Currawong

Happy (belated) Birthday Dan.

We can trust Gizmodo. They don't hold a grudge or anything after Apple's reaction to that incident with the iPhone 4 prototype.

I posted this on HF, after a bazillion threads appeared about the latest players. Seems like a few random, and some not so random developers have come out with iTunes alternatives. Here is a list of the players currently available that I know of, along with some basic information about them. I figured there'd be some interest in this here as well. Note: I haven't included Cog, as it is no longer being developed and doesn't work properly with 10.6. Amarra by Sonic Studio http://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/ Commercial, demo available for download. Comes in three flavours: Amarra, Amarra Mini and Amarra Junior with varying features and prices. The player integrates with iTunes, or can be used stand-alone importing tracks into a playlist with one click from the Finder or iTunes. For people with a lot of RAM in their computer, it can be used in cache mode where the files are loaded into memory before playback. Includes iZotope resampling software. However, the licence either requires an iLok USB key or the software is locked to a single computer which can't be transferred. audirvana (Open Source) Free http://code.google.com/p/audirvana/ The first player to offer a window that looks like a piece of hi-fi gear, it offers device "hog mode" and up-sampling by default. The feature list is otherwise very basic at present. Clementine Player http://code.google.c...mentine-player/ Free (Open Source based on Amarok 1.4) This multi-platform player is more of a music organiser than anything, with features geared in that direction (such as having LastFM support), rather than having any audiophile settings. Thankfully, unlike other multi-platform applications, it isn't Java based (using Qt instead), so the user interface is fast. Decibel by Steven F Booth http://sbooth.org/Decibel/ Free, so far, but possibly commercial later on. The developer of Play produced a basic, high-quality music player known as AyreWave in conjunction with Ayre. This has now dropped any association with them and has been renamed Decibel. The software itself, while basic, allows one-click importing from files selected in the Finder or iTunes, "hog mode" and, best of all, is free, at least for now. Ecoute by PixiApps http://www.pixiapps.com/ecoute/ Comercial With iTunes integration, including song rating and metadata support, this is the player for people who want a slick, theme-able one-window interface and want to share your listening habits on Twitter, Facebook or LastFM. It also supports the Apple remote control. Fidelia by Audiophile Engineering http://audiofile-eng...ng.com/fidelia/ Commercial, demo avilable for download. With a main window that looks like a piece of high-end hi-fi gear, but far more classy than that of audirvana, it has the ability to play music directly from iTunes playlists without needing to have iTunes running. Also included are a selection of on-the-fly resampling methods, including iZotope and remote control software for the iPhone and iPod Touch available in the App Store. The developer is also extremely responsive. Play by Steven F Booth http://sbooth.org/Play Free. Until recently, almost the only alternative to iTunes if you wanted a simple music player and nothing else. Allows access to the built-in Mac OS X audio effects filters, which can be very handy if you want a 31-band equaliser, high-pass filter or the like. Since all this is incorporated into Decibel it is probably more worth it to download that instead. Pure Music by Channel D http://www.channld.c...usic/index.html Commercial, demo available for download. Based upon Pure Vinyl and using its own playback engine, like Amarra, integrates with iTunes, running in a window alongside and can re-sample music on the fly. Unlike Amarra, it requires iTunes to be running to select tracks, but offers a considerable slew of other options. Songbird http://www.getsongbird.com/ Free. More a multi-platform internet connected media library project by previous Firefox, Netscape and Winamp developers, it might be easier to consider Songbird to music what Thunderbird is to email, yet a lot more, with online integration. Vox by Alessio Nonni http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/ Free (donations requested). Much the same as Play, a slowly developed app that does little more than just play music with a minimal footprint. Like Play, it gives access to in-built Mac OS X audio effects filters. Amarra, Audirvana, Decibel, Fidelia, and Pure Music seem to be geared towards audiophiles. Clementine, Ecoute and Songbird focus on functionality as full-on alternatives to iTunes, though Ecoute uses your iTunes library for organisation. Play and Vox aim for simplicity. I reckon the sound is very slightly different with all of them. I sold my Amarra Mini dongle off as I felt I could get just as good an improvement with Fidelia and Decibel. They don't seem to make a dramatic improvement, but a subtly pleasing one with my gear. YMMV and all that. The usual question that comes up is, how can these players sound better? Some possible answers are a combination of: The sample rate being switched automatically to match the track's sample rate. Hardware exclusive/hog mode, where the software takes complete control over the output and, in some cases, caching the track into memory so disk reads aren't necessary. I would guess then that their supposed benefits come from mimimising the interaction of music playback with other hardware and software in the machine as much as possible. Fancy upsampling algorithms, where enabled, may sound better as well.

