Latest Additions


  • MP3Tag: Fixing Your Metadata
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  • Are SDXC Cards the Future of Music Storage?
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  • Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC
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  • Ars Technica says Mastered For iTunes Can Sound Better
    • Well Rounded Sound WRS WP 2 Desktop Speakers Sweepstakes
    Sweepstakes
    Jon Iverson • May 15, 2012 • 57 comments
    Register to win a pair of Well Rounded Sound WRS WP 2 Desktop Speakers (MSRP $699) we are giving away.

    According to Well Rounded Sound, the WRS WP 2 incorporates a high end Full Range Driver with excellent detail retrieval and very wide sound stage. Solid aluminum machined phase plug helps to extend high frequencies to 20,000Hz.

    All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. Click on the picture above for details on how to enter.

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    Getting Along With Streamers 101
    Hardware How-To
    Michael Lavorgna • May 17, 2012 • 10 comments
    Each week another press release crosses my Inbox announcing another receiver, preamplifier or dedicated device with streaming capabilities, i.e. an Ethernet connection and DLNA/UPnP support. There are a few things you need to know (and have) if you want to play your ripped or downloaded music through a Streamer. Here's a down and dirty guide to the basics.
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    Dynamic Compression. To Have and Have Not?
    Michael Lavorgna
    Michael Lavorgna • May 15, 2012 • 10 comments
    John Chamberlain, Dolores James (1962) Painted and chromium-plated steel. 184.2 × 257.8 × 117.5 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 70.1925. © 2012 John Chamberlain/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Kristopher McKay © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

    Over on the Stereophile website, Ariel Bitran put up a post titled, "The Unofficial Dynamic Range Database". In it, he talks about the "Unofficial” Dynamic Range Database and his recent experience with a disagreeable show-goer at the NY Audio Show and a Phish recording. What I found interesting about Ariel's post was the fact that this disagreeable show-goer actually left the room because he considered Ariel's musical selection, a track from Phish's Lawn Boy to be too dynamically compressed to bear. Elvis has left the building.

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    "Man, things are never as they seem"
    Ask AudioStream
    Michael Lavorgna • May 11, 2012 • 13 comments
    I had a fairly lengthy and pleasant exchange (30 some emails back 'n forth) with reader Tom D. that began with Tom asking how he could get iTunes-based music to play through his recently purchased Marantz AV7005 AV Preamp/Processor. But that was only the beginning. While we came to a workable solution for Tom's specific situation (which I believe is rather unique so not worth getting into the details here), I found his comments in one of our most recent emails well worth sharing:
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    Download of the Week: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
    Music Downloads
    Michael Lavorgna • May 11, 2012 • 1 comments
    Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Hummingbird

    Originally released on Spiritual Pajamas as a limited edition 10" Record Store Day EP, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Hummingbird is slow, sad, and to my way of hearing, lovely. As the title suggests, we open with Leon Russell's "Hummingbird" where Billy is joined by a host of musicians including “Farmer” Dave Scher, Paz Lenchantin and Derek James (Entrance Band) for a hand-clapping, foot stomping funk-infused simmering delight. "Tribulations" covered with minimal pomp with the help of Emmett Kelly (Cairo Gang) gets all old-and-other-worldly, and a cover of Merle Haggard's "Because Of Your Eyes" is essential Billy—immediate, moving and worth the price of admission. The closer "Hummingbird Pt. 2" brings it all back home (is that Vangelis flying away?)...

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    CEntrance Audiophile Desktop System
    Desktop Component Reviews
    Michael Lavorgna • May 10, 2012 • 7 comments
    Hi-Fi In-A-Box
    Smoke and a pancake? Flapjack and a cigarette? No? Cigar and a waffle? No? Pipe and a crepe? Bong and a blintz? No? Amp and a DAC? The CEntrance Audiophile Desktop System combines the CEntrance DACmini™ PX DAC/Amplifier ($1,475) with their MasterClass 2504 speakers ($700) and throws in a USB cable, speaker cables and perhaps most surprising and unusual of all, a Pelican 1550 Carry Case with component-hugging padded inserts to keep your Audiophile Desktop put while in transit. This attention to practical portability kinda begs you to take the Audiophile Desktop on the road.
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    World's First Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Downloads Coming Soon!
    HD Music Downloads, News
    Michael Lavorgna • May 10, 2012 • 0 comments
    Thanks to John Atkinson yet again for giving us the heads up (I'll let the Press Release handle the heavy lifting):
    San Francisco, May 10, 2012—Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) announced today that e-onkyo music, the high-quality music distribution service managed by Onkyo Entertainment Technology Corporation, a subsidiary of Onkyo Corporation, will be the first online music distribution service to feature Dolby® TrueHD 5.1-channel surround sound. Expected to launch on May 30, 2012, in Japan and in fall 2012 elsewhere in the world, this service will enable users to download music from 100 album titles (about 1,000 tracks) in Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel surround sound. The new Onkyo® A/V receivers (AVR) TX-NR818 and TX-NR717 will support the service.
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    MP3Tag: Fixing Your Metadata
    Misc Software Reviews, Software How-To
    Michael Lavorgna • May 09, 2012 • 17 comments
    Metadata. /ˈmetəˌdatə/
    Noun:
    A set of data that describes and gives information about other data.

    For our interests, metadata is data about music, specifically about the music we own and play. Album Title, Artist, Album Artist, Composer, Track Title, Track Number, Year, Comments, Album Cover Art, and so on. Ideally when we rip or download, all of this data about our music's data comes along with it. But the odds are this is not always the case. Especially if you've ever moved your library or converted from a Mac to a PC or vice versa, and even more likely if you ever ripped albums as WAV files.

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    Are User Manuals Passé?
    Ask AudioStream
    Michael Lavorgna • May 07, 2012 • 28 comments
    I ask because of a number of recent incidences where I relied on a User Manual only to find it out of date. Most recently in an ongoing email exchange with reader Tom D. who has some questions about the best way to get what he wants from his Marantz AV7005 Preamplifier/Processor. And one of the things he wants is iTunes to control his music library. A seemingly simple request.
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    Simple Design To Offer DSD-Ready USB to S/PDIF Converter
    News
    Michael Lavorgna • May 05, 2012 • 2 comments
    The DSD bus keeps rolling along this time with a new asynchronous USB to S/PDIF converter from Simple Design makers of the Sonore line of music servers and DACs. From the Sonore website:
    The Signature Series Sonore DSD Converter is an asynchronous USB converter with SPDIF BCN output. The converter can output regular PCM up to 192 sample rate and convert DSD2PCM at 88.2 or 176.4 sample rate. The DSD2PCM conversion is done on board to eliminate computer CPU load and is compliant with the DSD over PCM (DoP) v1 specification. The DSD2PCM conversion incorporates proprietary filters. The converter does not use USB power and is instead powered by a low noise linear power supply. HDMI I2S output compatible with the PS Audio specification is available as an optional upgrade.
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