External HD Changing the quality of the sound?

BitPerfect is an app that works alongside iTunes. You use iTunes to manage your library (set which HDD to keep the library in etc, add new songs, add metadata info if needed, create playlists etc).

BitPerfect just takes over the playback engine from iTunes. You install it from the App Store like with most new apps. It will be in the Applications folder.

Thanks DH - I did understand the purpose of BitPerfect, I just wasn't sure about where I had to install it - but it asks about the location of your music library so maybe that was moot. I bought it and think I've got it going now. I have a little BitPerfect icon upper right on the toolbar and it's green. I used it to launch iTunes and am playing the only music files I've got which are on the external drive. Do I need to do anything more to "enable" it? or otherwise optimize what it is doing? Also, am I correct thinking I can A/B with and without BP by clicking "disable BitPerfect"? Thanks for the quick reply.

Adding an external HDD or RAID does one thing for sure: it adds yet another ground-loop to the system. This alone can cause SQ degradation if you are not careful. The power cords should be heavy and use the same outlet as the computer. Adding in power conditioners can help or hurt here depending in their design.

I have a Firewire RAID attached to my Mac Mini and it has no audible effect. Cheap firewire cable.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Thanks for the heads up, Steve. For better or worse, the Seagate external HD is USB powered. I am fumbling my way through these early stages and it's an accomplishment that I can actually copy a cd and play it back from the HD. Haven't yet done any critical listening comparing CDP to computer with or without BitPerfect running. Hope to give that a try this evening.

Ah, Ghosthouse. I get what you mean. BitPerfect just needs to know where iTunes keeps the music files the first time it loads up. The main options are just listed in the drop down menu.

If your DAC displays the sample rate, there is one way to check if it is running, Play some music files in 44.1 and in 96kHz. Without BP enabled, iTunes would resample everything to whatever you set in AudioMIDI setup for the audio device.

So if it is set to 96kHz, even yr 44.1kHz music would be resampled. With BitPerfect set to native mode, it would switch between different sample rates depending on which file you are playing.