Axiom05

I was just surprised by the availability of the MQA format as this is a brand new release, it puzzled me that they would still be doing this.

I purchased to new download yesterday of Elgar's Violin Concerto by violinist Vilde Frang from ProStudioMasters, released on Warner Classics on September 6. I was surprised to see that it was available in MQA format in addition to flac, I thought we were done with this crap.

Placement of the woofers within the room is something that has always concerned me with the Blades. In a narrow room, where one side of the speaker could be quite near the side wall, I suspect there could be some issues. Unfortunately, there is no way to know w/o actually trying them in one's own room. I know low frequencies are omnidirectional, but I would imagine that some unpredictable "loading" wrt the side wall could occur. My Studio2's are only around 14" from the side wall which seems a bit close for the side firing woofers and could also result in some lower midrange coloration.

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@hltf While the AT&T optical connection had promise, it has become obsolete as it was not adopted as a standard connection. Personally, I think that your best sound quality would be obtained by using the AES output from your Red (I'm assuming the your Pass DAC doesn't have USB). Toslink is not a particularly high quality connection as it was not designed for high-end audio applications.

What happens if/when the streaming services "disappear" because they can't stay financially viable?

No, I can't. When I used to rip CD's on my Mac I would use Apple's drutil to view details of a disc. I believe the info parameter provides details on whether a CD has been mastered with pre-emphasis. Sorry, it has been years since I ripped any CD's with pre-emphasis. drutil macOS

xACT will add de-emphesis to AIFF files, then you can convert to flac. xACT uses SOX to do this and sounds better than iTunes de-emphasis too.

Also, don't you think that the face design looks a bit too similar to the Innuos Pulse series of streamers?

I'm sorry, but this almost looks like a joke. dCS has created a parody of themselves: how many boxes can we make to play music? You can even add an extra one to play silver discs. Where do you put all of this stuff even if you could afford it? Sorry, again, I guess I'm being practical. Honestly, I love new tech and all that, but this one really leaves me cold.

I don't really use those features but the Sort Queue functions will be highly dependent on how your files are tagged. Your other comments have made me curious about the Innuos Sense App. Antipodes' video on setting up Squeeze/Tidal is way out of date as there is no My Squeezebox anymore. You may be able to get help at the LMS Forum on getting your Tidal to work. LMS Forum

Not familiar with the Antipodes but it sounds like you are running LMS. Is this running on the Antipodes unit? Can't you use the LMS web interface (usually reachable at port 9000)? If you can, get the Material Skin plugin, best control app I've ever used.

I had the same issue using Firefox (Linux) so thanks for the heads-up. Looks like the Kernel update now allows me to use DSD Native playback on my DAC.

The TP Link MC220L has a SFP port.

The Auralic Aries G2.x series will not convert PCM to DSD, only upsample PCM. The new G3 (if it's ever released) is supposed to do PCM to DSD. Trust your ears first before panicking.😊

@Miska I would like to try running HQPlayer 5 embedded bootable image on a Mac mini (late 2012, 2.3 GHZ i7), which of the two images should I use avx or sse? Thanks.

I have a question for you optical experts. I just replaced my two TP-Link SFP modules with a pair of Finisar FTLF8519P3BTL, one in a Trendnet switch and one in an Opticalmodule. What is it about the Finisar that makes them better? The Finisar cost 2 to 3 times that of the TP-Link, what am I getting for the extra cost? Also, how do the SFP's labeled as "Finisar Compatible" compare to the Finisar units themselves? Thanks, just trying to learn something, no ulterior motive.

Which versions of these would you recommend? HDTracks have both of these, along with Zoolook, in 24/48 format, are these good to get? I only have a CD of his Greatest Hits. Cheers!

Lots of fans at the Auralic Forum. https://community.auralic.com/

I'm still running V2.8 on my ultraRendu and I can't keep Squeezelite working. For example, it worked fine yesterday but this morning I can't get it running again. This is not the first time I've had this issue. I really can't be bothered spending a half hour trying to get the damn thing working again, totally fed up with it at this point. I decided to stick the ultraRendu in my closet, I give up!

I’m sorry, but what “app” is being referred to here? I’m unaware of any Sonore app. Thanks!

Try using the Esoteric Sound Stream app instead. The last time I used it all of the functionality worked correctly.

You could look into trying the free version of MinimServer. MinimServer is very reliable, works very well.

Thanks for that info. The last time I messed with RoPieeeXL was back in March/April and they were still separate programs. Makes more sense to only have one.

You'll want RoPieee XL, Roon not needed.