Dac, Mac, and itunes.

Well Audirvana is an extra step of PIA. I bought into it, and I bought it. YMMV. I do like to add some equalization, I cut some midrange and add bass. I don't believe in flat, at least not in my setup. I'm going to buy this, maybe it will be easier, definitely more fun to turn knobs:

I basically started with zilch a number of months back.
I now have a pretty fine tube amp, a fine preamp, a dac, and a car full of decent speakers.
I'm not seeing changing anything any time soon, and I think that switching around a bunch of tubes/money to get a little bass here or a little treble there is not affordable nor practical.
I too, am not embarrassed to add some EQ for the sound I want.

Honestly, (for myself) trying audirvana actually took more away from my listening enjoyment than it added, and I could use the $75 bucks elsewhere.

It was interesting to try though, and I'm still glad for this discussion.
 
Are you using iTunes because your PC is a Mac? Or are you using it because it was free? Just curious...
 
Are you using iTunes because your PC is a Mac? Or are you using it because it was free? Just curious...
I used to have a really good program I used for everything on windows, but damn if I can remember what it was now. (maybe it was real player?)
I got tired of windows deciding for itself when it was going to update and shut down for 20 minutes or an hour in the middle of me working on something, so I got fed up that and a few other quirks, and switched to apple.
There wasn't an equivalent for mac, so I went yelling and screaming and finally succumbed to the fact that nothing was going to work as well as itunes on my macs.
I tried/used Swinsian for some time in sheer protest of itunes, but when I was given a new iphone, I found Swinsian (after contacting the developer) had zero plans for a mobile app. so I just threw up my arms, rolled over, and have accepted itunes.
I only use it for playing and storage, and will not join in on any of their other shenanigans such as downloads, cloud storage etc.
 
You should try Pure Music. You can download a trial version at no charge. It uses iTunes solely as a data base. Most of the other playback programs keep iTunes running in the back ground grunging up the bits. Best sounding program I’ve heard. Reasonable price too, if you like it.
You should commit all future content to AIFF. It takes more space but gives you bit parity. Also, you can use the Apple remote app to control it. If it’s the best sound quality you’re looking for, this is it.
Hope this helps.
 
Ok, maybe I'm missing something here.
As I understand it, a Dac takes brazillions and megagobs of 1's and 0's and deciphers them into an analog signal.

My mac has all these happy binary strings stored within it.
Normally, itunes will read these binary codes, and using the internal dac on the computer, decipher them, and run those analog signals through the speakers, or headphone jack.

Ok, now I hook my modi up to the USB connection on the computer, and run RCA's to my preamp.
I select the Dac output on the computer, and tada, now the dac is feeding the preamp.
All is good!

But if I'm truly using the DAC to convert digital to analog, how is it itunes can still continue to EQ the sound, and control the volume?
Is itunes just using the DAC as an output just like anything else, or is the DAC actually doing what it was designed to do?
Am I missing a setting between itunes and the DAC so that the Mac is only sending binary signals to it?

Thanks gang.

When I connect my Audio-gd DAC with the Amanero combo 384 via USB, it shuts off the internal speakers, shows Amanero in the settings, outputs through the USB cable and the volume is controlled by my preamp, if that helps.
 
You should try Pure Music. You can download a trial version at no charge. It uses iTunes solely as a data base. Most of the other playback programs keep iTunes running in the back ground grunging up the bits. Best sounding program I’ve heard. Reasonable price too, if you like it.
You should commit all future content to AIFF. It takes more space but gives you bit parity. Also, you can use the Apple remote app to control it. If it’s the best sound quality you’re looking for, this is it.
Hope this helps.

Would it work on the 300 CD's, which I have already burned into my Mac or only with new ones burned in with Pure Audio?
 
Would it work on the 300 CD's, which I have already burned into my Mac

A basic requirement of any media manager/player is to be able to read, catalogue and play media from a wide range of sources. If I found such a tool that would only play music ripped by that tool, it would be dumped straight in the bin as not fit for purpose. Not even Apple, in their walled garden, took that approach.
 
Yes it will play what you have already stored. Best thing to do is try it for free. Nothing to loose!
I believe it will convert FLAC and DSD files too.
Dan
 
No - iTunes should feed the DAC via either coaxial or optical. DAC output goes to a preamp, then to an AMP.
Control the volume with the preamp (only) for best quality. It you vary the volume in iTunes you can degrade the output quality.

I use an app on my phone to remotely control my MacPro - select song, playlist, whatever.
Files are from FLAC downloads or CDs (mostly) ripped to Apple Lossless format.
The output from the mac pro to the DAC, to the preamp, to the Amp.
My preamp has a remote level control I control the preamp volume with.
Yup, I have my little DAC hooked up via optical to the DAC, RCA from the DAC to the preamp. Sounds great, but on the hunt for a higher quality DAC like a TEAC or that little Marantz unit.
 
Yup, I have my little DAC hooked up via optical to the DAC, RCA from the DAC to the preamp. Sounds great, but on the hunt for a higher quality DAC like a TEAC or that little Marantz unit.
I use the USB output on my MacBook Pro into the USB input on my DAC, then use the RCA outs on my DAC into the inputs of my Japanese version of the FX Audio with the toggle switch set to minus 6 db's.
The FX Audio's outputs are connected to my receiver's aux inputs.
 
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