DIGITAL SOURCE COMPONENTS

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 article sees print). HDtracks is by far
the most popular high-resolution retailer in
the U.S., and offers a sizeable, though by no
means exhaustive, catalog. Purchasing and
downloading high-res files from HDtracks
is easy, but there’s a catch: You will need to
have music-management software capable of
playing back high-res audio, plus an external
DAC capable of converting high-res
audio into analog signals.
(See the sidebars for
software and hardware
recommendations.)
While iTunes is an
amazing music-management
program, it lacks
the capability to properly play high-res audio.
Three excellent software programs can be purchased
and downloaded to circumvent this
problem: Amarra HiFi ($49), Audirvana Plus
($79), and PureMusic 2 ($129). These Macbased
programs retain iTunes’ excellent user
interface, yet bypass its inferior audio processing.
A highly recommended alternative to
these iTunes add-ons is JRiver Media Center
($50), which is used at many hi-fi shows, is
Windows- and Mac-compatible, and is capable
of playing not only PCM files, but DSD as
well. The user interface (UI) is not as intuitive
as that of iTunes, which can be frustrating for
digital-audio newcomers, but if you’re already
familiar with digital audio JRiver Media Center
will be your best option. Depending on whether
you’re a Mac or Windows user, you can also
explore various Freeware software programs,
such as MediaMonkey. Once you’re familiar
with the programs’ general UI, you can start
to explore useful tools such as Memory Buffering,
which allows digital audio files to be played
from your computer’s internal memory, rather
than directly from the hard drive.
So…we have our computer, our digital files,
and our music-management software; now we
need the hardware capable of playing highresolution
audio files. Every digital
audio device—including computers,
portable digital audio players, and
CD players—has a built-in digitalto-analog
converter (in computers
it is called a soundcard or audio interface).
This is the device that converts the digital
audio file into an analog waveform we can
hear. Unfortunately, sound quality is generally
an afterthought with most such devices, and
therefore a high-quality external DAC is essential
for the best sound quality. While there are
dozens of excellent digital-to-analog converters
(DACs), let’s use the AudioQuest DragonFly
V2 ($149) as our example of a portable DAC,
as almost all portable DACs, regardless of their
performance capabilities, will operate in a way
similar to the DragonFly. The Dragonfly plugs
into your computer’s USB port. Once the DAC
is plugged into your USB port, navigate to your
computer’s Audio Preferences. I will use my
MacBook Pro as an example, though Windows
users will have a very similar experience setting
up an external DAC. Under “System Preferences”
select “Sound,” then select the “Output”
tab, and click on “AudioQuest DragonFly.”
Depending on your music-management software
of choice, you will also need to verify that
your external DAC is selected as the Master
Clock. This applies to portable DACs, as well as
the component DAC you might have at home.
The benefit of an external DAC is that
its only job is to convert digital audio
files into analog, and possibly power a set
of headphones. Instead of allowing your
computer to convert digital audio files to an
analog signal, an external DAC (generally a
USB DAC) forces the computer to output raw
data according to the external DAC’s timing.
This is called Asynchronous USB mode, in
which the external DAC acts as the digital
clock. The DACs found in the vast majority of
computers are of inferior quality, and most
cannot convert high-res audio files into analog
signals. This means that even if you purchased
and played high-res music on your computer,
the software is down-converting those files to
44.1kHz/16-bit audio, and the internal DAC is
then converting those lower-resolution data
into an analog signal—a waste of money and
sonic potential.
Now that you have all the tools in place to
not only play digital audio, but high-res audio
as well, the choice is yours as to
how you listen to your music.
Since this is an article on
personal audio, we’ll assume
that you will use headphones
or small desktop speakers.
(See our Buyers’ Guide for good
starting points.)
Streaming Audio
The alternative to purchasing
music and storing it on your
computer or Network Attached
Storage drive (NAS) is to
stream music via the Internet using a musicstreaming
service such as Spotify, Pandora,
Google Play, or Sony’s Music Unlimited. For
a breakdown of the various services, see the
sidebar. After testing the various services,
my recommendation is to use Spotify, which
offers higher-quality streaming than most of
the others, has an incredible user interface
and the ability to download music for offline
listening, and tops everything off with a
great mobile app that is available for iOS and
Android smartphones. While the alternative
services offer many of the features found
in Spotify, none of them complete the user
experience quite like Spotify does.
Spotify is easy to use and offers millions
of songs to instantly stream. Download the
software to your computer, create a user
account, and try the service free for 30
days. Simple as that. One essential aspect to
streaming audio via the Internet is to have a
fast Internet connection. Download speeds
of 3Mbps (megabits per second) or higher
are recommended, though you may be able
to stream with a minimum of 1.5Mbps. Most
streaming services will compress music
quality when connection speeds are too
slow; streaming services in the U.S. currently
only offer a max streaming
quality of 320kbps (kilobits
per second), or MP3-quality
sound, and any further
compression is anathema to
our high-end goals. There
are CD-quality-and-higher
streaming services that will
be available in the fall of
9 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2014 www.theabsolutesound.com
previous page
NEXT page