A Terrific Tube Preamplifier From Korea, And A - Ultra High Fidelity ...

music from a computer via Ethernet to
one of its DS (Digital Streaming) products,
such as the Klimax DS we reviewed
in UHF No. 84. For the moment you may
not choose to put your music on a hard
drive, but you also won’t want to invest
money in any dead ends. We would look
at transport and DAC combinations, or
at a CD player which can also be used
with other digital sources.
I was just reading your review of the
four-box Cyrus player (UHF No. 88).
I’m happy that you like it, because I use
the Cyrus Xt/PSX-R’s/ DAC XP (with
pre-amplifier function) combo myself.
But, like many, I would like to put
my music on hard disc and use iTunes
for selecting my albums, without losing
on quality, of course.
I’ve got a laptop, a wireless router and
a 1 TB hard disc with Ethernet connection.
The only thing missing is the link
between my computer network and the
DAC XP.
I think the best solution is to connect
an Airport Express by Ethernet cable to
the router (I suppose that a cable con-
nection is better than using the wireless
option?). And from the Airport Express
with an optical cable to the DAC XP.
Would this setup sound as good as my
Cyrus transport source?
In a perfect world the Airport
Express would have a coax digital output,
instead of an optical one. Then I could
re-use my current digital coax cable, and
be sure that the cable is not the weakest
link.
Emmanuel Du Four
GHENT, Belgium
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Emmanuel, our own comparisons
indicate that your Cyrus transport will
still outperform the Airport Express, but
by less than one might think. Indeed, at
this point CD players costing $2000 or
beyond are being matched or outperformed
by audio from computer, at least
under the best conditions.
If it’s practical for you to run Ethernet
cabling from your computer to a
remote Airport Express, that will give
you optimum results. If you’ll be running
wirelessly, we recommend using a
router that can broadcast on the 5 GHz
band rather than on the very crowded 2.4
GHz band. The audio quality is actually
superior.
However, note one limitation of the
Airport Express: it won’t pass high-resolution
music signals (24/96, 24/88.2, etc.)
without downsampling, even though
your converter could handle it. You can
transmit high-res via USB, but you can’t
run a long length of USB cable.
I came upon UHF when browsing the
Internet as I was conducting research
into soundproofing, and by chance came
upon an article by Paul Bergman relating
to the very subject.
I am a drummer and live in an
upstairs flat converted many years ago
from an old Victorian house. The internal
walls are just old wooden laths (slats)
and plaster simply applied over them. I
have carpet and underlay throughout my
flat (as stipulated in the lease).
I propose to create a drum practice
room in one of my bedrooms (to create
a room within a room where the floor,
walls and ceiling of the new room will
have an air gap so they will not touch the
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 15
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