Tír Na HiFi

John, I'm still interested in sampling one or other of the DACs, but I'm going to get a few other things sorted out first so there's no point in putting me on the list yet. Thanks for doing this, BTW!

Hi Tony.

I dont have EAC on the computer I am using at the moment so I can't tell you exactly how to get track numbers. But you should be able to get EAC to connect to freedb which is a free cd database and that will give you details of the names of the tracks ..

Here is some info ...

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php ... se_Options

It is actually a bit of a pain to setup .. you have to give it an email address [if you like you can give a fake one] and for each CD in EAC you click on something like 'get data from freedb'.

Its all a bit complicated and you might be better using dbpoweramp [you have to pay for it but its available as a free trial]. dbpoweramp will set track names and numbers -- be careful when setting it up to select 'secure rip' under the settings/options menu.

james

Tony,
Start EAC , put your CD in the pc drive, when it all starts up and you can see a list of anonymous tracks, click Database and select Get information from freedb. This will name your tracks, then Edit, select all , Action, copy selected track uncompressed. Make sure you're copying into WAV format.

As an IT man you'll enjoy the little idiosyncrasy in the JKDAC32 where sometimes you have to switch it off and on again.

KM

More on freedb ..

http://blowfish.be/eac/Setup/setup2.html

Ken Moreland wrote:Tony,
.........
As an IT man you'll enjoy the little idiosyncrasy in the JKDAC32 where sometimes you have to switch it off and on again.

KM

Thanks Ken, I mentioned it in the User Guide notes that I posted but just to clarify the above as it could seem like the DAC stops during music & you have to turn it off & turn it back on again. This is not the case. When you turn it on for a listening session it sometimes initially may not produce sound - it is sorted by turning off & on again in quick succession - once is usually fine for me.

It is just an initialisation issue with the DAC chip used & the capacitors I use. I should probably have called it "Dr. Quirky's DAC"

Ken, is that your experience? Maybe Fran can relate his experiences in this regard also?

As John says, just sometimes it needs a quick switch of/on (familiar to any IT man) but once it's on it's on and doesn't stop. It's best to start your session with JPlay with Hibernate off so make sure it's all working and then switch Hibernate on.

If you're using a trial version of JPlay there is a deliberate stop every 2 or 3 mins to encourage you to buy it once you've heard how good it is.

Tony , when are you picking up your Dac/Wine ?

KM

Yes, that is exactly my experience. In fact I always follow that simple routine: on-off-on within a second and it works every single time.

I think I posted the link elsewhere on setting up EAC. There's about 3 pages on the web of the best way to set it up. It takes 10 mins and you're good to go forever. When I get home later I'll search about for it again and post it.


Tony - or anyone - a word of advice:

You're auditioning a USB dac. Rather than killing yourself ripping all your CDs and then running out of space, buying external HDDs etc etc. I would strongly recommend you pick your favourite 20 CDs, or 20 that you know well and would use for normal testing. Rip those to wav using EAC/DBpoweramp. Use only these in your listening impressions. Get used to the sound, and using the laptop/DAC as a source, and tweak jplay, and try out pureplayer and jriver and fideliser and .....etc etc etc etc etc.......

Then once you are happy with the DAC (hard to see how you wouldn't be from a SQ point of view) you will be enthused enough to invest the time in ripping more and more. At this point you will also have "committed" and can much more easily decide on storage, file types, and backup decisions.

If anyone follows this route, you will have invested very little time and effort in advance, and yet get a very good flavour of the DAC and computer audio in general. Only leads to increased satisfaction later......


Fran

Good advice from both of you, thanks Ken & Fran.

Yes, Tony, don't beat yourself up with this - just listen to a couple of your favourite CDs initially - if you like what you hear then maybe expand your auditioning list.

I should be able to drop off a JKDAC32 to Ivor's tonight or tomorrow - I'll let you know when it's there

You're going to have a ball Tony :) Enjoy.....and go easy on the wine!

thanks All for the info, Yes Fran I have only ripped about 6 or 7 cds to test this thing. Ken as an IT man the on off reboot is the most important piece of training every provided. We always make sure we know where the on off button is on any server. Wouldnt do it on a mainframe or unix machine on fear of death but everything else seems to be designed that way. I dont know if I will have space for the dac on one trip to Ivors but sure I can put on the roof rack. You guys are most welcome to come and listen just call off at ivors on route for some liquid to make sure the sound will not be'baad sound'. I will pick it up either tonight or saturday depending on when John delivers. Not sure if he uses pizza express or dominos? Dermot I haven't seen your name on the list yet? Are you not fed up of that spinner yet?