[obzilla]

Quote:

What puzzles me is the Music Server. It has a network connection but how does one playback the music via network?
 

You mount it as a network drive on any laptop or computer that you already have connected to your DAC.
 

 

[AppleheadMay]

Ah, so it acts as a NAS with a ripper in it, which is quite different from the Naim Unity Server.
 
What players can I use to access the music stored on it then?
I am on a Mac and use iTunes. Could iTunes read the music stored on the W4S Music Server, if stored in a compatible format of course?

 

[obzilla]

Quote:

Ah, so it acts as a NAS with a ripper in it, which is quite different from the Naim Unity Server.
 
What players can I use to access the music stored on it then?
I am on a Mac and use iTunes. Could iTunes read the music stored on the W4S Music Server, if stored in a compatible format of course?

Yup. Just mount the drive as you would any other network share. It's Linux based so this would be easy to do through samba. Most likely they will have a step by step walk through for customers.
 
http://www.wyred4sound.com/webapps/p/74030/117839/620191
 
It has audio out as well, if you had it hooked to a DAC you could control it remotely as well through VNC, or a custom player app.
 

 

[starfish]

Why doesn't the DAC-2 display actual sample rate when connected vis USB input?  Even when playing Redbook via USB input the DAC-2 displays 192k.  Or, does it upsample via USB?

 

[thrak]

Quote:

Why doesn't the DAC-2 display actual sample rate when connected vis USB input?  Even when playing Redbook via USB input the DAC-2 displays 192k.  Or, does it upsample via USB?

mine displays correctly.  well, its not really a display issue.  if your DAC2 says 192k then that is what it is receiving from USB.  seems that something in your computer is up sampling prior to outputting to USB.  what OS and player are you using?

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

mine displays correctly.  well, its not really a display issue.  if your DAC2 says 192k then that is what it is receiving from USB.  seems that something in your computer is up sampling prior to outputting to USB.  what OS and player are you using?

Mine also displays the correct rate of the file.  However if I use a player like iTunes and then go into Audio MIDI Setup I can change the rate there to something else like 192 and the DAC-2 will display that rate. But if I switch back to Amarra the DAC-2 will display the correct rate of whatever file is playing.

 

[Icenine2]

 
For windows 7 and Vista it will be necessary to select kernel or Wasapi streaming as the output mode in 
the media player for proper playback and for the correct sample rate to be displayed on the DAC.  
With Mac OS the sample rate will need to be selected in the Audio Midi setup to correctly represent the 
file being played unless an advanced media player is used such as Pure Music. 

Quote:

Why doesn't the DAC-2 display actual sample rate when connected vis USB input?  Even when playing Redbook via USB input the DAC-2 displays 192k.  Or, does it upsample via USB?

 

 

[starfish]

Quote:

mine displays correctly.  well, its not really a display issue.  if your DAC2 says 192k then that is what it is receiving from USB.  seems that something in your computer is up sampling prior to outputting to USB.  what OS and player are you using?

Ok, thanks.  I was using XLD as a player on OSX.  It's probably defaulting to the audio/midi set up.  I'll guess that XLD, being more of a FLAC rip program, only has a rudimentary playback which is not passing sample rate along to the OS.  I'll probably look at Amarra soon, but I'm using my Squeezebox 90% of the time.  I imagine I can remember to change the sample rate each time in audio/midi setup.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Quote:

Ok, thanks.  I was using XLD as a player on OSX.  It's probably defaulting to the audio/midi set up.  I'll guess that XLD, being more of a FLAC rip program, only has a rudimentary playback which is not passing sample rate along to the OS.  I'll probably look at Amarra soon, but I'm using my Squeezebox 90% of the time.  I imagine I can remember to change the sample rate each time in audio/midi setup.

I use XLD for ripping only.
If you change the sample rate in Audio-Midi setup, you must close iTunes first, change the setting, restart iTunes.
Annoying. If you want to avoid that get BitPerfect for 3€ from the app store and it changes automatically plus gives you better sound.
Amarra, PureMusic and Audirvana Plus take care of that as well for you.
If you want Amarra and you use Lion and one of the latest versions of iTunes, it might not work or ask you to start iTunes in 32-bit mode. Maybe wait with Amarra 'till they fix that.

