Amarra for iTunes at RMAF...

All: I've been playing around with the Sample Manager demo version this weekend and think I like the files I've upsampled. I first converted to 24 bit, then upsampled that file to 96k (I'm limited to 96k as I use the MW Transporter; Transporters won't play 192k files). My question is whether anyone has experimented with the various dither options and if so what their reactions are?

Thanks in advance,

Randy

Rrsclyde,

I convert 44.1k/16 bit files to 44.1k/24 bit, then that output is sent to my upsampler which upsamples it again to DSD. Aside from the DSD upsampling, the 44.1k/24 bit seems to make the high frequencies have more air and sound generally cleaner. Just dont ask me why?

Antipodes_audio wrote:
"The sound of a Mac without Amarra sounded like you had swapped out the Coax cable and inserted an AT&T cable - cleaner, faster, better dynamics and PRAT, but with the downside of a touch of glare. Amarra more or less removes that glare, depending on how you get the bits out of the Mac."

I agree with this almost 100% except I am not sure I am willing to agree with the "glare" portion. I am still new to Amarra, but what I hear so far is a bit of a fuller sound at the expense of a seeming loss in very minute phrasing. I am really big into capturing the phrasing of singers, especially females correctly such as Eva Cassidy (Song Birr/ Somewhere Over the rainbow) and Jane Monheit (Lovers, Dreamer & Me/ Slow Like Honey).

On the Jane Monheit piece mentioned above compare if you will the track (slow like honey) at 0:50 seconds with Amarra and without and let me know if anyone else hears a slight loss in information through the very subtle phrasing when Amarra is used. This may seem like I am being overly analytical, but come-on this is highend and I am talking about spending a grand. If it doesn't do EVERYTHING better than the native Core Audio Engine, I may have to reconsider.

Thanks,

Don

I have a question about the best software for ripping and organizing music files on Win XP.

I rip CD's via a Sony DVD payer, into Apple lossless, into iTunes with library storage in a NAS Netgear storage unit. I access these music files by SONOS (modded by Rick Cullen) into my Northstar 192 DAC.

My question is...I'm not that excited with iTunes software in sorting and managing the files. Does anyone have suggestions about a better, more effective software to replace iTunes on Win.

Thanks

I don't know about better, but different maybe. Try Media Monkey. Also just in case you were unaware, the fastest way I have found to access my music in iTunes is the icon to the left on the top bar towards the right. You will see 3 iconic buttons which allow you to choose between coverflow, grid or list. I use the list and then I go into 'view' (on a windows box) and choose show browser. This way I can select via genre, artist or album. Typically I select via artist and it is so much faster as it only lists the artist once (unless they feature another artist then you will see it again), next to the right of it you can filter even further by selecting that artists' album. Hope it helps.