Recent content by Bill St. Clair
  1. Bill St. Clair

    24bit/96 khz vs 16 bit/41.1 khz

    I concur, jaddie, but you still aren't getting my point. I agree that most of the differences we hear are production quality, not bit rate or depth, then our own cans or speakers, then our own DACs and amps. But I'm filtering out all of that, doing my own downsampling of my own 24/96 source...
  2. Bill St. Clair

    24bit/96 khz vs 16 bit/41.1 khz

      I find HDTracks quality to be excellent, though some of the rock titles I've gotten from them don't seem markedly improved. But I haven't done ABX testing between their version and my old CD version, so that's all subjective at this point. My question, though, is whether it's even possible...
  3. Bill St. Clair

    24bit/96 khz vs 16 bit/41.1 khz

    I've been exploring this, in response to a thread on the Head-Fi group on Facebook. I remember when I started buying 24/96 albums from HDTracks.com, I was amazed at how much better they were. After downsampling a few of them to 16/44, and being unable to distinguish the two in any way (with...
  4. Bill St. Clair

    DAC recommendations for Swan M200 MKIII desktop speakers (and possibly a sub later)

    I have a NuForce µDAC2, which sells for $90-$100 an Amazon. Driverless USB up to 96KHz/24-bit, but no 88.2 KHz. Works well. It has pre-amp output on RCA jacks, controlled by the volume pot, and 3.5mm headphone amp output, but it outputs on only one of those at a time. If headphones are plugged...
  5. Bill St. Clair

    V-Moda Crossfade LP

    On sale again at Amazon today for $80. Applied for an Amazon credit card and used the $50 gift card for a bottom line of $30.99, with free Amazon Prime 2-day shipping.
  6. Bill St. Clair

    Review by 'Bill St. Clair' on item 'Swan M200MKIII'

    This is only my second pair of high-fi computer speakers. My first were the M-Audio AV40. This is a huge improvement, for only $270 more. Coupled with my NuForce µDac-2 and lots of Lossless CD rips and HDTrack HD downloads, they're a real joy. For less than $600, I have sound that rivals the...
  7. Bill St. Clair

    uDAC crackle - MAC OSX 10.6

    I'm running Snow Leopard (10.6) on a 2007 iMac with a µDAC. I've had a couple of times when the sound got weird. Unplugging and replugging the µDAC fixed it.
  8. Bill St. Clair

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out

    I use the cable that came with the µDAC. It appears to be in the neighborhood of 1 meter long, and it's curled up behind my monitor/computer (an iMac), tangled up with 8 other signal cables and 10 power cables.
  9. Bill St. Clair

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out

    The RCA out from the µDAC is a 2 volt, line-level signal. It is suitable for driving a power amp or powered speakers. The headphone out drives lots of different headphones, but see the rest of this thread for specifics. It works fine for my M-Audio AV40 speakers and Grado SR60i headphones. It...
  10. Bill St. Clair

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out

    What a firestorm. I don't have a high-end system, but the µDAC makes a big positive difference for me through my entry-level Grado cans and little speakers. And for only $99. I'll probably upgrade my cans and speakers before looking at another DAC.
  11. Bill St. Clair

    Gun-Fi

    Usually called an "M1 Garand". Don't know why I forgot that yesterday. The M1A also uses the Garand action. It has a box magazine, usually holding 20 rounds of .308. The Ruger Mini-14 & Mini Thirty also have the Garand action.
  12. Bill St. Clair

    Gun-Fi

    Quote: Originally Posted by regal What rifle is that? looks familiar. Looks to me like an M1, the rifle that won WWII. Holds an 8-round en-bloc clip of .30-06.
  13. Bill St. Clair

    What Are You Listening To Right Now?

    "Come Together" by The Beatles, from the album Abbey Road. 802kbps Apple Lossless
  14. Bill St. Clair

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out

    Sorry to hear that. Haven't had that problem myself. My first one lost it's right channel early on; infant mortality is fairly common in electronic devices. NuForce sent me a new one right away, with a postage-paid envelope to return the broken one. Second try has worked like a charm since then.
  15. Bill St. Clair

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out

    Same with the NE-7M. Good thing there's not a lot to understand, though I it would have been nice to explain in the manual that plugging in headphones turns off the RCA output, that the volume knob controls both the RCA and headphone output, and that turning the volume knob fully off disables...
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