DIGITAL SOURCE COMPONENTS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

go to: Contents | Feature | On The Horizon | DACs | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Portable | Our Top Picks Your Guide to Computer and Portable Digital this year, such as TIDAL (known as WiMP in the U.K. and Europe) and Qobuz, but these services are still a ways off from receiving my recommendation. While streaming in CDquality has me very excited, I worry about the longevity of these services in the U.S. market. Will enough people subscribe to them to keep TIDAL and Qobuz streaming afloat Only time will tell; but until then Spotify is your best bet, and it's not going anywhere. Using the Spotify program is a music lover’s dream: Under the “Browse” section you can look through “Top Lists” that feature the charttopping hits of the day, lists based on genre, “Discovery” lists that feature new music, and more. Look under “Genres & Moods,” and you will find compiled playlists based on what type of music you want to hear. Moods include: Party, Focus, Dinner, Sleep, Chill, Romance, Classical, and much more. Select one of the Moods, and lists of sub-Moods will pop up, all with cover art. I selected the “Dinner” Mood, and then the “Country BBQ” sub-Mood, and instantly some rockin’ country music started playing, which mated perfectly with a Texas BBQ. When the music starts, album artwork, artist, and title are all displayed, as well as volume controls, and fast forward; if you’re not into the track played, simply skip forward. Spotify also has a really great “Discover” feature, which pulls data from the music stored on your computer and the songs you have listened to in order to recommend music. And this feature isn’t just a gimmick; it’s an extremely accurate way to discover new music based on your taste. I went to the Discover tab and the recommendations were spoton. Because I have Valerie June and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings on my computer, Spotify recommended Gary Clark Jr. (a local hero here in Austin, TX), Laura Mvula, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Junip, Alt-J, and Stevie Wonder—all great music. You could spend the rest of your life delving deeper and deeper into these Discover and Mood features and barely scratch the surface of the over 20 million songs available (and Spotify adds almost 20,000 songs per day to this catalog). One of the best features of Spotify is its ability to download music for “Off-line Listening” when an Internet connection isn’t available. Simply create a playlist by dragging music you find into the playlist, then toggle the “Available Off-line” switch in the upper-right corner of the playlist. Now, even if you don’t have an Internet connection, you can listen to your favorite music. The catch is that you are limited to 3333 songs (an arbitrary number), and you must log in to your streaming account once every 30 days—Spotify’s attempt to ensure that you remain a paid subscriber. Streaming from a mobile device is also simple using Spotify, which we will discuss below. You can use unlimited devices to stream, though only one device may be used at any given time (again, Spotify’s way to ensure that multiple people aren’t streaming under the same username), and you can only download music for off-line listening to three devices. Still, for $9.99 per month, Spotify provides a rich user experience and all the music you can hope for in one lifetime. Because most streaming services only stream low-quality music, they aren’t meant for ultimate fidelity or critical listening. The point of streaming services is access to immense amounts of music, which gives you the ability to discover new music, to preassemble playlists that can stream music for a party or for any listening mood, and to listen at home or on the go. Music fans, rejoice! Portable Digital Audio What’s better than having access to thousands (or millions) of songs on your computer The ability to take all of that music with you. Portable digital audio has come a long way since the early MP3 players of the late 90s and early 2000s. Most people are familiar with portable digital audio players like the Apple iPod, but since highres downloads became available in 2009, there have been an increasing number of portable players capable of high-res playback. Paired with quality headphones, a high-res portable audio player can radically change your listening experience. High-quality audio can now be consumed at home, at the grocery store, while traveling, or in any setting in which you want to listen to music, all without being tethered to your home stereo. Most portable audio devices require a computer to transfer music to the device. To enjoy high-res audio, you will need to download music from a site like HDtracks, and then transfer that music to a portable player capable of highres audio. There are now dozens of portable audio devices that play high-res files. Three recommended ones are the FiiO X3 ($200), Pono Music Player ($399), and the Astell&Kern HTC One Harman/Kardon Edition The HTC One Harman/Kardon Edition is a complete rethinking of a smartphone’s audio playback capabilities. Not only is it a superb phone, based on the Android OS, it’s also backed by Harman International, a powerhouse of audio design. The HTC One Harman/Kardon is capable of playing high-res files up to 192kHz/24-bit, includes some pretty decent earbuds designed by H/K ($80 retail value), and is only $230 when purchased with a two-year contract. Like the possibilities of streaming music to your cell phone The HTC One H/K comes with six months of free access to Spotify, which is loaded on the phone. The downside of the HTC One Harman/Kardon Edition is that the phone is only available through Sprint, but for audiophiles looking for a smartphone that can do anything and everything, including high-res music playback, the HTC One Harman/Kardon Edition is hard to beat. 10 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2014 www.theabsolutesound.com previous page NEXT page
