[Currawong]

Mac Mini to Yggdrasil via usb. I'm wondering if this is regular issue that others are facing with Macs or isolated to my computer configuration. Doesn't matter what DAC is connected, I tried others as well, and Tidal does the same thing. It's got to be within the software.

I just tried the TIDAL app again. I think the delay is caused by the app buffering the track.

On another note, I found a new minimalist player on the App Store: Colibri

 

[SilverEars]

I just tried the TIDAL app again. I think the delay is caused by the app buffering the track.

On another note, I found a new minimalist player on the App Store: Colibri

For some reason the new 2018 Mac Mini has longer lag than the 2011 model on High Sierra? Makes no sense. I will be adding more ram to the mini to see if it improves it, but I doubt it's ram related, it's got to be the software.

What's really odd about Macs (and Apple products like ipods) is that there is some wort of a house sound in the way music is put out. It's odd to me that Macs output dry sound out of their usb ports compared to Windows pcs. I wonder why? It so sure on this distinction of the sound. Macs sound leaner due to this dry nature.

I usually find dry sound to be more detailed due to the tightness. I find wet to be more smoothed over, or blended kinda sound, but seems more life-like and natural of course.

 

[DjBobby]

For some reason the new 2018 Mac Mini has longer lag than the 2011 model on High Sierra? Makes no sense. I will be adding more ram to the mini to see if it improves it, but I doubt it's ram related, it's got to be the software.

What's really odd about Macs (and Apple products like ipods) is that there is some wort of a house sound in the way music is put out. It's odd to me that Macs output dry sound out of their usb ports compared to Windows pcs. I wonder why? It so sure on this distinction of the sound. Macs sound leaner due to this dry nature.

I usually find dry sound to be more detailed due to the tightness. I find wet to be more smoothed over, or blended kinda sound, but seems more life-like and natural of course.

I have zero lag with the MacBook Pro, music starts immediately using latest Tidal and Audirvana apps.

Don't get it quite what do you mean by dry house sound of Apple. Using external dacs, Macs and iPads only output simple digital signal which is then "colored" by the output device. Using the same MacBook for the USB digital out, I can hear distinctive difference with the external dacs using ESS Sabre chips (dry and tight) and AKM (wett and fat).

 

[SilverEars]

I have zero lag with the MacBook Pro, music starts immediately using latest Tidal and Audirvana apps.

Don't get it quite what do you mean by dry house sound of Apple. Using external dacs, Macs and iPads only output simple digital signal which is then "colored" by the output device. Using the same MacBook for the USB digital out, I can hear distinctive difference with the external dacs using ESS Sabre chips (dry and tight) and AKM (wett and fat).

Which year model MBP, and the spec? I actually notice a difference on a single DAC that changes the level of dryness depending on if it's being fed digital from a Mac or Windows PC usb implimentation. Mac sounds dry, and I know it's from the Mac if I compare with Winodws PC usb out.

 

[DjBobby]

Which year model MBP, and the spec? I actually notice a difference on a single DAC that changes the level of dryness depending on if it's being fed digital from a Mac or Windows PC usb implimentation. Mac sounds dry, and I know it's from the Mac if I compare with Winodws PC usb out.

MacBook Pro Mid 2018 with 16GB Ram.
Very interesting indeed. Listening the stored music through the Marantz network player and though the MacBook Pro, I can't say I hear much difference, if at all.
Will try and compare the Mac with one Windows laptop very soon.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Which year model MBP, and the spec? I actually notice a difference on a single DAC that changes the level of dryness depending on if it's being fed digital from a Mac or Windows PC usb implimentation. Mac sounds dry, and I know it's from the Mac if I compare with Winodws PC usb out.

If the Mac and the pc are sending the data bit perfect, there cannot be a difference in sound with the same DAC. I don’t know if tidal sends bit perfect, but iTunes and many other programs can send bitperfect.

 

[Currawong]

If the Mac and the pc are sending the data bit perfect, there cannot be a difference in sound with the same DAC. I don’t know if tidal sends bit perfect, but iTunes and many other programs can send bitperfect.

Actually, there can be a difference, depending on how much noise is also being sent over the USB lines. Some more recent DACs have isolation on their USB inputs to deal with this. It's also possible, given the complexity of how USB works, that the output of a computer can cause the USB receiver in the DAC to do more processing, causing it to generate more noise inside the DAC itself. That is why the audiophile music players have optimisations to reduce the amount of processing done via USB to minimise this.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Actually, there can be a difference, depending on how much noise is also being sent over the USB lines. Some more recent DACs have isolation on their USB inputs to deal with this. It's also possible, given the complexity of how USB works, that the output of a computer can cause the USB receiver in the DAC to do more processing, causing it to generate more noise inside the DAC itself. That is why the audiophile music players have optimisations to reduce the amount of processing done via USB to minimise this.

