And there is one good reason for their concern. Firms like Musical Fidelity, Parasound, Pass Labs, Rogue, Audio Research and a host of others fall into this category. In reality, everything is not quite so, I will reveal the details below.ĭespite the growing popularity of this product segment in the high-end firmament, perceived by some as the most advanced - and in my opinion also the most bizarre (more on this later) - many companies that were at the forefront of high-end are clearly not going to participate in it. Everything I've seen in reviews of products like the Lumin, Aurender and Sony (HAP-Z1ES) suggests that music lovers with a huge collection of digital files (my music library currently contains over 2 TB) will no longer have to sacrifice sound quality and musicality for ease of use. However, when the need arises and the question is about downloaded and converted files, I want simplicity, similar to the plug-and-play scheme. I'm just listing some of the annoying features I've encountered in this new universe, the bugs that make me stay away from the new format. Again, I am not blaming you-know-who for the above problems I honestly don't know who to blame for this. transition from classic playback media, but the new generation of music servers gives us a ray of hope. On the other hand, skipped or jumbled music tracks (a problem I've encountered with many WAV and FLAC files saved over the years), a lost album art, various format compatibility issues, plus the distortion inherent in electronic playback, all of which will take some getting used to. Of course, among the impressive number of contributors to our magazine, there are quite a few such advanced users (and it may well turn out that all my skills will turn out to be unsuitable for comprehending the mysteries of computer audio). If you're a fairly advanced computer user, familiar with system setup and protocol setup, and don't mind having to tweak Media Center all the time, then this review probably won't be of much interest to you. Rather, I think that this software is suitable only for those users who do not have the task of customizing their music playback and storage system to their needs. Please note that I am not in any way criticizing the sound quality of Media Center, which for me is a reference. Yes, the software architecture is extremely flexible and gives users enough space to manage the setup of computer-based systems (or Baetis music servers), but sometimes I find myself thinking that such systems are difficult to handle. To be completely honest, sometimes Media Center seems illogical to me in terms of everyday use. Nor am I a fan of the JRiver Media Center software, despite its ability to deliver great sound on a properly configured system. While my Dell/JRiver 20/Cambridge 851D desktop system (the last component was recently replaced by a TEAC UD-H01 USB DAC) is capable of great sound, I am not at all happy with the constant electronic noise that comes with music playback on the Dell. But to get such a combination, sometimes you have to go through the thorns. When the stars are well placed, which means the musical compatibility of the computer, operating system, hard drives and DACs, not to mention data cables and power cables, computer music playback can bring impressive results. Somewhere over the past year, I have become more and more frustrated with playing music directly from a computer.
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