You can't have "better bits".

  6. #981
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    That's not to say there are no "naughty bits" of course.

  7. #982
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    It really disappoints me when a short film about two women sharing a passionate moment is ruined by poor video download.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  8. #983
    I would pay for a processor that converts all bits to naughty bits.

  9. #984
    Member Staun's Avatar
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    If I could take your minds away from naughty bits for a second, but has anyone noticed a sound difference in a vinyl picture disk and a reqular vinyl disk? Now back to naughty bits.
    The older I get, the better I was.

  10. #985
    Quote Originally Posted by Staun View Post
    If I could take your minds away from naughty bits for a second, but has anyone noticed a sound difference in a vinyl picture disk and a reqular vinyl disk? Now back to naughty bits.
    Well, the vinyl is really thin because it's two thin bits with the picture sandwiched in the middle and not one think piece of vinyl. So I have heard you can hear a degradation in sound due just to that, and the vinyl is probably cheap as well for picture disk releases. But I've never had one.

  11. #986
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    The only vinyl picture discs I've heard sounded like shite but that was several years ago.

    My turntable, which I thought was a goner, has been resurrected. Two audio stores told me the motor had to be replaced and that motor was no longer manufactured. Took it to this twenty-something about ninety miles from here (keep in mind, I live in rural ND). He fixes amps, guitar pedals, and some audio equipment. Just got an email from him: the motor didn't need a complete tear down but rather a readjustment. The motor has a speed adjustment internally for each of the 33/45/78RPM speeds. The adjustment pots had some intermittent operation so I flushed them with contact cleaner and lubricant. I have all of the speeds accurately set with a strobe and the turntable is playing wonderfully. The total for the repair is $45 labor.

    I won't be able to pick it up for at least a couple weeks but I'll have a stack of albums ready for it when I do. Hopefully my wife won't think about getting out her stack of late 60s-early 70s 45s.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  12. #987
    False Number 9 Pr33t's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Staun View Post
    If I could take your minds away from naughty bits for a second, but has anyone noticed a sound difference in a vinyl picture disk and a reqular vinyl disk?
    Picture discs are notoriously terrible sounding due to their construction. The vinyl is in between two sheets of the picture, and the outer layer is just clear plastic to seal it in. So essentially the stylus is reading the groves through a piece of paper, which adds tons of noise. They're basically collector's items that should be looked at rather than played.

  13. #988
    Pendulumswingingdoomsday Rune Blackwings's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerjo View Post
    The only vinyl picture discs I've heard sounded like shite but that was several years ago.

    My turntable, which I thought was a goner, has been resurrected. Two audio stores told me the motor had to be replaced and that motor was no longer manufactured. Took it to this twenty-something about ninety miles from here (keep in mind, I live in rural ND). He fixes amps, guitar pedals, and some audio equipment. Just got an email from him: the motor didn't need a complete tear down but rather a readjustment. The motor has a speed adjustment internally for each of the 33/45/78RPM speeds. The adjustment pots had some intermittent operation so I flushed them with contact cleaner and lubricant. I have all of the speeds accurately set with a strobe and the turntable is playing wonderfully. The total for the repair is $45 labor.

    I won't be able to pick it up for at least a couple weeks but I'll have a stack of albums ready for it when I do. Hopefully my wife won't think about getting out her stack of late 60s-early 70s 45s.
    Can you PM me with this guy? I might have a turntable for him to fix
    "Alienated-so alien I go!"

  14. #989
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    You want trust UPSP or UPS to send a turntable $1500 miles?
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  15. #990
    Member Staun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pr33t View Post
    Picture discs are notoriously terrible sounding due to their construction. The vinyl is in between two sheets of the picture, and the outer layer is just clear plastic to seal it in. So essentially the stylus is reading the groves through a piece of paper, which adds tons of noise. They're basically collector's items that should be looked at rather than played.
    Ya, I don't even own one. But, Waters' Amused to Death is out on pic disk and I'm looking for the non pic edition. No luck yet. Suggestions?
    The older I get, the better I was.

  16. #991
    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    Well I am smart enough to know that ALL Ethernet signals, regardless of the audio frequency encoded into their binary code, travel at pretty close to the speed of light down ANY cable. Silver coating or copper, the ones and zeros will be decoded at the other end regardless. LOL
    Bits are bits. You can't have "better bits"
    While I will be one of the first to agree on how bogus I think hi-end Ethernet cables are for audio, they DO NOT carry ones and zeros.

    There are no 'bits' on an Ethernet cable. They carry falling and rising voltages, where the transition between falling/rising/falling, are interpreted by the decoder as a one or a zero.


