Nuts&Bolts Feedback very popular Airport Express. You can actually use more than one of either device, useful if you want music in several places, but you don’t want to — or cannot — install cabling. Depending on the speed of your network and the number of other user on the air, you may experience dropouts, small interruptions of the audio stream. It’s best to use the much less crowded 5.8 GHz band rather than the more common 2.4 GHz band used by most wireless users. Because some basic networks are quite slow and crowded, they are at present unsuited to highbandwidth audio (24 bits with a sampling rate of 88.2 kHz or higher). Digital conversion You will recall that one of the important elements of a conventional CD player is a DAC, a digital-to-analog converter. However you choose to get the digital signal from your computer to your music system, you will need to turn it back into an analog signal. Your ampli- 32 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine even if your computer is not close to your music system. To make the system practical, however, you will want some sort of remote control. Some specialized devices, like the Squeezebox, come with their own remotes, and some sort of readout screen. There are also remote control applications for such devices as the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad. Apple has a free Remote application for use with iTunes. The $4 iAmpRemote application can control the popular WinAmp (on Windows). There are also a number of applications that allow you to control your computer remotely from an iPhone, <strong>And</strong>roid and other phones and devices. With one of those, it doesn’t matter what software is running on your desktop. fier or preamplifier may have a built-in Summing up Although there can be many variations in computer-based systems, the basic elements will be the same. DAC (of course, to be suitable for the The music will be placed on a hard purpose it will need to have the type of drive attached to your computer, either connector you wish to use). Some recent the main drive or (preferably) an ancil- CD players have digital inputs, and may lary drive. If you anticipate that your be used with an external digital source. music library will be large, begin on Failing that, several companies are once the right foot by dedicating a new hard again making standalone converters, drive to it, with a second hard drive for some of them of extraordinary quality. maintaining a copy of the library. Get the I complete should expect more to version appear over the You will want some sort of “jukebox” next year or two. software for playing the music: iTunes, No, this free version is not complete, though you could spend WinAmp, a couple etc. of hours reading it. Manipulating Want the full the version? music You will need some sort of link to You can, of course, Playing order the back print a music version, file from which your we have get published the digital signal from the computer for a quarter of a century. hard drive You is can not get difficult, it from and our indeed back issues to page. your music system: Ethernet, USB, But we also have it can a paid be electronic done with version, a simple which command is just like Firewire, this one, or Wi-Fi (wireless). Your except that it doesn’t from have the annoying file manager banners (Windows) like this or one, the and choice it doesn’t of gear may determine the link have articles tailing Finder off into (Mac). faux That Latin. is hardly Getting convenient, the electronic you version can use. is of course faster, and however, it is also cheaper. and you It will costs almost just $4.30 certainly (Canadian) If you’ve anywhere chosen the wireless option, in the world. Taxes, want if they to use are some applicable, form of “jukebox” are included. soft- you’ll need a device to receive the signal It’s available from ware MagZee.com. for easy play. For those who own at your music system: Airport Express, the ubiquitous Apple iPod, there is only Squeezebox, etc, and turn it into the sort one sensible choice, and that is iTunes of digital signal a DAC can recognize. (part of Mac OS X, and a free down- You will then need to convert the load for Windows). The Squeezebox, digital signal back into analog, with the it should be noted, comes with its own best DAC you can afford. The DAC software but can be set to use the music may be a part of your existing amplifier, database you specify, including that of preamplifier or even your CD player, but iTunes. several companies now make excellent Whatever software you select, the standalone DAC’s. functions are likely to be similar. You can Once you’ve recovered the analog play music files in sequence, in random signal, you amplify it and reproduce it order, or according to a playlist you have as you would the signal from any other built. Any of these methods will work audio source.
The new ASW Genius 110 One of the innovative loudspeakers that earned ASW the Plus X Award for high quality SUPERLATIVE SPEAKERS FROM GERMANY DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY TRI-CELL ENTERPRISES 391 Hanlan Rd., Unit 5 VAUGHAN ON L4L 3T1 For a list of local dealers please call 1-800-263-8151 or email tricell@bellnet.ca www.tricell-ent.com
- Page 1 and 2: No. 89 CAN $6.49 / US $7.69 RETURN
- Page 3 and 4: Issue No. 89 Cover story: Two of th
- Page 5 and 6: I HATE DOG EARS! (SORRY FIDO) We’
- Page 7 and 8: I’m looking forward to the Simaud
- Page 9 and 10: started talking to me and I was sta
- Page 11 and 12: I’m using a Cardas Lightning cabl
- Page 13 and 14: Leslie, it’s painful to realize t
- Page 15 and 16: music from a computer via Ethernet
- Page 17 and 18: school or community centre, perhaps
- Page 19 and 20: ut the tone of the warning seems wr
- Page 21 and 22: I remember when Israel Blume of Coi
- Page 23 and 24: I may have mentioned that there is
- Page 25 and 26: Thiel was back at CES, exhibiting a
- Page 27 and 28: Touring the Salon there many turnta
- Page 29 and 30: Below left: the Vivid B-1, designed
- Page 31: tunately so, because computer softw
- Page 35 and 36: tisi. An hendreet nonsenim dit, ver
- Page 37 and 38: scene, such as a video game page. T
- Page 39 and 40: THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION: Issues
- Page 41 and 42: Adding it to a CD player There are
- Page 43 and 44: output of our Macbook Pro to the 30
- Page 45 and 46: a quality switch with an array of f
- Page 47 and 48: Leema Elements Phono Preamp Yes, wh
- Page 49 and 50: Your System Belongs on the Wall Tar
- Page 51 and 52: The t wo woofers and the midrange d
- Page 53 and 54: Ut nisl erciduis at. Ectem dolobore
- Page 55 and 56: INTERCONNECTS ATLAS NAVIGATOR Oxyge
- Page 57 and 58: UHF14 POWER BAR Most power bars kno
- Page 59 and 60: ed pepper to its music. Felix Hell
- Page 61 and 62: Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante (XRCD)
- Page 63 and 64: Gentlemen, I, Rachmaninoff, have ju
- Page 65 and 66: painful scenes at home, and after a
- Page 67 and 68: It is worth noting that although th
- Page 69 and 70: announcement of impending marriage
- Page 71 and 72: lending moment to arrive sooner tha
- Page 73 and 74: that would have called for a retake
- Page 75 and 76: any woman who is not married to som
- Page 77 and 78: All You Can Watch for $8 It was Net
- Page 79 and 80: The Magic Without 3D What’s domin
- Page 81 and 82: Industry News Dan d’Agostino is b
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Why do UHF readers start reading th
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