Music Server Gapless Playback, Shielding & LPSU

Continuing A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 6)

My next items to address with the server are getting around to shielding the internal cables, and preparing for adding in a linear power supply to replace the existing one. However first, following on from my previous post, Vortexbox have now upgraded the install package to include an option to auto-install Squeezeplay (and disable Vortexplayer) via Yum – which is fantastic. Vortexplayer is reportedly gapless now also, however I believe that is determined more by the hardware implementation of the DAC manufacturer, and so may not be truly gapless 100% of the time. Regarding Vortexplayer being gapless, in the case of the Bel Canto series devices for example, they are very forgiving and have a longish delay when the signal drops before they react and need to relock the sample rate, etc.

Focal SM9's Get 10 out of 10

Continuing on from my The Focal SM9 Joy Continues... post:

"The SM9 and its innovative two-in-one approach tops Focal’s range of active studio monitors."

"The imaging is surgically precise, the effortless transparency is world-class and they’re a pleasure to work with."

"Full-frequency near-field monitors with a unique feature set and extraordinary sound quality."

Update: Unfortunately I have had to remove the link to the full review at Music Tech Magazine UK (quoted above) as it appears to have been taken over by scammers.

However you can read a subsequent full review at What Hi-Fi UK.

Logitech Clarify Future Of Squeezebox

Logitech leaves Squeezebox fans wondering what's next? The Squeezebox platform is officially discontinued, but Logitech hasn't told current owners what they should expect from now on" comments Matthew Moskovciak last week on CNET.

In the last week or two there's been speculation about what will happen to Logitech Squeezebox, LMS (Logitech Media Server), and the mysqueezebox.com website. Matthew has since posted an update to his article last Friday, clarifying Logitech's current position - although Logitech themselves don't seem to have publicised it that well.

The Great WAV vs. FLAC Debate (Part 1)

There has been on-going debate over recent years that even though FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files use a lossless compression, on playback they still don’t sound as good as an unpackaged & uncompressed WAV (wave) file. The WAV file encased in the FLAC container, although compressed, is still bit perfect – and when unpacked by the music server/source it should be in every way identical to an original WAV file that has not been encased in a FLAC container. However many audiophiles have argued there is a difference that can be heard.

Neil Young's Pono Digital Music Service

Neil Young's new "High Resolution" music service seems to finally be gaining some traction. Rolling Stone reported yesterday it may be expanded and could eventually rival Apple's iTunes (and will hopefully finally force Apple to actually make available decent quality audio files instead of their totally trash MP3/AAC stuff)... He has also unveiled the first Pono media player device for the service.

Earlier discussions this year had centred around the desire to get all the major record labels on board.

Magic Jandals!

Adriano Adewale - Flip Flop

What you can do with some Jandals! Unfortunately YouTube doesn't do it justice - get the DVD (Antonio Forcione Quartet in Concert) to get the full bass effect from the audio! The whole concert is pretty fantastic.

Vinyl Collector's Really Are The Whackiest People

Amazing Video Documentary by a Vinyl Collector - wonderful stuff and well worth a watch. Quite long though (almost 2 hours).

Watch Vinyl (2000) - Alan Zweig investigates the wacky world of record collecting in Lifestyle  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.comYou may ultimately find some of it rather sad... or disturbing!

The Focal SM9 Joy Continues...

Focal SM9

A few days on (see my previous post) and well I was continuing to be amazed by these Studio monitors and am being drawn even more to the music – at the time they were nearing the upper end of the 20 hours initial running in period at medium to higher volumes that is recommended to get them loosened up – and while I have not perceived any major shift in the sound ‘quality’ the music (as opposed to the ‘system’) they just seemed to get more compelling the more I listened!

Listening to The Eagles, “Hotel California”, in 24bit/192kHz resolution I’ve never heard the drums sound like they did on the title track – you can feel the tautness of the drumhead, feels like the drum kit is right beside you in the sense of the ‘realness’ and texture of the sound…

Continuing A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 5)

Since my last post there has been a bit of progress, I now have my server running fan less. This just took a little bit more minor tidying inside the case and the removal of a large heat source from directly beneath the server – my Perreaux 350P Power Amp! In fact this has been part of a major revamp of my entire system (as discussed in my The Joys Of Discovering Focal Pro SM9s post), which basically is seeing my entire audio system (apart from my Subwoofer) replaced around the Music Server & my Oppo Blu-ray Player which will be the only components remaining. One benefit of this big change is a lot more space in my rack, eliminating the heat issue alluded to above – the presence of the Perreaux 350P causing a passive build-up of warm air around the server without the presence of the fan. Now that’s gone the unit is happily running fan less.

