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Streaming is the future of computer audio. Anyone who's serious about playback of digital files knows that streaming is essential to achieve the ultimate in effortless, totally transparent playback. Think of it like this: with computer audio, there's no transport, per se; you can have the world's greatest digital-to-analog converter, but you've still gotta have... Read More »

I believe that the hottest word recently used by people listening to decent quality music is Tidal. Tidal is a paid streaming service offering music files in a lossless 16/44 FLAC quality (high quality CD) and hi-res video; The latest addition is the Tidal Master, which offers hi-res PCM audio encoded in MQA (Master Quality... Read More »

Computer audio is a little bit like Sauron's "Ring." It promises audiophiles control over their digital files, easier access to information about the music they are listening to and even dominion over the information from the overlord of information called the interwebs all from your throne, er listening seat. What's not to like? That's the lure. The... Read More »

The NAS element of my Roon/QNAP/microRendu setup is a QNAP TS-251, which has the requisite 64-bit processor and sufficiently upgradeable RAM to run Roon Core effectively. And at a significant cost savings when compared to Roon's recommended QNAP setup ($500 vs. nearly $2000 USD). During my initial explorations of Roon late last year, I quickly... Read More »

Anyone who might have read any of my recent babblings here is probably aware that I'm in the process of building a new house that will have a large-ish dedicated listening room with state-of-the-art networking. There will be no computer present in the new room, but there will be available hardwired connections for any peripherals... Read More »

For the second time this year, I've had the good fortune to report on an exciting new digital product. This time it is Auralic's latest digital to analog star, the Auralic Altair Wireless Streaming DAC.   According to Auralic's president & CEO, Xuanqian Wang, "The new ALTAIR is both a high quality streamer and DAC, and was... Read More »

In which our hero meditates… What a year it's been. As I observed in the first of these "Brief Impressions" articles, on the Oppo Sonica (HERE), there have been so bloody many products and projects here at PF Central in 2016 that I'll be writing from here until the end of the year to cover... Read More »

I first seriously embraced the advantages inherent in computer audio when Linn released their first iterations of the DS range of ethernet based streamers and dropped CD players altogether. I felt instantly liberated with access to my entire digital library at the hands of my iPad. At first my brain went into complete overdrive as... Read More »

I have become quite lazy and it is all to blame on the technology that we use today to get our music out into the room. It all started with CDs allowing me to sit and listen to something like 60 mins of music while never stirring. Of course a lot of time I never... Read More »

Earlier this year I reviewed Fidelizer, an optimization software package designed to reduce the number of active background processes in Windows computers being used for high-resolution music playback. When first approached by Keetakawee Punpeng, Fidelizer's developer, I must admit I was more than a bit hesitant; based on my internet exposure to the product, Fidelizer... Read More »

[Amended byline: Roland Dietl, by courtesy of Dirk Sommer] If you are into music streaming and especially into hires music there is one question you can't avoid:  Where to store all these files? Until now the way to go was either to keep the music on your PC or laptop computer, or to use a... Read More »

When you are looking for a way to comfortably manage your collection of digital music, enjoy it with the best sound quality possible and without the need to mess around with computers in your scarce spare time, the Melco N1A is just what you need Just nine years ago integrating a computer into my Hi-Fi... Read More »

"Help!" —The Beatles In memory of Lee Weiland, the man who introduced me to the concept of a digital music server and whose Locus Design cables I still use All my audiophile friends have NAS clusters. There's tremendous peer pressure for me to have one, too, and I tried an inexpensive one to see how... Read More »

When in 2005 Arcam, a company specializing in multi-box, mid-priced systems introduced their new Solo systems it seemed like a crazy move. The very first Solo 5.1 was in fact a home-theater system. It combined a multi-format transport (DVD, CD, but also SACD and a HDCD decoder!), home theater decoders and five power amps. Soon... Read More »

"I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do" —The Rolling Stones Not that long ago, I was working under contract at a big software company in Silicon Valley. However, I had been having tremendous pain in my right knee, largely from a sports injury, and got the... Read More »

Since converting my digital playback chain to a heavily modded Mac Mini/Mytek Stereo 192 source (read review HERE) I've been very happily listening to a variety of 16/44 and hi-res files. For once I couldn't think of any upgrades that I really needed. But when I read an ad for the Audioquest JitterBug, it resonated with... Read More »

Back in the early days of digital-to-analog conversion, I bought one of the first commercially available (for consumers) DACs, a Threshold. I felt the results it yielded were pretty impressive, lifting CD playback to a much more enjoyable and listenable level. My predominantly analog system at that time included electronics by Classe, Magneplanar speakers, dual... Read More »

So there I was checking my email, and I saw that I had a message from Dave Clark asking if I was interested in reviewing some Mojo Audio gear. As I read down the email, I could see that Benjamin Zwickel has personally asked for me to review his digital gear. The first thought that... Read More »

The saga, or journey, continues with my Auralic Aries adventures. In my last Ramblings (HERE) I shared my experiences with upping the Aires' performance quite a bit via the Certon C4 Integrita NAS, the HDPLEX linear power supply for the Neatgear switch and WiFi units, various tweeks and gadgets (for example the RLI-1 LAN Isolator... Read More »