Amarra for iTunes at RMAF...

I have to say I am a bit stunned at how expressing opinions on Audiogon that others don't like or don't agree with gets personal attacks, accusations of bias, of not having actually heard what I have expressed a view on. Is this normal here? Why is it not easy to just express a contrary view without making it personal?

I apologise to you Blindjim for getting angry at your attacks. I will try harder to keep my shirt on. Please make an effort too.

Chadeffect, you can also tweak the Mac (much as I haven't enjoyed that much - Apple does not make it easy), and with the latest versions of OS X, you can install it on a PC build. I do agree that the way Mac vertically integrates the OS and the box is a pain as none of the standard Macs are ideal. I came to the conclusions that I did by trying OS X on similar, and sometimes the same hardware as the hardware that worked well with PC builds. That may not be practical for the average joe - but that is true of the better PC builds too, and arguably true for all high end computer audio at the moment. There is a long way between the best builds and plug and play, sadly

Antipodes, I guess that I'm an anti-DOS person. I have had Apples since the Apple II and the 128 Mac. I could never understand why anyone would tolerate a 1960's operating system. But I digress.

I have a music server presently that uses Foobar and Exact Copy. I have to use VNC and a remote desktop to run it-an HP netbook, the only MS computer I have owned and the last. All of these programs work okay although with disinterest in being intuitive. Overall the server sound it quite good. I am told by a friend, however, that a Mac Mini running Amarra and using the Minerva handily outperforms my Exemplar server. I must say that I will rejoice in the convenience of Amarra and the Mac.

Hi Antipodes_audio,

I have had the same experience. I have found that sending cds ripped as AIFFs on the mac in itunes without Amarra, with the digital output settings set to 24bit 44.1, and sent to my upsampler causes quite a change in "air" to the presentation when compared to 16/44.1. That is just one setting change! Obviously some recordings can suffer, but most well recorded tracks sound much better.

On the PC, which is custom built and running Vista, I have music production software which uses its own ASIO, and depending on which software is running, the same computer with the same interface etc sounds very different. So hardware changes are a whole other story!

To be honest I have given up for the time being with my source. The flexibility I have now far out weighs any slight changes in presentation. At the moment my system sounds great and I cannot really complain. I stay interested and listen to what new equipment I can, and keep my software up to date. I think this computer source quality situation will run for quite some time. I guess Amarra with a firewire interface is the best compromise at the moment.

The non pro music playback software on the PC still seems a little under developed to me. Sonics aside.

To answer your first para Tbg - familiarity and control are the main reasons - but also the wealth of free applications for the PC. Now I am learning more about Unix I can see that you can get a lot of control with Macs too. But I can't help myself, I prefer to build my own Mac than buy a Mac - I, of course, use the retail software. In particular, having zero moving parts (the music is stored externally) and a fair amount of power and 8GB of RAM is beneficial to sound and no Mac quite meets that spec.

On the software availability side, for example, I use a DSP board I have heavily modified out of a Rane RPM 26z in a system where I am designing an open baffle speaker. The Rane can do a lot of DSP stuff, but I really just use it for the digital cross-overs. The Rane software is just brilliant for real time design changes from the listening chair via wifi and a mouse. It is great for hearing immediately the change from 12dB/octave slopes to 24dB, for example. But it only runs on a PC.

Similarly I use TrueRTA for in-room measurements - free on a PC. Were I to use onboard crossover software on the Mac and output through a Lynx card, again, there is readily available software for the PC. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places for Mac software, maybe its there and it is just expensive, or maybe I should look at Parallels.

But the more I use Unix, the more I like it, I have to admit. I was put off initially by Macs because Apple wants to make all your decisions for you, but I am learning how to get under the hood now.