Amarra for iTunes at RMAF...

Sorry Chadeffect, we must have posted at the same time and then I got distracted. I agree that it is hard to see the current state of the art of computer audio being at all mature, and that is one of my concerns about Amarra. Right now it is worth the price, for what it does, but who knows whether something might hit the market for under $100 or even free that can do most of what it does. The good news is that being immature computer audio will only get better.

I agree big-time with one of your other points too that close to the best with an interface that fits your needs is better than accepting a poor interface. One of the things most people that use computer audio talk about is how they get more out of a large collection when they have a computer audio interface then when they have to find, handle, catalog etc physical CDs.

The interface I prefer is Foobar, and I don't like iTunes at all. And interfaces like J River make me really angry, especially since its sound is so good. But I am getting so much better sound with iTunes/Amarra that I am putting up with it for now.

My feeling is that ethernet will dominate in time, and that its implementation will get to a point where the precise setup or flavour of the computer will become unimportant. This will mean DACs will be more like the Sonos and Squeezebox but with much better interfaces, or perhaps the player interface could still reside on the computer because of its interface superiority, and it will signal the DAC what to play. For now the ethernet interfaces aren't that flash given their theoretical advantage. Perhaps the PS DAC with ethernet bridge will be the first of the new breed.

Can I ask what pro audio music interfaces are worth having a look at?

Hi Antipodes_audio,

for the time being as long as your files in your library are universal, ie WAV or AIFF etc. I personally feel it is just a waiting game. It is all fine and better than it was. It will get better and probably cheaper too.

I use itunes on a mac and have got used to itunes. I have Amarra, but I am not using firewire interface for my hifi. I just tried a few out to see what did what. I have a DCS set up and DCS are working on the Amarra/itunes input situation. They have gone with USB input, but the Asynchronous flavor.

I suspect your own HD library will be bypassed by the time all this comes of age. Sites like Spotify will make all this obsolete, as you will rent your library and have access to insane amounts of music, including really rare albums at very high quality sample rates.

Regarding Pro audio interfaces, do you mean software or hardware?

Absolutely agree re online HD libraries. The problem is there are so many firms that need to change their models for this to happen. It ought to be here now given the capabilities of the technologies. But I know from first hand experience those that have dominated the existing value chains that are converging are more frightened than excited by the possibilities.

In one of your earlier posts, and I may have misinterpreted it, you made a reference to pro audio software interfaces. I am aware of a lot of the hardware. For example, I am aware of the Lynx card, but not so much aware of the software you might put on the computer to take full advantage of it. For example, digital crossover software to make use of the computing power and all those output channels - I am a real convert to active speakers.

I usually rip music to FLAC, as my preferred storage standard. I then convert to AIFF 24/96, and play those, keeping two copies of the FLACs as a backup. This is probably a sign that I still haven't converted my thinking over to the Mac world. I inherently don't like proprietary models when an open model of equivalent quality is available, but it is not entirely rational - ALAC files can be readily turned into an open format without loss at any time.

I keep looking at the DCS stuff but have never taken the plunge. Right now the top USB stuff sounds better to me than the ethernet stuff, but I can't help feeling ethernet will become the dominant transmission standard for anything. It is a steamroller with a lot of momentum and has all the attributes one would want. The reason why USB is dominating is that the R&D to get it to perform is so much less and audio firms are small. In the end, the standard that wins is the one that attracts the R&D, not the 'better' technology, so maybe the start USB is getting will be unassailable in the audio world. Both Firewire and ethernet are harder for small audio firms to develop for.

I was originally very resistant to Amarra. I didn't like spending that much on software, there was little info on how it worked and getting support seemed to be a bit of a lottery. But with all the tweaks I now accept as being part of the recipe for great computer audio today, Amarra does something that none of the others quite do, and so I now consider it to be essential - for how long, though, is the big question - as you say.

Antipodes, I have always used Foobar thus far and don't at all share your satisfaction with it. It has no user friendliness and fails often needing a new control file. This happens so often that I have the file on a stick. Were Amarra and its use of Itunes not so superior, I would not be giving up on a Windows system.

I find synchronous USB just awful and have little experience with asynchronous USB. I have not tried Firewire, but everyone that I know says it is the best way to go, although its transmitter and receiver are much more expensive and capable than USB.

I have been focused on just putting cds on a hard drive as my existing dac is capable only up to 24/96. But HiDef is in my future.

Tbg, I loved how Foobar was so customisable so that you could pretty much make it work however you wanted. It is certainly not friendly till you familiarise yourself with the myriad of options to customise, and that takes time. I have never had a problem with stability, so that is a new one.

As I have said above, I have a 24/96 DAC too and find that converting the files to 24/96 AIFF, so that my DAC doesn't do anything more than straight D to A conversion, is a good thing. DAC chips are not perfectly accurate in their conversion and they get less accurate, the more work they have to do, so while there can be a benefit in upsampled files, there is a dis-benefit of asking your DAC chip, or DAC, to do it at the same time. This is one of the reasons , for example, why say DCS do the upsampling in a separate box.