    4-20.gif


    So, it is possible for a defective or poorly designed cable to not accurately carry those falling and rising voltages, causing dropped or misinterpreted bits. If enough bits are dropped/misinterpreted, the audio may be inferior. But it would probably have to be a lot of dropped bits to be audible.

    That's me playing 'devil's advocate'.
    Last edited by simon moon; 07-24-2015 at 03:04 PM.
    And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell

  17. #992
    They do carry ones and zeros, as interpreted by the corresponding voltages, as you point out. All digital data is two differentiated states of something; voltage, light, whatever. Two states does not take a lot of quality to figure out Actually, there is more to it than that, sure. But the point is that the data gets to the other end and it's RIGHT, or it's WRONG, as determined by error correction. And if it's RIGHT your connection is as good as it ever needs to be. So if your ethernet cable isn't intermittent or just bad you should be ok. I would say a quality cable is going to be more about longevity and sturdiness than quality data transmission...

    Pretty much all the troubles of the digital world occur either when the signal gets processed and the numbers get truncated (and this is now easy to compensate for) or when the signal gets turned from analog to digital and back again.

  18. #993
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by simon moon View Post
    There are no 'bits' on an Ethernet cable. They carry falling and rising voltages, where the transition between falling/rising/falling, are interpreted by the decoder as a one or a zero.

    So, it is possible for a defective or poorly designed cable to not accurately carry those falling and rising voltages, causing dropped or misinterpreted bits.
    Listen to your Uncle Trurl, it's not the TRANSITIONS that trigger the binary ons and offs, it's the states in between the transitions. As to cheap cables "not carrying falling and rising voltages," where exactly are you proposing that those voltage changes are going, if not down through the cable? You think the cables are absorbing electricity???

    Actually, the graph you posted is for Manchester encoding, which has no DC component. Therefore the encoding *is* including the clock frequency, effectively triggering on the transitions. I stand corrected.
    Last edited by rcarlberg; 07-24-2015 at 05:35 PM.

  19. #994
    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    Listen to your Uncle Trurl, it's not the TRANSITIONS that trigger the binary ons and offs, it's the states in between the transitions. As to cheap cables "not carrying falling and rising voltages," where exactly are you proposing that those voltage changes are going, if not down through the cable? You think the cables are absorbing electricity???

    Actually, the graph you posted is for Manchester encoding, which has no DC component. Therefore the encoding *is* including the clock frequency, effectively triggering on the transitions. I stand corrected.

    All I am doing is responding to the assertion that there are ones and zeros, or bits on an Ethernet cable.

    Without a decoder, there are no ones of zeros, there are no bits. All there are is voltages.
    And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell

  20. #995
    Well yeah, "bits" are a bit of a construct really. There are no bits anywhere. It's what we call the difference between two states, at least in a binary system. Usually it's a voltage, but it could be light, or hell, a tank being full or not full. Whatever. In a CPU's transistors, a cable or whatever it's almost always either current on/off or voltage high/low. But there's no where in a computer system you can break out your microscope and go, "Hey! There's a bit!" A bit signifies a unit of information.

    So that being said, an Ethernet cable carries bits because the cable carries information in the form of voltage. Otherwise you might as well say there's no music on a record.

  21. #996
    Member Staun's Avatar
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    Do record clamps actually improve the sound of vinyl? I'm told that they do and some are better than others. My TT has one and it has been suggested that I go to a heavier clamp for better sound. What's the scoop.
    The older I get, the better I was.

  22. #997
    Member Staun's Avatar
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    Oh, one more. When lowering and raising your stylus, do you prefer the table to be in motion or stopped?
    The older I get, the better I was.

  23. #998
    Member BobM's Avatar
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    Raising stylus - do this first, then turn off the motor.
    Lowering stylus - start the motor first, then lower it.

    Record clamps & platter mats - fundamentally you want your vinyl to make solid contact with the platter so that is effectively becomes one with the platter. You don't want any air gaps between it and the platter surface, those could cause vibration in the vinyl and transmit into the stylus.

    Sometimes a record mat will help, sometimes not. Record mats are made from lots of different material and could help if your platter is ringy and undamped. Experimentation pays off here. Sometimes a clamp or weight will help a record bond better to the platter surface, but you definitely don't want it to cause any kind of cupping of the record surface. These only work if they flatten the vinyl better to the platter. Many times you may want a small rubber or felt washer around the spindle so the record weight/clamp doesn't make he record edge bowl upwards. Again, experiment if you can.
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  24. #999
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    And again, as mentioned before in this thread, turntable mats may require stylus tracking angle adjustment.

  25. #1000
    Moooomat!
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

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