I'm sorry I missed seeing the earlier posts showing the results of using an RCA cable etc. Thanks guys for those, they are very interesting. This is the kind of thing we need more of. If the cost of something like a Berkeley DAC wasn't a big spend for me, I'd probably be the kind of person who'd consider a Diverter as well. However, nowadays, a company making a high-end DAC that was not using a more jitter/whatever immune input I'd consider a waste of time buying to begin with. The way I look at it now is to imagine a digital source as an analogue device attempting to send a square wave at 75 Ohms. So ultimately I've decided that ideally I want to use gear that is sending and receiving as close to 75 Ohms as possible the whole way through the digital chain.

I've had one great Chiro and many incompetant doctors, including well-regarded experts. In the end, acupuncture and other Chinese medicine, along with Chiro and physio won out for me. The only truly good doctor I ever encountered was employed by an insurance company. Funny that.

I'm not laughing. Japan is wallpaper central. If you want an apartment "cleaned" (ie: new wallpaper, tatami mats, re-covered sliding doors etc.) before you move in, it costs a couple of grand at least.

I have a friend, who I don't believe to be an idiot, but swears that AIFF sounds better than ALAC out of his Mac. Considering that we have Amarra and whatnot that process the files differently in some manner, I wonder if what people reckon they are hearing has to do with the decompression software and its relationship to the computer's clock. However, I don't think that if I transcoded my files to AIFF that I'd get any difference with all the gear I use.

I read quite a bit of that site and it gave me quite a bit to think about regarding bags and packing. I'm going to have to try his wrapping, not folding technique for clothes the next time I take nice clothes anywhere. After seeing that Tom Binh strap, I'm wondering if I can trouble you to receive one of those straps for me (and maybe something else if you all keep suggesting cool accessories) and put it in the bag when it is sent to me. It would save me a crapload on shipping. Something worth checking, now I am thinking of practicalities is: Will the bags come in their own, individual packages to make it easy to send on to everyone? It might be worth checking with them if you can get individual packing boxes or bags and not end up with them all arriving in one box, which would make for more work. Tyll: There are most definitely multi-chargers that abolish the need for carrying a bunch of wall-warts. The last one I saw had a battery for charging your devices, so you only had to charge its battery at the airport.

Nate: Holy ouch. Today I pulled apart Agent Orange for a re-build as a Stacker II.

There's a kit of Eagle Creek inner bags going here for about $30, so along with an Air Boss or similar, it's starting to look tempting. I have been reading One Bag, and I had a good look at my own current luggage and now I see where you guys were coming from about wheels. When I was travelling years ago I had become reasonably good about cutting down the amount of crap I was taking, but my last trip to Australia showed that I need to learn again.

I can't wait to see the "after" pics if you do blow anything up.

Good points indeed. This is why I like the Eagle Creek, as it has the shoulder straps as well as the wheels for when I get home and have to carry it up the stairs. I don't feel the handle and wheels actually add that much weight. I have a problem with my neck (and my physiology in general) that means I don't like carrying anything on my back for very long. If I didn't have that problem, I'd be happy with the Crumpler.

