Music Player Decisions

Also, has anyone read Art Dudley's review of players in the latest Stereophile? Any comments about his observations?

Dave

Seriously? But he just upgraded his LP12 with a Linn Radikal.

Dave

...so?

He's an interesting individual, I loved his Listener magazine, I always liked his take on sound and equipment.

Dave

I've read criticism of AD's review saying he didn't bother to optimise Pure Music, which is why it sounded inferior to the others; what I don't understand is if PM can sound much better with certain options ticked then why aren't those options enabled by default - just seems strange, as surely the authors want everybody to enjoy it at its best. I'm not doubting it as product, I just find it strange that the defaults are not the optimal settings.

I do now understand why it can sound different from iTunes as it up-samples the music. Some folk report it makes things sound better by so doing - interesting. I tried it once, but didn't feel it did anything - perhaps I should have persevered with different settings. 

Most of the products won't run on my system (you need Intel/Snow Leopard to run Decibel), but I'm happy with iTunes. I still find it hard to believe that two programs delivering the same bit perfect stream to my asynchronous USB/S-PDIF can sound different, but if some are up-sampling then that is different. Also the makers of my asynchronous USB link suggest hog mode is a good idea, as it says to other USB devices - hey you, get off my bus. 

All the best, Guy  

I hear you Guy. I'm kind of liking Decibel. I like sbooths's philosophy. I'm able to do hog mode and upsample in a very simple preferences layout. I play with all of them from time to time, I guess it's good we have so much choice, and so many good players.

Still have to pick up the v-link.

Dave