The Joys Of Discovering Focal SM9s

Several people who know me thought I might have lost my mind, had a psychosis, or been otherwise mentally impaired! I appeared to be mindlessly selling off all my audiophile & HT gear for no good reason, and being known for careful consideration and cautious analysis of any new purchase this was a radical departure from prior behaviour! But no, it was not all a fit of madness, it’s something far far better, and possibly a piece of Audio Nirvana – for a while at least?! In fact I had to find something pretty special to move me from my Charios… but I found it – well they rather kinda fell into my lap I guess, with a little help from a friend – and that's Focal SM9s!

Ivy Mairi

Ivy Mairi is a relatively new artist (on the Cowboy Junkies' Latent Recordings label), the first since the CJ's revamped & relaunched Latent. Her second album "No Talker" was released at the end of last year, and as a promotion they are offering both her 2009 debut album ("Well You") and her new album together in a download bundle for just US$5.99. Both are produced by the CJ's Michael Timmins and what's more you can download this in audiophile 16/44 FLAC or ALAC formats, as well as the usual lossy MP3 & AAC formats...

Ivy is, in my opinion, a refreshing and promising young singer/songwriter with some similarities to artists like Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss, etc, when at similar stages of their careers... I hadn't come across her previously and have to say both her albums are quite stunning...

New NZ High-End Equipment For Audiophiles

Pure Audio founders Gary Morrison and Ross Stevens
with their company's audio products...

The latest in quality kiwi audiophile products: Pure Audio Limited in Wellington - continuing the tradition of Plinius, Perreaux, et al...

Two Wellington men well known for their skill and experience in creating audio equipment have designed the ultimate home amplifier system from the finest materials.

After more than two years' development time, they launched their company Pure Audio in July last year and began retailing products at companies such as Soundline on Thorndon Quay [in Wellington] in January. With minimal buttons and lights and bells and whistles, the products are tailored to the passionate music buff... Read More... (at Stuff.co.nz)

More On A Dedicated Music Server (Part 4)

One of the challenges I’ve been having is with heat and the chassis fan (see my previous post). It hasn’t been a show stopper but it’s been a bit annoying and has prevented any hope of running the unit entirely fan-less… However I’ve subsequently done a tidy up and rearrangement of the cabling in the case (see image) which has made quite a big difference. I’ve also got the chassis fan mounted in a new position on the side so it’s pushing external air in and into the centre of the case (i.e. towards the motherboard & processor heat sink) rather than being in the back corner partially obstructed by the hard-disk drive and pushing air across the latter and away from the motherboard.

Sierra Hull, Nickel Creek, Shawn Colvin, and Miss Bright

Had some new arrivals to my music collection last couple of days, the first is Sierra Hull’s “Daybreak” album (2011), Nickel Creek’s “Why Should The Fire Die?” (2005), Shawn Colvin’s “Fat City” (1992); and an aspiring New Zealand artist Hannah Bright’s “Miss Bright” EP (2012).

Sierra Hull is (or was in 2011) a 19-year old singer / songwriter / mandolin player – I bought this album on a spur of the moment decision and I must say it’s pretty stunning if you enjoy Bluegrass style Country (I can’t actually believe I just wrote that – 10 years ago the only Country I’d have listened to is Alison Krauss & the Cowboy Junkies). Anyway this is a wonderful album, lovely melody and that ‘golden glow’ to the sound that you get with multiple string instruments. Sierra has a wonderful voice and is obviously a very accomplished musician. I’m not going to wax too lyrical here, as you can read more about “Daybreak” on Wildy’s World, and that says as much as I ever could, and there's more at Sierra Hull’s Official Website. For more general information check her out on Wikipedia.

iJustine's take on YOLO is iBrilliant!

A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 3)

Continuing on from my previous post one other component I have included (that I didn't mention previously) is a SOtM Fan Noise Filter. While the Motherboard I have used has  a low power fan-less Atom processor the case itself does include a small silent fan which I have opted to run as it's noise factor is 0 (at least at present). As I had purchased a SOtM Filter (in anticipation of having a CPU fan to deal with) I've inserted this into the case fan power feed - it may not be making a huge contribution but then again it might just be helping, and as I had it on hand it might as well do something!

