FLAC and iTunes

I have now been listening to Fidelia and Pure Music with Hi Res files from HD tracks and converted into AIFF by Max.

I have only been able to listen through cheap headphones on my Macbook Pro but there are quite noticeable differences. Even my wife can hear them without prompting (astonishing).

I have used Steely Dan, DIana Krall, Paul Simon and the Rolling Stones as source material

Here are my findings for Hi Res:
Fidelia is my favourite. It is more involving and I would say more 'analogue' sounding. Possibly 'round earth' if that can be applied here. But you cannot use the iTunes UI which is a shame, just a text based library and there is an iPhone remote app. This is my only complaint as I like using Apple's remote on my iPad and iPhone and seeing all the album covers etc.

Pure Music - colder more analytical, more digital. More flat earth. But you can use the Apple remote app and use iTunes as usual.

I then did a quick test on normal resolution Apple Lossless ripped from my CD's. I used Adele as the source material.

iTunes - awful. never using this again!
Pure Music with upsampling - definite improvement same comments as above for Hi Res
Fidelia -my favourite same comments as above for Hi Res

So as usual compromise is needed; pretty pictures or pretty sound. Obviously as I am on this forum I will choose the sound!

Can't wait to play with my Naim system and do the same tests. I have a Mini Mac, Benchmark DAC1 (which I will change for a nDAC as soon as I can afford it), a 52, 2x 135's all on a Fraim behind a partition wall and Sonus Faber Electa Amator II speakers

Gimme Shelter with res of 174 truly rocks!

David,

             Artwork is in the pipeline for Fidelia. If you visit their Web site and click on Community>Forums you'll get some idea of what's happening. Also in  the Fidelia application click on Support> RoadMap.  This tells you what's in the update pipeline and the priority Audiophile Engineering is placing on them. There is also a feature request function if you click on HelpDesk in the same window. I'm told a lot of the updates will be free of charge within vers. 1.0.

Regards,

                 Graham

Apologies if you are already aware of this.

I did ask if there would be Artwork for the remote app., but there are no immediate plans for this. Not a particular problem if just using the Pro. when artwork is available.

I was not so many thanks!

Tog - this is about playing 24bit files not converting to 16 bit. Does your method support 24 bit?

I've been sitting on the codec sidelines for 2 years now and putting up with i-tunes. 

However I have tried the demo versions of Amarra and Pure Music but I wasn't convinced either due to SQ or the user interface.

But after reading about Fidelia in this forum I bought the basic version yesterday.

I'm VERY impressed.

Not only is it easy to use, the SQ is more than excellent and it comes with some quality sounding plug-ins (for party mode, eg limiter/compressor, EQ etc) it's also superb VFM.

I'm happy to do without the i-tunes artwork stuff but if it comes, it'll be a bonus.

I'd normally use computer audio for dinner parties etc but I'm so taken with the sound quality I'm now happy to use the Mac as one of my primary sources.

For US$19, Fidelia is a steal.

Quote:

I'm happy to do without the i-tunes artwork stuff but if it comes, it'll be a bonus.

James,

I'm told by Audiophile Engineering it will be a feature release on Vers. 1 free of charge. Have no release date yet but it will happen.

Quote from Audiophile Engineering:

Features like support for artwork, smart playlists, additional file formats such as WavPack/MusePack, crossfade controls, etc. will be feature releases for version 1 (free).

Regards,

                  Graham

I was using....i-tunes!

As a library its great. And teamed with Apple Store and i-pods etc it's seamless.

But knowing what I was potentially missing out on with playback SQ, i-tunes was a stop gap measure. That gap has now been filled by the evolution of Computer Audio!