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Ok, thanks.  I was using XLD as a player on OSX.  It's probably defaulting to the audio/midi set up.  I'll guess that XLD, being more of a FLAC rip program, only has a rudimentary playback which is not passing sample rate along to the OS.  I'll probably look at Amarra soon, but I'm using my Squeezebox 90% of the time.  I imagine I can remember to change the sample rate each time in audio/midi setup.

 XLD is more than just a FLAC rip program.  I use XLD to convert AIFF, WAV, APE and FLAC to ALAC.    I would not recommend it for playback use.     If Amarra is out of your range Audirvana Plus is an excellent player.  
 
Quote:

I use XLD for ripping only.
If you change the sample rate in Audio-Midi setup, you must close iTunes first, change the setting, restart iTunes.
Annoying. If you want to avoid that get BitPerfect for 3€ from the app store and it changes automatically plus gives you better sound.
Amarra, PureMusic and Audirvana Plus take care of that as well for you.
If you want Amarra and you use Lion and one of the latest versions of iTunes, it might not work or ask you to start iTunes in 32-bit mode. Maybe wait with Amarra 'till they fix that.

I'm not sure what you mean by having to close iTunes first if one wants to change the rate in Audio-Midi setup and then restarting iTunes.   I don't have to do that.  I can change the rate in  Audio-Midi setup while iTunes is open and the DAC-2 immediately reflects the rate change. 
 

 

[AppleheadMay]

Quote:

I'm not sure what you mean by having to close iTunes first if one wants to change the rate in Audio-Midi setup and then restarting iTunes.   I don't have to do that.  I can change the rate in  Audio-Midi setup while iTunes is open and the DAC-2 immediately reflects the rate change. 
 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/iTunes-and-Audio-Midi-Settings
 
What you see on the Dac is the AM setting you chose, not what iTunes actually put's out.
Before I used these players, I used a script I found to do that.
But all 4 these players that have iTunes integration can actually change the output, even BitPerfect.
 
EDIT:
Here's some more info: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/AppleScript-automatically-change-Sample-Rate-Audio-MIDI-Setup
 

 

[Red Jacket Mike]

With your W4S DAC-2 connected via USB, and also selected as the audio output device in Audio-Midi settings, it should automatically show its maximum sample rate as 192 / 2 channel / 32 bit.  (Shut iTunes down, then open Audio-Midi settings to check).
 
I am using BitPerfect, with the up sampling option turned off.  This way, the DAC-2 should display the correct sample rate of any tune you're playing in iTunes.  If I turn on Bit Perfect, everything will be up sampled to the DAC-2's max of 192.
 
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Ill have to give Clint a call on this because the Wyred 4 Sound drivers allow for a rate of 192 2ch-32bit and the driver bypass Apples Biult-in Output driver.   I'm not certain but iTunes cannot output to 192/32 so closing iTunes and reopening it won't bring you to 192/32 from iTunes.   I'm not actually sure what the relationship between iTunes and the Wyred 4 Sound Driver inside Audio MIDI Setup actually is. One question I'll ask Clint is if the Wyred 4 Sound driver sends a command to iTunes to perform an SRC operation to convert the output of iTunes to the sample rate as specified by the default output device.
 
It seems possible that W4S wrote this operation into its own driver to do this and here is a hint that this is done by other application form that Computer Audiophile thread.  
 
"If the user or some other application changes the sample rate of the default audio device in Audio MIDI Setup without relaunching iTunes, Core Audio will perform a second SRC operation to convert the output of iTunes to the sample rate of the default output device."
 
It will be interesting to see what Clint says about this and perhaps more informative than anything Apple will ever tell us about what iTunes does behind the scenes.   I'm also wondering if thus has changed in the recent versions of iTunes because that thread is basically from 2009 but if we all know apple their priority is probably more geared to having iTunes function with the iPod, iPhone, iPad than for audiophile fools like us.
 
I'm also wondering if the guy who programs Bitperfect might be able to give us actual insight on what iTunes is and isn't doing since he is the only app developer here in the forum who has his own thread on his player and responds to it when ever there is a post in that thread.  

 

[Red Jacket Mike]

I know iTunes doesn't do 32 bit, but Audio-Midi settings is just displaying what the DAC-2's capabilities are.  iTunes can do up to 24/192, currently, through USB.  Via the optical, 24/96 is the upper limit.

 

[WarriorAnt]

I guess now the question would be how much control the W4S driver asserts over iTunes and if it is necessary to close and restart iTunes for it to perform an SRC operation according to what the W4S driver is requesting.