Talking fan-less Atom CPU's & boards one thing to watch for is ventilation - while the Silverstone case I used (the LC19) has a decent amount of ventilation in the upper surface (about 50% of the case lid is perforated, including virtually all the area above the motherboard), it is reliant on a reasonable volume of air space above for dissipation. I initially had it with just 20mm or so of clearance above and this was inadequate - the core temperatures were usually around +65°C initially (max safe temp is +75°C) however once in the constrained rack space these rose to around +69°C, and once I started ripping a series of Music DVDs they rapidly rose to the limit (and even over, one of the cores sitting at +76°C for some time while ripping DVDs). The heat dissipation was very reluctant even after being idle for several hours, only dropping 2-3 degrees. However once I was able to rearrange my rack to increase the height of the air space above the server to about 7cm the temperatures rapidly plummeted back to their norm, and even while in use happily were sitting around +64°C to +66°C again within about 20 minutes - highlighting how the fan-less CPU's are reliant on the appropriate case ventilation with appropriate space above for their heat sinks to work efficiently.

A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 2)

Continuing on from my previous post, as mentioned in closing, first impressions were impressive – for such a relatively simple (and basic) implementation the tangible improvements were apparent from the very first track. Alison Krauss & Union Station’s “Paper Airplane” at 24/96 was like a newly discovered physical entity – the first 2 tracks on this album (“Paper Airplane” & “Dust Bowl Children”) both feature very pronounced strings, and these were so well defined you could almost feel the texture of the taut strings (on guitar, banjo, and such) being plucked and massaged, this was a glimpse of a whole new definition of hi-res playback, where the fullness of the sound was that much more developed, giving a greater detail & depth to the soundstage and an environment where the music just ‘hangs’ in the air completely free from the presence of the speakers themselves…

This of course might seem a bit over the top – my first impression was I just hadn’t listened that closely to “Paper Airplane” previously, so I moved on to Carly Simon’s “No Secrets” at 24/192 (ex 2002 DVD-A), winding up that classic “You’re So Vain” – again I was caught off-guard by the tangible difference from prior playback sessions, Carly’s voice (can I call her Carly, or should that be Ms Simon?) coming through with a wonderful new depth and even warmth, and the keyboards were defined so distinct and tightly – there was no muddy blurring here. Again there was a sense of presence of the music as a whole, just existing in the space, and seemingly freed from the location of the speakers… Further tracks from Carly (sorry, Ms Simon) reinforced that, “The Right Thing To Do” & “We Have No Secrets” also display much greater depth & detail in Carly’s voice and that enhanced sound stage for the whole ensemble. With all the tracks the guitars and other strings were again surprising in their accuracy of presentation; feeling like you could just reach out and touch the instruments, just beyond arms reach; while still having rich and deep mid-ranges & bass… As another AudioEnzer likes to say ‘the sound just opens up…’

A Dedicated Music Server Journey (Part 1)

About 18 Months ago I switched from CD's/SACD's/DVD-A's to FLAC for my music format. The Musical Fidelity A3.2 & NAD C521BEE CD Players, and Plinius 9200 Integrated Amplifier went and were replaced with a Bel Canto DAC 2.5 connected to a Logitech Squeezebox Touch via SPDIF (Co-Ax), and a Perreaux 350P Power Amp. The music collection was all ripped to FLAC and placed onto my i7 Windows 7 PC, which was running Logitech Media Server, and would stream the media to the SqBx Touch via wireless.

The improvement was immediate, and very tangible, moving off optical media onto 'static' (i.e. HDD) digital storage. This was further enhanced with Nordost (Heimdall) Balanced Interconnect between the BC DAC & 350P PA, and replacing the Slinkylinks speaker cables to my Chario Pegasi with something else. However over time this still wasn't enough - the PC acting as a server and streaming data via wireless were 2 not so ideal solutions, the former being the biggest issue for several reasons; and the SqBx Touch not handling 192k sampling well the other (i.e. only via USB)... Consequently in recent months I had begun thinking about possible solutions, including directly attaching storage to the Touch, using ethernet over power to remove the wireless link, or stepping up to a dedicated music server that could fit in my main Hi-Fi rack - the latter incidentally being the only likely solution to the 192k issue...