Music from hard drive better than CD?

Nick - Did you reference the Wavelength link I provided? Here's some info from that link:

Basically the DAC has a single digital USB input. USB unlike SPDIF is bidirectional and therefore has error correction and buffering on both sides. This happens automatically so the data on the disk is identical to what is going out all the time. Also since this interface is asynchronous the clocking problems associated with SPDIF go away. What happens is... On power up of the computer the 2 devices negotiate services. In this case the Cosecant tells the computer it can do 16 bit audio at 32K, 44.1K and 48K. Since the USB receiver only has to handle these 3 frequencies, the clocking to the separate DAC IC has almost no jitter. SPDIF actually has to be synched to the exact frequency of the transport (i.e. if the transport is working at say 44.0896K instead of 44.1K the dac has to sync to that frequency). Therefore the jitter problems of SPDIF almost go away using USB. So using USB we have a zero error protocol to link the computer to the DAC and very low jitter what else..... The Cosecant is platform independent also OS independent. Any computer that has USB output will be able to hook up to the Cosecant without software drivers. Just select the Cosecant for Audio Output in your system preferences or control panel and your done.

I believe your Digitech is acting as an upsampling soundcard. Regardless of upsampling it is processign the data from the HD and sending it on to the DAC via S/PDIF (unidirectional). My guess is that the 'compromise' lies in the Digitech.

Marco

...furthermore, you may also want to reference this page for optimum setup for Mac and see if the information corresponds to what you've been using.

Marco

Hello Jax.

I read over the links you sent me. I did indeed set everything up correctly.

I would be willing to give computer playback another chance. But until I hear it with good PRAT, will not be investing it it. It's really a shame. I was so close, but yet ever so far away.

Also, just a side note. I don't think the Mbox will upsample the outgoing signal. The Mbox is capable of 24/96 but thats more a function for the inputs. It is actually more of a pro-audio tool for two channel recording. I believe the digial output is non upsampled.

Happy Listening.
Nick

Wow, quite a long thread here. Glad I wandered over from the other forums.

I've been fully hard-drive based for about a year. The system is based around an Apple iBook G4-1.1Ghz with just under a terabyte of firewire hard drives holding approx. 1500 CD's in Apple Lossless format. I tried the Airport Express spdif out, but in the end I preferred a USB extender cable running along the baseboards feeding an M-Audio Audiophile USB then into a Musical Fidelity A32.24 DAC.

The Airport Express didn't maintain digital sync which inserted a 2-3 second space every time you accessed a new track (nothing when playing sequentially). That's really the only reason I went the USB route.

Can it work? Absolutely!

Can it sound great? This setup replaced a Naim CDX2 with XPS2 (over $10k list price) and my wife and I both agree that the sound quality is just different, neither better nor worse than the Naim. That's saying something given the huge price difference.

Graham

Thanks for the clarification Nick. I'm not familiar with the Digitech unit. It's too bad it doesn't work for you as PC audio can be oh so convenient (having your entire collection at your fingertips to mix and match as you please). If I were you I would indeed try a different route. I really doubt it is the hard drive itself, but instead I'd think it was the interface between hard-drive, Digitech, and or DAC. Somewhere in the loop it sounds like the timing is getting lost.

Marco