[Blue Warper]

Yes, I see it. I'm not familiar with AK70 (and, in general, with modern DAPs), so I'll try (what I think to be) my last suggestion before going to silent mode about it

: have you tried lowering the buffer size or even setting no buffer at all?  I don't know if you can set this value on your DAP, but, just in case...
I can understand the gapless playback usefulness, because I list a lot to Prog Rock (especially the classic, golden age groups, such as Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, etc.) and Classical music, where it's quite frequent to have tracks seamlessly following one another.
 
PS - On a really really really side note, I'd like to say thank you for your contributions to 'derailing' one of the Schiit threads some time ago

(I don't remember which one, perhaps Jason's own "Schiit happened?") towards mechanical keyboards. The info you provided made me want to further inquire, and now I know why I always valued so much my old IBM keyboards when it came to actual typing experience.  Not wanting to derail this thread myself, so enough with it!  Thanks again!

 

[Baldr]

Originally Posted by Blue Warper /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Not trying to put words in your mouth, but am I correctly inferring from the above that you are at least taking into account the possibility you could ever make a transport (i.e. a physical CD spinner)? 
 
So, basically, what I'm asking for is a box with multiple digital inputs and multiple digital outputs.
 

 
I have (Groan) been in the transport biz before. I think about it from time to time. As media has progressed from LPs to CDs to downloads to on demand, CDs are now in the dumper of demand, with used CDs selling for down to a buck or less, (far less if one buys a collection). If few want CDs, then few will like a transport. Granted, it could be like the Modi, where the availability of of a quality D/A converter at a hundred bucks created a situation where many, many, new people became aware of exactly what gains they could have. Mark my words, there will be a resurgence of CD popularity, just as there has been and is with vinyl. All it will take is for the mass realization that nothing is free and that playlist convenience has a performance cost. Whenever that happens would be a time to reconsider.
 
My initial goal when building a competitive product is to make sure I can provide the same performance at 10-30% of the price. In the case of USB, AOIP, reclockers, etc., the bar is pretty low, with prices running up to way over a thousand bucks for the exotics. As I have previously stated I have to conclude that the performance advantage of AOIP has to be the complete isolation, and, only when required, distance (multi-room) capabilities.
 
As far as "Swiss Army Knife", that is any plug to any socket conveters, I hear you. It is just that the first offering should be a subset of the most popular plugs/sockets.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

  Mark my words, there will be a resurgence of CD popularity, just as there has been and is with vinyl. All it will take is for the mass realization that nothing is free and that playlist convenience has a performance cost. Whenever that happens would be a time to reconsider.
 

Is there any reason not to store music on the computer, and burn new CDs as scratching etc. necessitates? 

 

[tjl5709]

  Is there any reason not to store music on the computer, and burn new CDs as scratching etc. necessitates? 

 
I ripped all my CD's to my HD in FLAC. I see only advantages. Just make sure you maintain a backup. Don't want all that time wasted, and HD's are dirt cheap.
 
If your new to the idea. Here is my current PC software that I use. Either EAC or DB poweramp to rip.
 
MediaMonkey to manage the files. Renaming, organizing, tagging.
 
MusicBee to play them.
 
There are better options from what I read than my windoze based system, but with my old ears, I doubt it would really make a difference for me.
 
As Mike pointed out, CD's can be found pretty cheap "used". As long as they are not scratched to schitt, they pretty much play the same now as the day they were printed.

 

[rmoody]

I rip with either EAC or CDEX and tag with MusicBrainz Picard and then MP3TAG for corrections and album art. MP3 GAIN with FooBar. Player is JRMC or MusicBee. If you can/want to afford JRMC it's great, else MusicBee is terrific for free. If you are after JRMC, be patient, it goes on sale about once a year when a new version is released.
 
Once upon a time, I had a SCSI setup with two Plextor drives and was religious with EAC. Calibrated my burner drive had offset CDs for reference and all. Now, I just don't care as much. Funny finding my old copied CDs most are just direct copies. I had issues with some and just ripped to CUE/APE/FLAC. I had many APE files once and could not for the life of me remember why until I installed the version of JRMC that I had licensed may years ago, it only had support for APE, not FLAC back then. Reason, the APE guy was hired by JRMC. That since has changed and JRMC supports damn near anything.

 

[franzdom]

   
I ripped all my CD's to my HD in FLAC. I see only advantages. Just make sure you maintain a backup. Don't want all that time wasted, and HD's are dirt cheap.
 
If your new to the idea. Here is my current PC software that I use. Either EAC or DB poweramp to rip.
 
MediaMonkey to manage the files. Renaming, organizing, tagging.
 
MusicBee to play them.
 
There are better options from what I read than my windoze based system, but with my old ears, I doubt it would really make a difference for me.
 
