Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems iTunes and how it spoiled my music habit.

Listening to music from my computer is becoming the way I listen to music the most. I downloaded half of my music to an external HD, about 10k songs, bought a Bose Companion 3 set (which to my surprise is not too bad) and now listen to music, all day, and never listen to the same song twice!

The other day I wanted to play some music on my Meridian kit, the second time I had to shuffle for CDs I gave up, turned the system off and went to bed. To me it has become a hassle to get up, look for the music I'm in the mood to listen to, and then get up again everytime I have to change CDs. No, I am no couch potatoe at all, but it just doesnt't feel right anymore.

I pretty much decided to go Kscape for movies, (though would love to now know if they will be adding HDDVD/BR to their mix before jumping in) and now am looking for a good computer based source for my music.

I never approved of this - for one I've always liked the "analogue" sound better and spoke of audio cables as if I was talking about wine. M changed all that, though I confess I do belive cables and power cords have made my M kit sound better...Now how the hell do I feel completely in acceptance listening a $300 tin-can[plastic]kit.

Maybe convenice is winning over critical listening.

I do hope M sees this as an opportunity, I think the high-end market for a computer based system is non-existant at this point. M O.

I totally agree.

Single spindle method of listening to music is going obsolete.

At my new job they setup a Music server in the very large lab (very live room) with an old PC, an adcom amp, McIntosh preamp and very old Advents. They just have it playing random on the whole 10,000 song library (MP3 at 192). Sounds pretty good. I've acquired some taste for some new music.

I just go my SB3 installed last night. Lot of work ripping everything, but so far so good. I'll review it in the Music Server thread.

My Squeezebox had exactly the same effect on me. It still plays through G68 but f-arsing-ing around with MRC and s/w updates seems to be a thing of the past. I press a button, and it just works. Once I have turned everything on. G98 just doesn't get the mileage it should - its connected via component because my HD Freeview trial box needed HDMI but I have'nt looked at that for ages as the EPG is not at the touch of a button.

Convenience is winning for me over critical listening and viewing too. A properly integrated music server with M comms and a fully implemented HDMI interface with HDMI input and switching and component conversion may just be enough to keep my M kit powered up permanently, but for now, I cannot justify 5 x 135 Watts just for watching Bob the Builder and Home and Away. Even in standby.

For me, the high end transport went the way of the Dodo. I sold my 800 V4.2 Transport because my Apple laptop solution was indistinguishable and the convenience and access to music was a quantum leap in comfort. I use a USB U24 Waveterminal digital box with coaxial digital out to my Meridian DSP 5200's and it sounds incredible. My music is ripped Apple Lossless and stored on a network. I have an Audiophile playlist with all my best sounding music. That is the way of the future IMO.

You are right on. I think if the sound produced from itunes was so horrible, like a scratched old record played over AM radio then I think you'd still be listening to your stand a lone CD.

If you want a multi zone system then the SB or the Sonus or other are great. You might want to also check out ReQuest. In my case, I have an early ReQuest for multi zone but the audio quality on its digital out was nothing to write home about. I like itunes so much so I bought the then least expensive mac with a lot of hard drive expandability and a good quality digital output. I re-ripped my CD collection to AIFF- I guess I just didnt trust apple lossless- though I think it works well too. My test to see if something is bit for bit accurate is to get a DTS audio CD, rip it and if the processor picks up and decodes the stream as DTS- youre good.

I use my projector as a monitor and a RF keyboard with track pad. The sound quality is right there with the 800.

As to KScape- I think its a fantastic product but you have got to look at it as what it does with DVD. I think they could add BR or HDDVD or something else support in the future because they are members of both the BD and HDDVD working groups. You would need to be sure your home network could take the load- maybe you couldnt have like 30 players going at once with the HD material and also youd need the drive space and a new player that could decode the HD Stream. Theres a chance they might get some HD material and sell it to you on a transport drive (a HD that you slap in and it copies itself to your space and then you send it back).

best regards,
Jerry

I am interested in hearing back from George how you like the SB3. Some have said it's OK, but not for "critical" listening - mind is been ages since I've sit down to do any "critial" listening. We are all in the same camp, I ripped all my music AIFF because that's waht Jerry suggested and it truly is quite good - maybe Apple Lossless would better?

The SB3 is a good cheap alternative, I don't know much about the ReQuest, the other alternative is a Mac Mini w/ an external HDD, but it only has a headphones output and I am not sure how good that would sound into a 861.

Moving in this direction makes me feel our expensive kit may be overkill. I mean $50-$100K and the source is a $500 computer?!?!?

HNY!!!!

Pesonally, I think the SB does stand up to the test of critical listening and comparison with my G98 transport.

What I am in no doubt about is that, for me, it has become the most enjoyable way to access my music collection. Expensive transports RIP!

Cliff

I'm feeling the same way - have a couple of SB3's and have considered picking up a Transporter because it just doesn't feel right feeding a $250 source into M gear. OTOH, the TP would be for cosmetics only as I would use the TP's digital out into the 568.

I hear ya. I ripped some DTS CD's and they play flawless. This tells me that the whole path from the CD pits to the 861 decoder is unaltered.

It's very difficult getting past the idea that an inexpensive source can do as well as a high end spindal. Do your own double blind tests.

When I put the Alan Parsons DTS CD in, I was amazed how bad the first track sounded in the rears (been a lone time since I listened to it sounds like he is talking into a pillow). At first I thought Oh crap what have I done. Then I popped in the disk into the PS3 and all I got was digital noise. Yikes. Then I realized I had turned on 48khz upsamling in the PS3. Oops. I put it back to 44.1 and then compared. The PS3 sounded exactly the same as the SB3. And I had carefully compared the PS3, Panasonic BD and 598 on DVD-A, DTS and CD (they all sounded the same). So SB3 just adds to the list.

One other point, based on the opening topic. How often do you REALLY critically get to listen? The only time I ever do is when evaluating components !!! I turn on the music and go eat breakfast in the OTHER room. Now I can listen to my whole library (and not have to sit through bogus tracks).

Please continue this in the Music Server Sticky thread.

The real meat is in the creativity of the artist. These products allow you to enjoy your library to an extent that simply cannot be rivalled by a disc player.

I stopped reading when this guy said Bose sounded good.

Hey now- Bose or other similar "lifestyle" product can sound good, which I read to mean "pleasing". It doesn't have to be the pinnacle of audio performance to be pleasing- its just, well, pleasing . We don't all eat the finest meal of our lives every day, but yet we probably eat things we like and are pleasing. Yet, it doesn't mean that when we go to that favorite restaurant and have our favorite meal, that we don't truly savor it. So its the same here. I like how my car stereo sounds with a bit of tweaking and I like how my iPod sounds too- does that mean my opinion is bad?

I really think the 800 is a fantastic product and it offers terrific, what M calls "data integrity" through its various buffers and various error checking. yet, I think if you get a perfect rip of your data, then you don't have the problem of bad CDs as we are discovering.

Anyway, AIFF or WAV are fine to rip to- they are just full size copies so that means you are not maximizing your hard drive space- but hd space is inexpensive (relatively). FLAC or Apple Lossless are probably fine (I have yet to test them, but I believe they would be fine) the good news is you get about a 50% reduction in file size over AIFF/WAV.

If you go with a lossy format like MP3, your sound quality will probably suffer, but by how much is the question. I think this depends on source material and the listener. If you go with 192kps MP3, I think you will get a nice size reduction with some good quality- this is what I use for my iPod. But I would never dream of feeding my M gear MP3 files...

happy new year all!!!

best regards,
Jerry