The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Mather said:
Other question, why do some albums that are MQA show up twice? They seem identical but both show MQA
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That’s a Tidal thing. If it’s a slightly different release, it’ll show up twice. Spotify and Apple seem to consolidate that more frequently.

I‘m currently trying to decide whether I want to go the iPad>Dragonfly or the Bluesound route for my living room. Can’t beat that convenience of pulling out your phone and playing seconds later.
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
That’s a Tidal thing. If it’s a slightly different release, it’ll show up twice. Spotify and Apple seem to consolidate that more frequently.

I‘m currently trying to decide whether I want to go the iPad>Dragonfly or the Bluesound route for my living room. Can’t beat that convenience of pulling out your phone and playing seconds later.
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Unless I was stuck in Apple Music I’d totally cut the cables. Cables in plain sight are something I really hate lol.
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
That’s a Tidal thing. If it’s a slightly different release, it’ll show up twice. Spotify and Apple seem to consolidate that more frequently.

I‘m currently trying to decide whether I want to go the iPad>Dragonfly or the Bluesound route for my living room. Can’t beat that convenience of pulling out your phone and playing seconds later.
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This was my thinking originally, but I didn't want to tie up an iPad and then have a DAC just sitting around when I wasn't playing music.
Joe Mac said:
Unless I was stuck in Apple Music I’d totally cut the cables. Cables in plain sight are something I really hate lol.
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This was why i went with the Bluesound. The unit is small, about the size of a hardcover book. I have the unit on a shelf below my amp. No one would know its there, with the cables running in behind the big Marantz amp.
 
Recently finished collecting all those Talking Heads remasters done by Jerry Harrison so now I'm kinda curious what does it take to playback DVD-A discs? Probably not in my immediate hardware future, but maybe if I get a tickle in the right spot of my brain about it it would be cool to listen to those sides of those discs.
 
wenis said:
Recently finished collecting all those Talking Heads remasters done by Jerry Harrison so now I'm kinda curious what does it take to playback DVD-A discs? Probably not in my immediate hardware future, but maybe if I get a tickle in the right spot of my brain about it it would be cool to listen to those sides of those discs.
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A standard DVD/Blu-Ray player will do the trick. Its DAC probably isn’t the best but if you’ve a DAC in your system a coax or optical cable from the player to it would solve that.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
This was my thinking originally, but I didn't want to tie up an iPad and then have a DAC just sitting around when I wasn't playing music.

This was why i went with the Bluesound. The unit is small, about the size of a hardcover book. I have the unit on a shelf below my amp. No one would know its there, with the cables running in behind the big Marantz amp.
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That's why I went with the Aries mini too. Tiny footprint. My wife just calls it a big iPod now though ha.
 
Joe Mac said:
A standard DVD/Blu-Ray player will do the trick. Its DAC probably isn’t the best but if you’ve a DAC in your system a coax or optical cable from the player to it would solve that.
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sweet, I was fully expecting having to buy a whole dedicated thing to it.
 
Joe Mac said:
A standard DVD/Blu-Ray player will do the trick. Its DAC probably isn’t the best but if you’ve a DAC in your system a coax or optical cable from the player to it would solve that.
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Stupid follow up. Does the player have to be connected to a tv so you can view the menus to play the music?
 
MikeH said:
That's why I went with the Aries mini too. Tiny footprint. My wife just calls it a big iPod now though ha.
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I wantto get some built in shelving done next year in our living room and have a lower cabinet for my router and stuff. My thinking is place some bookshelf speakers in the shelving with with another Node down in the cabinet so all the wiring will be hidden.
 
20210823_170259.jpg
Yeah I like this thing, understated. Sits nicely in the front of the media console although to be honest I don't think it really requires any line of sight so I could probably bury it at the back amongst the birds nest of cables, but it looks nicer than the streaming cable box or the Apple tv so I buried them instead.

My wife was impressed with the sound, she could instantly hear the difference between this and the old Spotify. If you want to blow someone's mind with this thing, put on "The Man in The Long Black Coat" by Bob Dylan. It's a great reference track in high res.
 
wenis said:
Recently finished collecting all those Talking Heads remasters done by Jerry Harrison so now I'm kinda curious what does it take to playback DVD-A discs? Probably not in my immediate hardware future, but maybe if I get a tickle in the right spot of my brain about it it would be cool to listen to those sides of those discs.
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Tell us a bit more about those Heads please. Always looking to upgrade things like this.
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
Tell us a bit more about those Heads please. Always looking to upgrade things like this.
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Back in 2005 the Talking Heads - Brick was released

www.discogs.com

Talking Heads - Brick

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2005 Hybrid release of "Brick" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com

This specially packed boxed set contains all eight of Talking Heads' studio albums, expanded and remastered as two-sided DualDiscs featuring DVD-A sound (at 96 kHz/24-bit in 5.1 channels or Stereo), rare and previously unreleased material, and video tracks.

Packaging includes an outer white molded plastic box with raised song titles, housing eight individually packaged white jewel cases, each containing liner notes, rare photos, and song-inspired art pieces.
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and then in 2006 all the albums were released for a limited time individually with the same new mixes and mastering as well as all the bonus outtakes and alternate cuts of tracks from each respective album. I've been looking for some definitive cuts of my favorite TH albums (so basically the first 5, tho I am considering just going ahead and grabbing Little Creatures, Naked and True Stories just to make it complete) and those used to be the German 'Target' releases (and still sorta is if you're a purist that prefers the original mixes, I've got those also in my collection for the albums that did get those versions).

You can check out some examples here. Target and RM denote the version for the MP3's. The Remasters are definitely louder, but not loud in that everything gets muddled, but there's a better clarity I think and separation in the instruments and layers coming out. It's hard to say which I prefer more, but I think both have their +/- I kinda bounce back and forth between the two.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com www.dropbox.com
 
Mather said:
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Yeah I like this thing, understated. Sits nicely in the front of the media console although to be honest I don't think it really requires any line of sight so I could probably bury it at the back amongst the birds nest of cables, but it looks nicer than the streaming cable box or the Apple tv so I buried them instead.

My wife was impressed with the sound, she could instantly hear the difference between this and the old Spotify. If you want to blow someone's mind with this thing, put on "The Man in The Long Black Coat" by Bob Dylan. It's a great reference track in high res.
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I also like in the app that there are different settings for the lights in front and on top. I have mine turned off.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Funny. Had mine since May 2020 and I have never used the buttons on the unit, done everything either in the Bluesound app or Roon
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Oh I doubt I will either, but it would be nice to actually know what the hell they're for. Like it's actively difficult to find a manual for this thing. It's just a tiny quick start guide and then a useless in app help feature.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
With mine the buttons are pretty basic. Button for volumue +/-, pause/play and skip ahead/back. I don't think the button on the older unit can be programmed.
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There's 5 unmarked added buttons on the 3, afterca lot of googling I discovered they are programmable preset buttons. Although still not recently sure how to program them. But it doesn't really matter, I won't use them
 
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