As Mike pointed out, CD's can be found pretty cheap "used". As long as they are not scratched to schitt, they pretty much play the same now as the day they were printed.

 
I did the same but they don't sound as good as played on a good transport, it's probably the weakness of a Lite-On DVD drive in my computer, or whatever cheap ass thing it is. Mostly it's close but some space is lost and occasional noise exists from rips that isn't there direct from CD to ears.

 

[Letmebefrank]

Newest version of dbpoweramp cd ripper has amazing automatic album metadata and art finding functionality, not to mention accuraterip integration. I find it to be well worth the price.

As far as storage/playing goes, I have 2x3TB wd red drives in raid inside my main pc dedicated to music and video storage. Music is played locally by foobar2k with ASIO and the DarkOne v4 skin. Video is played locally with VLC. All media is also streamed to a raspberry pi 3 in the living room.

 

[tjl5709]

   
I did the same but they don't sound as good as played on a good transport, it's probably the weakness of a Lite-On DVD drive in my computer, or whatever cheap ass thing it is. Mostly it's close but some space is lost and occasional noise exists from rips that isn't there direct from CD to ears.

 
I am sure a dedicated transport hooked up to a yggy via AES will outperform a ripped file on my windoze 7 PC via USB, but for ease of play and moving files between portable rigs, it's close enough for me. One thing I will note is that there are some guides for dialing in EAC. Typically when you load one of these ripping programs they are setup for providing the quickest rip possible. That does not necessarily mean quality. I set up my EAC via a guide and I do not have drop or noise issues, and it took a noticably longer time to rip after tweeking the settings. That said, I don't have a dedicated quality transport to compare either.

 

[artur9]

Darn it, Baldr!
 
So I tried the transport vs USB and I can hear a difference.  I used Yepes Concierto de Aranjuez.  It's driving me crazy!
 
It's transport/USB into digital preamp for x-over etc settings onto my speakers so input chains are (transport->TOSlink->preamp) vs (SMS-200->LANRover->W4S uLink->BNC/AES->preamp).
 
Now I'll need to investigate further.  Since my preamp up samples/digitizes everything to 96K I was also using Sox in MinimServer to do the up sampling.  Logic, you know?
 
The CD sounds a bit richer.  Turning off the Sox up sampling made things a bit more even.  It's a bit similar to the effect that listening to an LP vs USB has.  So, unlike vinyl, it's cheaper and better. I think  my BluRay player went for $90, new.
 
First, you encourage me to peek at presents and now this.  Grrr!
 
So, what's the explanation and what is Schiit going to do about it?
 
I have 2 Conciertos de Aranjuez.  Yepes and Gallén.  Anyone have a different favorite one?

 

[Baldr]

  Is there any reason not to store music on the computer, and burn new CDs as scratching etc. necessitates? 

There are always well advised reasons to archive, particularly if the recording has value.  I have a few thousand CDs and have never had a problem with scratching, although YMMV.

 

[Baldr]

  Darn it, Baldr!
 
I have 2 Conciertos de Aranjuez.  Yepes and Gallén.  Anyone have a different favorite one?

 
The old Mercury Living Presence recording of the Romeros is sublime.  They have a used one for sale on Amazon for $1.62 US.

 

[JohnBal]

 
There are always well advised reasons to archive, particularly if the recording has value.  I have a few thousand CDs and have never had a problem with scratching, although YMMV.

Exactly my experience. I've have cd's for over 30yrs and not a mark on them. Coasters and frisbees are generally not sold in music stores. Although my local F.Y.E. is beginning to resemble some type of toy store after removing all but approx a 20 foot aisle of cd's 

 .

 

[franzdom]

Another issue with computer vs transport for me is the noise my computer makes. It is in a fairly sealed box made to be quiet but it is not a music server. All drives are SSD but graphics and cpu coolers do make some noise.
If i am not listening critically or I am downloading I am quite happy with computer sound but the CX-C by itself is really nice, worth the trouble if I have the CD.

 

[Blue Warper]

I have 2 Conciertos de Aranjuez.  Yepes and Gallén.  Anyone have a different favorite one?

   
The old Mercury Living Presence recording of the Romeros is sublime.  They have a used one for sale on Amazon for $1.62 US.

 
Thanks both for the suggestions about Gallén and the Romeros.  I may add at least John Williams, who recorded it three times (or possibly more): 1965 (Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra), 1974 (Barenboim/English Chamber Orchestra), 1983 (Frémaux/Philarmonia Orchestra).

 

[ColtMrFire]

Interesting thing is, every audio program I've used on a computer sounded different (some wildly so).  So they are coloring the sound in one way or another.  When I started using a transport, it sounded the most neutral vs. the audio programs.  For me it's just about wanting transparency without anything getting in the way.  A CD player is simple enough for me to be happy with this arrangement, and I've never had a problem with scratched CDs, just take care of them.  YMMV.