go to: Contents | Feature | On The Horizon | DACs | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Portable | Our Top Picks Your Guide to Computer and Portable Digital Glossary of Terms Bit-rate: The number of bits of digital information contained in one second of a digital audio file. DAC: Digital-to-analog converter. GB: Gigabyte. High-Resolution Audio: Digital audio file with a sampling frequency and word length greater than 44.1kHz/16-bit (CD quality). kbps: Kilobits per second. MB: Megabyte. Mbps: Megabits per second (there are 8 bits in one byte). NAS: Network attached storage; generally an external hard drive connected to a network via Ethernet. Sample rate: The number of times (frequency) an analog waveform is sampled each second expressed in kilohertz (kHz), e.g. 44.1kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz. AK120 II ($1699), each of which offers various storage and sonic capabilities. There are also smartphones capable of high-res music playback, such as the HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition (see sidebar), which consolidate all of your portable devices into one sleek package. For those who have large CD collections and simply want the ability to carry all that music with them, the Apple iPod Classic is still the best option. For $249, you get 160GB storage capacity, a user-friendly interface, and 36 hours of audio playback—far longer than most other portable audio devices. The downside to the iPod is that it is limited to 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM files. However, if you aren’t concerned about high-res audio, it will be the fastest and easiest way to take your music collection with you. If you want the ability to play high-res audio on the go, you will need a device that can play those types of digital audio files. Before you purchase a portable music device, make sure that it’s capable of at least 192kHz/24- bit audio playback, and that it has adequate storage capabilities for your needs. Remember, an uncompressed four-minute song at 96kHz/24-bit quality will consume about 140MB, which means that a portable audio device with 128GB of storage space can hold about 900 four-minute songs. Most portable devices will have enough internal storage capability to keep you rockin’ for many hours, if not days, but some require a microSD card (a small flash-based storage card) to expand their internal storage to 128GB. A great starter digital player is the FiiO X3. At $200, the X3 can play any high-res file, including DSD up to DSD64 (64 times the sample rate of a CD). Though limited to 8GB of internal memory, the X3 is capable of 128GB of storage capacity with an additional microSD card. For $399, Neil Young’s new Pono Music Player is compatible with all PCM files up to 192kHz/24-bit, has 64GB of internal memory and an included 64GB microSD card for a total of 128GB of storage. Designed in conjunction with Ayre, manufacturer of high-end audio components, the Pono Music Player offers a great mix of sound quality, storage capability, and cool factor. If you’re searching for the ultimate in port- Streaming Services Spotify: $9.99/mo TOP RECOMMENDATION • 30-day free trial period. • Download and save music for use at any time, including syncing with iPods and portable music devices. • Audio quality is 320kbps for Premium subscribers in Ogg Vorbis format (don’t be fooled by the high-definition claims; it’s still compressed music). • Great user interface. • Mobile versions for most devices. • Great discovery feature based on similar interests. • Browsing based on 25 different main “moods,” including Dinner, Sleep, Jazz & Blues, Romance, Focus, Party, Classical, and more. • Sub-moods provide tailored playlists such as “Mixed Generation Party,” which are perfect for selecting the perfect playlist. Pandora $4.99/mo • Audio quality limited to 192kbps streaming. • Simple interface is better for those looking to discover new music only. • Very simple interface. • Users create “stations” that play similar songs to the user-selected artist, title, or genre for which they search. Beats: $9.99/mo • Free trial period (14 days). • Curates music recommendations based on the user adding weight to various genres and artists; recommendations are accurate. • Poor sound quality with overemphasized bass. • Hip, young interface; geared toward younger generations. • Streaming seems fast. Google Play: $9.99/mo • Google makes you create a Google Wallet account to sign up for the one-month trial of Google Play All Access Music. • Technical issues while using Mac Safari. TIDAL (WiMP): $19.99/mo • Compatible with many high-end brands' proprietary iOS/Android apps • Lossless streaming of CD-quality audio and HD music videos. • 25 million tracks available for on-line streaming. • iOS and Android apps. • Curated music editorials writ ten by professional reviewers and artists. Qobuz: $19.99/mo • Lossless streaming of CD-quality audio. • Music streaming limited to Qobuz catalog (which is mainly classical and jazz). • iOS and Android apps. • Available offline. 11 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2014 www.theabsolutesound.com previous page NEXT page
Page 1 and 2: uyer's GUIDE to DIGITAL SOURCE COMP
Page 3 and 4: 3 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source C
Page 5: go to: Contents | Feature | On The
Page 8 and 9: go to: Contents | Feature | On The
Page 60 and 61:
go to: Contents | Feature | On The
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
121 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
show all

DIGITAL SOURCE COMPONENTS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?