Dippin my foot in that digital stuff

Polkitup2

I have never have done much with iPOD, MP3, Squeezebox or any of that stuff but have always thought that it would be cool to have all of my music easily accessible and easy to organize. So, I played around with Windows Media player using Windows Vista and outputing to a Musical Fidelity A1 which has a USB input. I am both impressed and disappointed. I was impressed by Media player's ability to organize the music. It was simple to rip a CD and it would automatically find the cover art and title list. You could also create playlists which would be great for a party or if you are doing some work around the house and don't want to be changing CDs constantly. On the disappointing side, the quality through the MF DAC was ok, but not great. I even ripped using the lossless format. Also, the gain was less than my normal stereo setup so I had to turn the volume up quite a ways on the A1. To sum it up, the Media player was very convenient, but simply not the same sound quality as my main 2 channel rig. Fun to play with though!

adam2434

Resampling and PC volume control are a couple things that need to be considered with PC audio, as they can degrade the audio quality. Basically, you want to get an unmolested bitstream to your DAC, which is possible with a PC, as it is with a conventional transport. Here are some questions and suggestions.

Does the A1 have an indicator for sampling rate received?

Go into the Vista control panel and set your defaults to 16 bit / 44.1kHz.

Keep the volume controller of any media player at 100% or 0dB.

You may want to try a player like Foobar (freeware). Players like this have plug-ins that allow you to bypass Windows mixing routines.

I guess using USB could be an issue too. A lot of folks like to convert USB to spdif with an outboard box from the likes of Trends Audio or Hagerman.

Unless it's something simple like a Windows or Media Player volume setting, I'm not sure what would be causing the low volume. USB should be able to deliver the same signal level as spdif.

Besides the low volume, what were your other sound quality observations?

Polkitup2

Thanks for the tips, there is definately more experimenting to be done. The A1 does not show the sample rates. Once I get the gain issue sorted out I'll have a better feel for the sound quality.

adam2434

Yeah, there is definitely a bit of a learning curve, as there is in most other areas of audio.

The key areas of effort are around 'bit perfect" (not allowing Windows to change the bits) and low jitter (if your gear and ears are sensitive to it).

heiney9

A big learning curve in using digital devices/PC for audio to get the proper unaltered sound. Keep at it, be sure to use a bit perfect ripping program and FLAC lossless is the best IMO. The output of the PC has to be configured properly if using a sound card and I'd use a player other than the Windows player and .wma files are inferior. With the Slim Devices unit there is a setting that keeps the internal DAC from switching over if you accidentally run the volume below full output.

Lot's of things to set-up/configure properly; if not you will get the less than optimal sound you are experiencing.

H9

Polkitup2

I was just doing some A/B comparisons. I have matched SPL levels between my laptop using media player and a USB connection to my A1's DAC and my Marantz CD player. I must say that I am quite impressed with the USB connect to the A1. I'd still give the edge as far as best sound quality to the Marantz setup but as I said, I was still impressed. It sounded good. I really see a music server playing a part in my system at some point. I want to be able to have my music library displayed on my big screen and be able to control it all from my chair. So I guess a desktop connected to my big screen and a wireless keyboard would do it. I already have a laptop but the USB connection and monitor cable to my system from my chair would be a hassle and get in the way. I will have to check out FLAC and I imagine there is better software than media player out there.

adam2434

Exact Audio Copy is a good program to rip CDs to FLAC. I play FLACs with Foobar using the WASAPI plug-in to allow "exclusive control", which bypasses any Vista treatment of the audio. With this, you can't even adjust the digital volume with Vista. I use my PC's coax SPDIF to my DAC and am pleased with the results.

However, I am seriously considering a Squeezebox because I'm thinking that it could provide a better SPDIF bitstream to my DAC, as it removes a lot of variables in the PC and quality concerns about the PC's SPDIF. I don't know if the sound will be improved, but there will be some piece of mind. The other benefit is that you are not limited by cable length, since the streaming is done over wireless or Cat 5. I think the Squeezebox is just a more elegant way of doing it. You can select music with the Squeezebox remote and display.

Regarding selecting music from your chair using a PC interface (not Squeezebox), I do something similar to what your thinking. My desktop is on our middle floor, so I got a VGA splitter from Monoprice and ran VGA to my projector in the basement. I also bought a Rocketfish wireless mouse (around 30ft range) and use it to navigate the PC from the basement, where the main equipment and listening area is.

Good luck and have fun.