2. digital
  3. 1249356223

need crash course in using digital music.

just getting back into hi-fi and need some help understanding all the new "stuff" that's out there regarding digital music. i have owned an ipod for years but that's really about it. have been a CD guy most of my life and still enjoy them, but would like to venture out a bit.

my basic (and i mean basic) understanding is this:

there is a way to download very high quality recordings and burn them onto a disc. said disc then sounds fantastic?

i need an idiots guide to do the above. from the very basics on up. are there any web source's that can help me or even a book?. would like to do this asap because the timing of my transport/dac purchase just got pushed up. i'd like to be able to use it when it arrives (other then regular cd's that is). was thinking i had a couple months before getting something but now it looks like next week.

have got a PS audio PWT/PWD inbound. from what i understand....it's work fine with most of the "new digital music". various formats and recording resolutions. i'll get the equipment sorted out via the owners manual. need some help with the source music though.

don't need the super technical side of things but do wish to have a good understanding of the various formats, types, methods, materials ect....

it's all new to me. things like 24/48, 96, 192, FLAC, native, ect......currently have little/no meaning. my experience ends with clicking the tab at i-tunes. i've got alot to learn

if anyone could point me in a right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

thank you
levy03

Showing 2 responses by shazam

shazam
205 posts
 
Earlier I noted Easy CD-DA for file conversion but forgot that it only supports Redbook format. Sorry for the bad post.

If you are converting between wav and flac, the best tool is going to be the actual FLAC front end - get it here: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

As for the PW DAC - I've posted a more extensive review in this thread here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1245900512&openflup&56&4#56

Good luck!
shazam
205 posts
 
You made the right call with the PW duo - by far the best 'simple' and most versitile implementation available in my opinion.

Your only real concern; be sure you are downloading music ONLY in full resolution lossless files (wav, flac, ALAC). HD Tracks and a handful of other sites are offering hi rez downloads in addition to redbook (16/44.1) formats. If you are a classical fan there are several good pieces out there. No iTunes or Amazon downloads - they only offer lossy formats and a lot of them have digital rights management encoding that won't work with the PWs.

I'm not positive, but I think the PWT will do all the lossless formats out there. If not, a simple format converter like Easy CD (poikosoft.com) can get them to wav format. At that point, just burn them to disk as files (not a music disk) and you are good to go - the PWT and PWD will take care of the rest. For high res, you will need to burn them to DVD disks. Consult the PW manuals for the proper disk format types to be sure you burn what works. If you want to do an all digital library at some point, the PWD will have a Bridge option available in December.

I'm picking up my PWD tomorrow and can't wait to play with it. I've heard the PW series a few times over the last few months and I really think they did it right.
More to discover