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Confused With Options To Obtain BestQuality iTunes

I have been reading a lot these days and still confused on the plethora of options available in hooking up a computer based digital system and the pros and cons to each and every selection. I am quite new in this so please bear with me.

I have friends who stream wireless music(Itunes) via an Apple Airport Express that supported this idea and do know many folks are using this setup in their homes. Others who are into Logitech stuff advocated the Squeezebox Classic and Touch. However, another group who uses top-flight gears in their systems(upper range MBL and Revels) advised that wireless degrades sound quality, and the best option is to hook it all up with wires.

Suggested options to play Itunes in WAV or AIFF format are as follows.

1) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => Mac Mini/Macbook => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

2) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => Logitech Squeezebox Classic/Touch => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

3) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drive => PC => Apple Airport Express => wireless => DAC (iPad to control music selection)

4) iTunes in 1TB/2TB External Hard Drives => wireless => Apple TV => DAC

Out of the four options above, is it a general consensus that option 1 will yield the best sound reproduction from iTunes followed by option 2? Will options 3 and 4 come close to options 1 and 2? Are there any other alternatives to do all this?

Basically my priority is to use an iPad to control playback from iTunes stored in 1TB/2TB external hard drives WITHOUT using a Mac/PC. Apple Airport Express and Apple TV were said to degrade sound quality. What other cost-efficient options do I have?

An advice would be most appreciated.
ryder

Showing 6 responses by tobias

tobias
1,534 posts
 
iTunes will output hi-res files via FireWire to my Apogee Duet, up to a max of 24/96. The resolution switching has to be done manually using Audio MIDI Setup.

Same for my Apogee Mini-DAC but the resolution goes up to 24/192.

However if you use Pure Music for $129, you get not only resolution switching on-the-fly but also much cleaner sound. iTunes alone seems to add nasties. Pure Music latches on to your iTunes Library and playlists so you don't have to do any configuring.

Free AyrePlay software from sbooth.org will also bypass iTunes' "contribution" and switch on-the-fly but unlike Pure Music, it needs OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. (I'm stuck at 10.5.)
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Here's the link for the AyreWave software :

http://sbooth.org/AyreWave/

(I’m afraid you’ll have to copy and paste that into your browser. Agon keeps telling me my url tags don’t match, even though I’ve copied and pasted them from their guide page.)

Tim, if you're hearing less than bit-perfect Redbook from iTunes, it may be the playback. Pure Music sounds much better, and I am told AyreWave sounds better still. Unfortunately I can't test it myself without buying a new computer >:o[

Anyone who wants to find out about this for themselves should download either AyreWave or the free Pure Music demo.

Marco, USB 2.0 is limited to 16/48 in stock form. Specially-written drivers can take it up to 24/96, as was the case with my old M-Audio Audiophile's playback software, for example. USB 3.0 is probably more capable but note that both devices have to have the USB 3.0 connector. If there's a 2.0 bottleneck anywhere, the link drops down to 2.0 performance.

One think I've found with USB (and FireWire) is that cable quality makes a difference to sound quality.

Another thing--if you have 5 MHz capacity on your WiFi network, use it instead of 2.4 MHz, for better sound.

Tpy, Pure Music is simplicity itself. You download the demo and the first time you launch it, it will find your iTunes library. Thenceforth you can either launch iTunes or Pure Music, but you will want the latter.

However AyreWave has the advantage of being free. Pure Music is free for only two weeks.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
4est, thanks for setting me straight on the built-in limit of USB 2.0. Both the Cambridge DACMagic and the USB version of the Apogee Mini-DAC stop at 16/48. This is a limitation of their USB implementation, I take it.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
I would first try launching both programs ( iTunes and AyreWave ) and see if they could simultaneously be running and both pointed at the same music library. If so, a comparison would be matter of three clicks.

If that didn't work, I would try a consecutive launch. The number of clicks involved ( and the wait ) would be greater but not, I think, unworkable.

Tpy, if you got a chance to try it and report, I would be very interested :D
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Can't help with Squeeze stuff unfortunately, I don't have it. At the worst, I suppose one could backup, then trash either AyreWave or iTunes, listen to a suite of test pieces ( with a notepad handy ), then trash the other, reinstall the first and repeat. This would be the brute force option.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
To my ear the Pure Music program makes a worthwhile improvement in Redbook sound from iTunes. I'm gad to know it makes a similar difference when streamed over a wireless connection. A wireless connection can't send any higher resolution than 16/44.1 as of this date -- do I have that right?
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