Software Players? What have you found?

Young_Chris

Hello I have recently joined but have been lurking for a while. I have been tinkering with different software players for a week now. itunes Snow Leopard,BP,  Amarra, Pure Music. 

On my system itunes with snow Leopard sounded good, better than my CDX which I have since sold .Clarity was great, soundstage reasonable, weighty,but seemed rather tiring to listen to when loud , rather like a CDX.

I firstly installed BP. To be honest I could hear little or no difference. I then tried Amarra. I found this similar to itunes but better on all of the above points. I then tried Pure Music . The sound from this was what I was aiming towards. More weight, great sound stage - way out past the speakers, and the over all brightness had been tamed, maybe a touch too much at times. This may be due to me being used to listening to a bright system for the last 5 years. Before purchasing any software thought it would be a good idea to install Lion , Just in case this changed things.

I have now installed Lion. The  difference between Amarra and itunes bare has got smaller. BP still makes little or no difference. PM has improved, but seems to have more low frequency (Bass) than before. I can move the speakers around if needed but actually the extra bass is great. 

I plan to change the psu on the Young, so that may make a difference . 

I will live with PM for a while before making a choice.

What are your findings? 

Cheers.

uglymusic

Briefly, as you've no doubt seen from my signature, a new PSU for the Young is a good thing, and Decibel knocks spots off anything I've tried on my system and costs around 30 quid (dollars? I can't remember).

sq225917 knows a lot about Young PSUs, and Keith @coops imports it, so both of them will probably elaborate on what I have to say.

Alan

Wot 'e sed!

I also hear great things about Audirvana, which is pen source freeware. I didn't like earlier versions but things seem to have moved on & i need to re-evaluate it. That isn't to say I'm dissatisfied with Decibel, because it's excellent.

Word on the street is that Decibel doesn't really offer anything over Pure-Music (in fact, it's much more basic), but that it sounds really very similar.

Young_Chris

Cheers , I will give Decibel a try. And will await the arrival of the psu's from Keith.

Well ,as an experiment today I removed the Vertex Aq Taga 6 way mains block. I fitted this ages ago as it did seem to tame the bright/forwardness of the naim equipment that I had. 

I am quite amazed at how much it does tame the brightness, as PM sounds better now.

I will run the system like this and replace it next weekend.

Cheers

Alan

Have fun Chris. fwiw, I like my mains-doodah in place for all my system except the amp. But as to whether the source components are benefitting from 'better' power or the amp likes being seperated from whatever deletrious effects that issue from digital equipment and switching PSUs, I wouldnt like to say.

Just trust yer ears!

uglymusic

What benefits does the Belkin box bring to the party, Alan?

Alan

Hard to say really - imagine the almighty faff of running the system on plain mains strips, then re-wiring it for the Belkin. After all the effort it is impossible to say definitively tbh.

Thats why I never did any comparison bar initial thoughts after I installed it.

As I said, the TV has a Better picture, thats pretty easy to, er, see - I imagine the digi-box benefits too.

I doubt the apple benefits as it has a million things to do at once, all polluting the mains with noise one imagines, so I fail to see how a computer will benefit from a mains conditioner.

The DAC has its SuperSimonRegulated supply which is already massively over-engineered, so I wonder how audible the Belkin' magic beans are through the DAC.

Having said that, there are several qualifiable benefits AFAIAC, one of which is surge protection for lots of expensive gear. Belkin make decent, well engineered, no-nonsense gear with proven tech, so I am confident in the PF40. The silver series was their flagship audio/visual range, so I reckon I got a bargain at £38 (its RRP was about £400 - I think their distributor went bust or something as the market was flooded with cheap Belkins for a few months).

I wonder if the main audio benefit of the PF40 and PF30 is isolating the HiFi from the mains 'noise'(?) made by all the other stuff plugged at the front of my lounge, eg: TV, Digibox, lamp, phone, MAC, etc.

Young_Chris

To be honest I use the 6 way Vertex for all of the Hifi as it's easier. Does it all in one go.

I dont think it will make any difference to the Mac stuff, but pre & amps I would think it will.

The difference with the Vertex on the hifi isn't subtle. I will see next week when it returns for active duty.

I will at some point (when they arrive) try out a PSU for Young from Keith and then decide If I will sell the Vertex 6 way, or which software direction to go. 

 Tryed Decibel, but couldn't get remote access on my iphone. This is needed as the Mac Mini is headless.

This seemed to be the most important thing as the sound is secondary if I can't control it. So it didn't get a fair audition. Thanks anyway for the pointers anyway. May try Audirvana this week at some point.

uglymusic

Has Keith got the M2Tech PSUs now? I'd like to have a listen to one of those.

On your control issues, do you have another Mac? I control my White MacBook using screen sharing from my MacBook Air. You should also be able to control the Mac from a Windows machine, but that will involve more faffing and advice from someone who has set such a thing up. Jason?

Otherwise, you can use an Apple remote which you can pick up for not a lot on eBay.

Young_Chris

No, he hasn't . I spoke to him on Monday. Had a good listen last night . Vertex mains block may be going back in early. Weird to think it could make such a difference!

Alan

It is strange what goes on in a system, isn't it? I find it hard to be sure once I start second-guessing myself.

I would try Audirvana though, I think a lot of effort has gone into making it user friendly.

uglymusic

@Young_Chris

I've just been bowled over by Audirvana Plus (the paid-for version). Add that to your list, too!

Young_Chris

Will do , cheers, can it be used heedlessly ? I will check it out later today.