Being the total bag nut that I am, I should have posted earlier. You did get me looking at these bags, and comparing the Skytrain to the Airboss, there's not much in it between them except the layout and one larger + one smaller pocket vs. three pockets respectively. The Skytrain also has stowable shoulder straps like my Eagle Creek and other bags which I like, and has marginally more internal volume. I'm thinking, for airline travel, a box-shaped bag rather than my usual back-pack style bags for maximum volume. What bag I've been taking tended to depend on whether or not I was taking my Nikon and computer, both of which put a serious dent in the amount of usable space I have for anything else. My usual carry-on bags are an older Eagle Creek equivalent to the Twist 35 Connect or a Crumpler Customary Barge camera/laptop bag. Neither of these are the most efficient shape and I had to be cautious with the former not to make it look like it was bulging too much when checking in. Ideally, I'd most likely consider something like the Crumpler Period Charmer, as I much prefer wheeling a bag around airports than I do having one on my back, which is tiring. The thought has come to mind to get an Air Boss and a small, collapsible luggage trolley, however. Now I'm going to have to go and window shop at a local store that has Eagle Creek since I have spare time tomorrow.

Those prices seem incredibly reasonable. Maybe I should start a kitchen knife habit (as a successor to my high-school knife interest) to encourage me to cook more. Considering I live in Japan I have little excuse not to.

Ayrewave is now Decibel it seems. Wonder what happened. Seems to be working quite well at b10.

Costoco had some Thinsulate lined deerskin gloves for $10 or so, which was just what I needed for getting family and whatnot in and out of the car and driving without freezing my hands off or repeatedly having to take off bulky ski gloves.

The permabattery is to stop people scamming apple when some un-authorised third-party one screws up the computer and the owner puts the original battery back in and attempts to make a warranty claim. If you ever wonder why Apple seems to be extremely inconsiderate when it comes to matters such as batteries and upgrades, it is because of issues from third party replacement parts and fraud, more often than not. Customers almost always blame Apple when their machine goes wrong, regardless if it is the fault of something they installed, either hardware or software. As for screens, get the matte. Glossy looks impressive until you are sitting somewhere with lights behind you, then it looks annoying.

This is an unexpected change. I've seen a few forums go from VB to IPB after getting fed-up with the former. Would have made for a great April fools' saying you were switching to Huddler.

There are different levels of sponsors now with the most basic only getting the link.

I had the duplicate entries problem, with every MobileMe sync resulting in an entry re-appearing 5 more times. I discovered it was duplicated a million times in GMail, so turned that sync off, nuked my entire GMail address book and that solved it. I'm going to go the route of putting an SSD in my MacBook Pro and replacing the optical drive with another drive, so I might do this too. Would certainly fix some issues I've been having which I'm sure are related to hard disk access.

Decware has gotten into the game as well now. Love the '70s look.

That's a good question. I could have sworn I saw someone order one from Craig for less than that. I could be wrong and it wasn't a 4.

The RK50 was <$500 here, maybe considerably lower before the yen rose. I couldn't believe it when I saw the price after thinking they were $1k each.

In that price range, everything else other than the DA chip is going to be more relevant IMO. Kingwa voices the two versions a little differently anyway, so it's rather moot. I reckon the sound of the Sparrow with 8741 was a bit more all-round pleasant, so I'd go with the dual 8741 personally. I wouldn't expect miracles with it though and yeah, I'm not sure anyone other than me really cares about them here.

It looks like I'm going to have to consider building this next year once I've sorted everything else out and maybe moved to a place where I have enough space for DIY, including a drill press, that isn't on the same desk as my computer. Maybe, just maybe, I can do a group buy on volume pots like I did with the Oyaide docks. RK50s are more reasonably priced here as well, though I wasn't thinking of those specifically. I realised a more sane way to go about dealing with the Paypal currency and international bullshit which doesn't require a spreadsheet to work out the charges, so, wife permitting, I can do it easily. I'll post a thread on it if I'm going ahead, so if you want to spam "I'm in for that" wait till Jan or Feb.