[tincanear]

Thanks for that. I've wanted to hear a pair of Apogee's, but there was never a dealer in my area. Such an interesting design too. Ribbons; always a good thing.

There's a craigslist pair of Slant 6's near me for sale. I'd like to hear those. But, the seller never lists a price, which ticks me off, as prices are supposed to be listed. I'd use my Saga and Gungnir D/S DAC (which I want to upgrade to MB), with an Adcom GFA-5400. The gear sounds great through my refurbished AR's. Hopefully, the Apogee's would work as well?

either way, you should try and have a listen to them at the seller's location.

 

[tincanear]

Back in the 80's I was lucky enough to be befriended by a retired music professor that owned an original pair of Quad ESL's, that with a Linn Turntable and an amazing assortment of recording's; Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns - totally spun my head around the concept of "music reproduction". Our listening culminated in us attending Wagner's Ring in 1983 in Seattle - I've NEVER experienced anything like that, before or since..... I spent years looking, until I heard the Apogees - bought them on the spot, and suffered with top ramen for the next year . The biggest "problem" with these, Quads and Magnepans is that you really don't get to choose speaker placement - they need to go "where they go" in a given room.....

What impresses me most about Schiit, is the wisdom to embrace the headphone community, and develop products around that; why bother with the WAF acceptance factor of a listening room? Bottom line, more people enjoying music in more ways. That being said, I'm kinda a speaker guy - just what I'm used to

why dBpoweramp over iTunes? is it the sound quality, UI, ability to catalog selections / searching?

 

[StimpyWan]

either way, you should try and have a listen to them at the seller's location.

I think I'll have to. I've been reading some very impressive reviews for the speakers, describing attributes that I find compelling. Plus, the fact that upgraded replacement ribbons are available, makes for a stress-free proposition.

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

why dBpoweramp over iTunes? is it the sound quality, UI, ability to catalog selections / searching?

I think the online CRC verification at the end of each rip is what did it for me, plus the original .WAV file format on Mac was not an option with iTunes. CD tracks are natively .WAV files - you can copy these directly in Windows. Mike Moffat's descriptions of "bit perfect" got me thinking along these lines

 

[Ableza]

The difference between Alan or Flac and WAV is file size.

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

The difference between Alan or Flac and WAV is file size.

Exactly - I figure why not make my files a bit for bit copy of the original? At this point disk space cost is a non-factor

 

[Balthazar B]

Well, because of the pandemic, I'm no longer holding out for that rarest of components seemingly built out of unobtanium, a black Freya+. The wife had resisted the idea of silver Schiit in *her* living room since last year. But she figures there's a non-zero chance one or both of us senior citizens will get infected with Covid-19 and quite possibly won't be around in another year -- we both share a sense of fatalism about stuff like this, as it happens -- and she figured since I've been a wonderful spouse, I deserve a little break in case the palpably possible worst happens. So the silver Freya+ order is in for delivery, apparently, in about 5 weeks. Keeping fingers crossed.

We look at it this way. If I go first, she can get rid of it if she wants, but feel good about letting me enjoy it for a while. If she goes first, the effect on the decor won't matter. And if we both make it through, hopefully she'll get used to having it around making beautiful music. Can't hardly lose!

 

[Ripper2860]

Nice move to get the order in before a vaccine becomes available. If you'd waited another 2 mos., she may have reconsidered.

 

[darkarn]

Well, because of the pandemic, I'm no longer holding out for that rarest of components seemingly built out of unobtanium, a black Freya+. The wife had resisted the idea of silver Schiit in *her* living room since last year. But she figures there's a non-zero chance one or both of us senior citizens will get infected with Covid-19 and quite possibly won't be around in another year -- we both share a sense of fatalism about stuff like this, as it happens -- and she figured since I've been a wonderful spouse, I deserve a little break in case the palpably possible worst happens. So the silver Freya+ order is in for delivery, apparently, in about 5 weeks. Keeping fingers crossed.

We look at it this way. If I go first, she can get rid of it if she wants, but feel good about letting me enjoy it for a while. If she goes first, the effect on the decor won't matter. And if we both make it through, hopefully she'll get used to having it around making beautiful music. Can't hardly lose!

I think you can use Plasti Dip to turn it into black; some users here have used that with great success

See: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can-i-how-do-i-paint-a-schiit-amp.935465/page-2

Also, please stay safe. I think things will be alright for both of you so fret not and enjoy the music

 

[Les Strat]

The difference between Alan or Flac and WAV is file size.

Thanks @Ableza
My understanding is that provided there are no errors in the rip ( and that is very, very rare in my experience) a lossless rip, whether it be FLAC, ALAC or WAV is a bit-perfect copy and therefore identical to the original.
As you say, Ableza, the only difference is the file size.
I haven't read anything which has persuaded me otherwise, and more importantly, on a very revealing system, my ALAC copies, ripped with iTunes are indistinguishable from the original CD.
I don't ( yet) have a high quality CD transport but I have used a CD player as a transport connected to my Yggy and compared this with ripped files and identical albums streamed on Qobuz at 16/44.1.
If I had to pick a preference it might just be the ALAC files played from my hard drive, but I wouldn't be confident of telling them from the original CD in a blind test.
I have also compared burned CDs with originals and as these have been through the iTunes/ALAC ripping process and then back onto a recordable CD, this is probably the best test.
I can hear absolutely no difference between an original CD and a burned copy when played directly from the CD transport.
Now, Mike's CD transport may be better than streamed music from a hard drive, or Qobuz, but that's a whole different argument....

 

[audio philestine]

The difference between Alan or Flac and WAV is file size.

And alac and flac allow for embedded metadata. That's a big win in my eyes.

 

[JoeWhip]

So does AIFF which is what I use for downloads and rips.

 

[Les Strat]

And alac and flac allow for embedded metadata. That's a big win in my eyes.

Me too @audio philestine
I am no great fan of iTunes and would never use it to download music, but I find the ripping, tagging and library management works well for an old technophobe like me.
I also use it to access my music library with an iPod in the car.

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

Me too @audio philestine
I am no great fan of iTunes and would never use it to download music, but I find the ripping, tagging and library management works well for an old technophobe like me.
I also use it to access my music library with an iPod in the car.

Didn't intend to touch off a file format skirmish here .... I'll readily agree I also cannot hear the difference between any lossless file format as well; my thinking was this:

1. My existing iTunes library was a mess, and I was NEVER happy with iTunes as an application, apparently Apple decided that as well...
2. As I implemented Roon, I discovered that .WAV format files were supported, along with pretty much all others. Given THAT choice, I figured why not just store everything in its native file format? Being an old grizzled IT guy - I appreciate the CRC verification of dbPoweramp, plus it does a good job of retrieving Album art, and actually asks when it occasionally get's confused on various CD "editions", etc....

Thats all....

 

[bcowen]

We look at it this way. If I go first, she can get rid of it if she wants, but feel good about letting me enjoy it for a while. If she goes first, the effect on the decor won't matter. And if we both make it through, hopefully she'll get used to having it around making beautiful music. Can't hardly lose!

Impeccable logic in my opinion.