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...