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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
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Joekapahulu - You can continue to use iTunes and use Squeezeserver to access and catalogue your iTunes library, as well as one additional folder that contains music files. I don't know about other SW - perhaps someone else can comment.
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.
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Tobias - thanks for the clarification on USB. So the Squeezebox Touch must be using those drivers because it allegedly can do 24/96 via USB 2.0? I have not tried it though - I've tried both wireless and via SPDIF. Good tip too to run with 5mhz wireless. Thanks!
4est
507 posts
 
Don't get too excited about AyreWave being free. It is only for another month. This is a beta, price to be announced.

USB 2 is good to 24/96 w/o drivers. The DAC may or may not be able to do 24/96 through its USB though.
tpy
68 posts
 
Thanks Tobias. Apparently sbooth has both a Play and an AyreWave software. I had downloaded Play first but I take it that AyreWave is better, so downloaded that too. I've loaded both with my iTunes playlist and would like to use AyreWave as my primary source for my SqueezeTough, but keep iTunes for my iPod.

What I can't quite figure out is how to tell the Squeezebox to get my music files from AyreWave, or maybe better yet, from both AyreWave and iTunes. From the Logitech site,

I read that you can run multiple folders (right term?) by saving one into the other. So I take it the easiest thing would be to save the AvreWave directory in ITunes as a folder -- which would make it a subdirectory. Is that right?

I'm no sure how to do that. How do I set up SqBox to read music stored in my AyreWave directory -- not sure where to find the AyreWave directory. When I find in my Mac's Finder, and click on it, it opens up but I'm not sure how to enter it into SqBox.

Part of my problem is I fairly recently switch to my Mac from PCs and am still not quite up to speed on it.

Many, many thanks.
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