We are find ways to update all the blogs. There are so many new & exciting things to share with you all.
Last week got the chance to order some Telarc SACD with a great price at US$5/each. Plus buy 9 get 1 SACD free.
I don't know if this sales will be back. But it is worth to check out the site:
http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/
Good luck to music purchase! We all need music, good sound everyone.
On our previous article "CAS 5 - CD Ripping", we have proven that iTunes is a good audio file player. Personally, it is the best GUI program and more importantly, the playback output is bit transparent for CD ripping and playback. However, recently we heard more Weiss user reports that the iTunes doesn't sound good for high resolution file, and Daniel also shared some measurements with us. This is an update article about our findings on iTunes version 8.1.1.10
We test iTunes version 8.1.1.10 on both PC & MAC.
When you use iTunes (PC & MAC). The first thing you should do is uncheck those DSP processing like Crossfade, Sound Enhancer, Sound Check etc. These are under the Preference setting.
Turn OFF the Equalizer (uncheck the on box), even all the settings are 0dB but ON, your music playback quality will be highly affected. on MAC iTunes ( Under top menu bar - "Windows Tab" apple key + option key + 2) / PC iTunes (Under top menu bar - "View")
We did some loop test. What is a loop test? We playback the file from iTunes and capture the output back to computer to compare. Since digital is binary number, if the playback output and record input is transparent, the I/O loop should carry the bit transparent identical data. For more details regarding the loop test, please read our CAS 5 - CD Ripping article.
iTunes MAC with our Audiophile Jazz Prologue III various resolution formats.
Mac iTunes => 16/44.1 & 24/96 & 24/192 => Weiss AFI1 => PC Lynx => Wavelab
We lined up the captured file in sync with the original file. Flip the priority (L&R) on one file and playback both file together. If they carry identical data, their waveform will cancel out each other, and the result is no output level down to 24bit limit (-144dBFS).
In ALL resolution, the Wavelab captured file is bit identical with the source file. The result proves Mac iTunes 8.1.1.10 is bit transparent on playback.
PC iTunes 8.1.1.10
We did the same thing with PC iTunes
PC iTunes => 16/44.1 & 24/96 & 24/192 => Weiss AFI1 => PC Lynx => Wavelab
The PC iTunes playback CD resolution file (16bit/44.1kHz) perfectly, our CAS 5 - CD Ripping article is still remain valid. However playback 24bit/96kHz & 24bit/192kHz files are not bit transparent to the source file. This is a shocking bad thing!
More testings:
We did another tests by using SARACON to convert one of our 24bit/96kHz file to 24bit/44.1kHz file. We playback this 24bit/44.1kHz by PC iTunes and recapture with Wavelab. The test result shown there is a truncation on -96.33dBFS (@16bit).
Conclusion:
ITunes PC & MAC Version 8.1.1.10 provides different results.
Mac iTunes 8.1.1.10 produces bit transparent results on all our tests: 16/44.1 & 24/96 & 24/192
PC iTunes 8.1.1.10 produces bit transparent result on CD format (16bit/44.1kHz). The digital data higher than 16bit (20bit-24bit) or sampling rate (96kHz & 192kHz) are changed by PC iTunes playback engine.
If you are using PC iTunes, playback CD is absolutely fine. For high resolution file format, you will need to find another program at the moment. I am quite sure this is a bug and Apple should fix it in future update.
The following test is using Wavelab as playback and record engine on 24bit/192kHz with bit transparent result.
New Updates for 30IPS records.
(1) We added 3 new worldwide dealers:
Marson Audio(www.marson-audio.com) for Spain and Portugal.
Raindrop Audio for Singapore (www.raindropaudio.com) and Midland HiFi Studio for UK
For our full worldwide dealer list, please visit here
(2) We are partnership with HiFiTrack.com (www.hifitrack.com) to provide highres file downloading services. The format is uncompressed WAV on 24bit/96kHz. Digital edition of booklets/cover are provided with the full album purchase with HK$180. You can also purchase each song with HK$20. This provides an alternative solution for people who like the downloading purchase.
(3) NEW Free Samples! We added "My One and Only Love" to our free sample list for audiophiles who support our web blog and high resolution music file format. Again we are providing full resolution samples on 16bit/44.1kHz, 24bit/96kHz and 24bit/192kHz! You may find some surprises later today about these samples. Check out at our download free sample page.
