Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Peirce
I run Pure Music on my Mac. Presently, I use Airfoil to send the signal
over ethernet to my AppleTV. The AppleTV has an optical output to my
DAC. Pure Music and my DAC both support 96/24, but the Apple TV only
does 44.1/16 (or, maybe, 48/16 - hard to find specs).
I have been trying to find a substitute for the AppleTV, but so far all
I have got is the Squeezebox Touch. I say "but" because it has its own
software that resides on the Mac and I have not been able to find out if
it can receive input from Pure Music or not. Does anybody know?
The web site suggests the Squeezebox can read any file on the computer,
which is great, except Pure Music already does that and allows many
useful manipulations. For example, it will accept up to 384/32 and
downsample it to 96/24. It will also upsample 44.1/16 to 96/24. Or any
other standard sample rate and 16, 24 or 32 bit words.
As far as I have been able to determine, the Squeezebox only passes
through what it receives, and that is great IF it can receive the output
from Pure Music. So, does anybody actually know if it can do that?
A related issue, but not critical, is that the software I am actually
running is Pure Vinyl. It is primarily designed for digitizing vinyl
recordings but it included Pure Music which I have grown to like a lot.
At present, I feed it directly from my pre-amp to the mic input on the
MAC, which works OK, but a two-way solution would be even better than
just using the player. Pure Vinyl can handle up to 384/32 if there is a
way to feed that to the Mac.
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I have been using Pure music for a couple of months now. They and Amarra have free trials, so you can check out any differences yourself. I don't know of others that play like this through iTunes.
I can make a lot of comments. they may come slowly while I am at work.
1. Definitely both make a positive difference. Astounding really, but you don't realize how poor iTunes is until you try one of these programs. Amarra may be a little better sounding, but I didn't try that long because Pure music has a ton of features that Amarra doesn't, unless you perhaps get the $695 version. The "junior" and "mini" versions are so limited, you may as well buy Pure Music for $165 or so.
2. There are definitely bugs in the interface. you have lots of set up options and sometimes a small mistake will make something happen like not moving to the next track or something. I have multiple instances where there is a glitch in how the itunes interface works and I gets pulsating bursts of incomplete music. Always fixed with a reboot.
3. The sound improvement is definitely worth minor inconveniences like that above and the learning curve. There are many, many featurse and options and you can add modules or use the supplied ones to digitally modify, equalize or even cross overs. you can upsample, down sample and play native high sample rates. All good, if a little confusing. I am a fan of front end digital room treatment/equalization and this does that well. It has a limitation/oversight in saving equalization files, so you can lose data, but it sounds great and is very flexible. Audio hijack Pro has a better interface for this, but doesn't have the sound quality. It distorts a lot, this doesn't.
Overall, I highly recommend it! Amarra if you are a pro, but it is too expensive for me. Pure Music makes about the same difference as going from a lousy cheap DAC to an excellent high end DAC and you should do both.
For me, money well spent, but I hope there are user interface improvements, stability improvements and more options in the future.