Recommendation for Computer/Digital

Hi -

I am not sure about the nuances of the tagging issue but clearly it can be a bear. iTunes (which is a database program at its core) - has its own data management scheme for storing the Gracenote data. (Gracenote is the databased that iTunes hooks up to in order to retrieve all the information it populates when you rip a CD, except for album art.)

Based on some quick research it seems that "the Itunes software can store the Gracenote data in it's database instead of storing it a file tag, but then if you switch players (or the itunes database is corrupted) you lose the data from Gracenote (can't move the Gracenote data to another player like you can with true file tags)."

As far as the SB goes - it automatically imports data from iTunes - at least ALAC. I am not sure if it gets it al (eg the composer) but it certainly gets anything you might reasonably need to find and play a cut. But just for the record, though the two applications share a passing resemblance, iTunes is a much more powerful database.

For simplicity, I always create my playlists in iTunes, then access them from the SB. I also find this works well on the iPod. IMHO neither the SB remote display nor the iPod are very convenient for sorting through large collections quickly - and SB software has no facility for creating Smart Playlists.

Finally, I have no idea if any human can tell the difference but please report your findings - there is no doubt that the online community is split on this one! Classic case of YMMV...

For audio, Linux is your best setup. You can configure the kernal for zero latency, which is something you cannot do with other platforms. Then use 'CD Paranoia' to read the CD onto the hard drive. Playing the CD back at that point you will have all the bits and with careful soundcard selection, as close to zero jitter as is possible. This is the best sounding transport we've heard so far and the process is cheap to set up.

This setup works with the Squeezbox, plus it is a Linux platform so it is very stable and secure (no viurses, worms, etc.).

Atmasphere, some corrections are needed to your post:

For playback, zero latency could actually degrade performance if anything should happen to interrupt system resources. A minimal audio buffer is far preferable. Low latency systems are important when considering virtual instruments or monitoring a recording.

Jitter does not impact cd ripping as it remains in the digital domain and out of the audio domain. It is purely a file transfer, and not an audio stream where timing artifacts can come into play.

For a simple task such as ripping CD's, the Linux/Mac/Windows argument really comes down to which operating environment you're most comfortable with. There are excellent choices available for all three platforms.

Hi Ghunter, yes, the jitter issue is only during playback. On our system we buffer the playback from the hard drive through memory. The idea was to create a dedicated transport- thus the zero latency configuration (we found on Windows that the system itself creates latency issues even when no other process was present- Linux seemed to solve that very nicely and no system crashes either :)

If you are running the transport with other processes at the same time a normal Linux kernal would be the way to go although is less than optimal (although newer sound cards that have appeared in the last few years seem to have erased some of these concerns).

Bel Canto has introduced a DAC that runs off of USB. Now we can bypass the stupid sound card issues altogether! Not tried it yet though.

Zero latency still isn't going to fix jitter - that occurs at the DAC stage and there's nothing in the OS level that is going to fix it. If you are buffering the signal in memory whatsoever then you do not have a zero-latency system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter

I'm not being super-picky here, these are digital audio basics that you are misunderstanding.

Here is some good reading from Wavelength Audio:

http://www.wavelengthaudio.com/usbdac.html

I've been using their Cosecant USB DAC for about a year now with great success.