On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:35:35 -0700, Rich Teer wrote
(in article ):
On Tue, 25 Oct 2011, wrote:
As I write I am listening to Los Indios Tabarajas "Jungle Dream".
Source is an Ipod playing through my Quad Esl63/Gradient based system.
I have to admit it doesn't sound half bad and am wondering what would
it take to make the Ipod a truly High End source. Is it even
Two things would be required:
1. The use of uncompressed or losslessly compressed files. If you're
using MP3 or AAC, you're wasting your time. Use WAV or AIFF insteadx
(insert rant here about why Apple should support FLAC on their iDevices
and iTunes), at the highest possible word size and bit rate.
Agree with you there. While ALCA (Apple Lossless Compression Algorithm)
sounds fine, it kind of restricts what devices you can use. I have a
Squeezebox Touch music server client connected to my stereo system and
luckily, it supports ALCA, so I'm fine (all my music is ripped via ALCA). But
I recently was sent a Cambridge NP-30 music server client to test and it does
NOT support the Apple Lossless format. Neither, apparently, do the high-end
portable players sold by Hifiman. Can you imagine going back and re-ripping
everything in another format? Until I started looking into the matter, I
assumed that everybody would support ALAC since iTunes and iPods were so
ubiquitous, but such is not the case. If Apple would add FLAC to it's list of
supported formats, then iTunes would support all of these music server
devices.
2. Connect your iPod to an external DAC using a digital connection.
The iPod's internal DAC is a piece of crap, so bypassing it is a must
for decent sound quality. Use the Wadia i170 transport or similar
(just plugging your iPod into a regular dock will no doubt use the
crappy internal DAC).
I keep reading that Apple's player's DACs are crap, but you can't prove it by
me. I have superb equipment and on an A/B between an iPod and the CD of the
same performance through my stereo system, I don't hear any obvious
differences.