I don't think a player can reduce amount of processing done via USB. A player can use less CPU time, which might reduce noise on crappy PCs, the the data sent to the DAC is identical if the data is sent bit perfect.
Sure, there can be USB noise, but all things being equal (a decent PC and a Mac) sending bit perfect info over a decent USB to a well implemented USB DAC, the sound should be exactly the same.

 

[Twangsta]

Is anybody using Audirvana 3.5?
I had to upgrade as I moved to a windows desktop recently.
Wanted to ask about the upsampling settings.
Has anybody had any insights into them?

I'm using KRK rocket 5 studio monitors and an HD800 via an RME babyface pro, my BLC Linear has a bad volume pot, need to fixit.

 

[Mortone]

Is anybody using Audirvana 3.5?
I had to upgrade as I moved to a windows desktop recently.
Wanted to ask about the upsampling settings.
Has anybody had any insights into them?

I'm using KRK rocket 5 studio monitors and an HD800 via an RME babyface pro, my BLC Linear has a bad volume pot, need to fixit.

It is limited to the ability of the computer it is attached to, Mac Laptop 192. I have an outboard DAC that allows it to go to 350 pull and with a filter 700.

 

[digitalreferee]

I know I'm extremely late to the party on this thread and sorry for the necroing but I'm always surprised that nobody ever seems to mention Cog as an amazing, lightweight and functional player for Mac:

https://cog.losno.co/

Used to be that it was inactive in terms of development, which didn't prevent me from using the old version for years (amazingly that version still works perfectly well, you can find it at this link here if you want a version for an older computer), but now it's been picked up by a developer again, by virtue of it being open source.

What I personally love about it is that you just point it to your root folder for your local music, and then it lets you access the Mac OS file tree, double click on any folder to instantly start a playlist of that folder, and that works if you have subfolders too (for example if you want to listen to an entire artist's discography that you have all in one folder for that artist, with multiple subfolders for each album, you can). Maybe it's just because it's tailored to the way I want to listen to my collection (I have everything extremely well ordered and don't care for Artist/Albums sorting) but I honestly have never found any fault with Cog in general in terms of functionality for just playing stuff. It's very versatile and doesn't really have had any issues with the files I threw at it (I think the only time I ran into a wall was trying to open some wavpack files, and that has since been fixed).

Highly recommend it if anyone is still looking for a good player for their local collection on Mac. And it's also a native Mac app and not a port or a cross-platform app (or worse, some electron atrocity), which is always nice.

 

[omasciarotte]

Regarding Cog, it lists lots of bells and whistles but doesn’t include the most important in my consideration:

• forced automatic SR switching of the DAC to match the source file/stream's sample rate
• bit–perfect playback

Also, it doesn’t mention that the dev has attempted to make it as hi–fi as possible, so I have to dismiss it as just another player app, in a choice of hundreds, that focus on functionality rather than fidelity.

To be honest, I have not done any critical listening to Cog in many years so maybe I’m missing something.

 

[digitalreferee]

I totally get your point though, that's also why I mentioned, it perfectly fits my purposes but it might not everyone's.

Those features might be good ones to point out to the developer though, if you feel so inclined. They're very active and there are frequent updates, with features being added on a regular basis, so I'm sure they'd look into bit-perfect playback and forced DAC sample rate matching of source if it was of interest to enough people.

Then again, you might not be into the idea of browsing your collection in the way Cog likes to implement it (which is admittedly the big reason why I'm not into any of the usual software being recommended) so it might not be worth it.

 

[dondadpie]

I was looking at Swinsian before. Never got around to giving the trial a go, but will try to soon

 

[homesickmadmax]

I've been looking for a good iTunes alternative primarily for DSD support and automatic sample rate switching. So far JRiver appears to be the best one. I've tried Amarra (converted my DSD into PCM instead of playing it DoP), Audirvana+ (had some sort of weird issue where it didn't play certain tracks gaplessly) and Swinsian. I've purchased Bitperfect but I'm unsure if the DSD Master addon required to play DSD files will actually allow me to access my .dsf files in a library interface, and if it will directly stream DoP to my DAC. Anything else I should consider before I go purchase Jriver? The library organization does leave something to be desired so my options are open.

Colibri is good, but no library