This weekend I pulled network cabling to all of the AEs so they're now hardwired to my network switch. My office is in my listening room where I stream about 6-10 hours a day-having this working reliably is very important to me! I never could pinpoint or fault the AEs, the router, the wireless access point, etc. Where I've had issues is with interference (microwave oven) and dropped connections. In practical terms, the AEs do a great job (to me) with the digits. IMHO, this suggest the data is fairly pristine and fully reconstructed just as it would have been from my CD transport. The relevance is that when these tracks come up the DAC's HDCD indicator is illuminated. My collection is entirely from CDs I've burned to the hard drive, a number of which are HDCD.
I have beeen streaming Apple Lossless wirelessly to three (3) AEs (one at each stereo), which in turn are feeding the DACs via Optical digital. I'll offer my own experience as a point of view although I do NOT have a Mac serving the music (PC).
#How many amps mac powerbook pro needs free
Feel free to point me to other discussions as needed.
I realize that questions #2 and #3 are probably the most contentious and have already been asked on this forum, so I apologize for the repetition, but haven't seen a concise discussion of the issue of distance. Must I change the way I use iTunes? For example, do I have to make the PowerBook G4 the "iTunes master," so that it directly accesses the library on the Lacie HD over the wireless network? Or is my current "shared playlist" method (using my G5 as the master) OK? Would I hear an improvement with only the DAC (versus analog headphone jack), or is an anti-jitter box recommended as well?Ĥ. Which type of DAC input - USB, Firewire, or optical - is recommended for this setup? Does the answer depend on distance from the digital source (question #1) or on the particular qualities of each connection? Or both?ģ. An Airport Express could be located about 3 feet from the DAC/Arcam.)Ģ. Must I buy an additional Apple Express for the listening room, or can I simply hook up the DAC to the PowerBook? (I would need a 24 foot cable to get from the PowerBook to the DAC/Arcam amp. So, while I'm not entirely convinced I actually need more components, I'll accept the conventional wisdom that an external DAC would overcome any deficiencies, fatiguing or jitter in the Mac source.ġ. I also suspect that the Mac source might be somewhat fatiguing, but this could be due to the higher than normal volumes I used for A/B testing. I suspect that the Mac source is slightly less "authoritative" or "robust" than the CD player, but because I have to increase the volume of the Mac source to match the volume of the CD player, I can't be entirely objective. A/B comparisons with the Arcam CD192 are difficult, partly because the Mac source is about 5% lower in volume. The audio quality with this set up actually is quite good on first blush. Amp in: analog RCA jacks on Arcam FMJ A32 + Dynaudio Audience 72 speakers Mac out: analog 3.5mm headphone jack + RCA adapterģ. PowerBook G4 (next to listening chair, with iTunes channeling the shared playlist from the G5)Ģ. Airport Express (802.11g) used as base station/Internet routerġ. iTunes running on the G5 ("iTunes Music Sharing" enabled)Ĥ. Lacie 500GB external drive (holds the Apple Lossless files)ģ. I've already decided not to go with SlimServer or Sonos because I prefer to use my existing Mac computers + iTunes + Airport system as my source.Ģ. At this point I simply need some help understanding how the system should be configured and what types of items I have to buy. This isn't (yet) a question about brand recommendations (e.g., external DACs).
My goal: Optimize my wireless Mac system to rival the quality of my Arcam CD192 CD player (running into an analog Arcam amp).
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