Digital Insights

Digital Cables compared – USB and Ethernet premium
In order to assess a high-end digital cable, one needs to refer to a standard. But what defines the baseline? And how do USB and Ethernet cables compare to the traditional S/PDIF and AES/EBU cables?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
21 December 2018
The Difference Between Instrumental and Speaker Cables (Guest Review) premium
Don't commit the tragic mistake of interchanging your instrument and speaker cables. It's a complete waste of energy and you end up spending more for replacements.
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28 December 2016
“Digital” Switching Class D or Class T amplifiers premium
Although called digital amps by many people, most "digital" amps aren't digital at all.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
Computer Audio part 6 – Perspective premium
Genelec 8050 and Wadia 121 with a Computer Source in the secondary setup.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
Bliss premium
Super-handy Music Library Tagging Program
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
18 November 2012
Music Server Placement and the influence of Network Cable and Switches premium
Even a music server turns out to be sensitive to its placement
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
9 May 2012
Kernel Streaming for Winamp 5 premium
It is widely known that kernel streaming is the way to go in order to obtain the best sound.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
CD Ripping premium
Sometimes I come across things in the wonderful world of audio that drive me nuts.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
26 December 2011
WAV and Tagging premium
WAV or AIFF files may appear to have tags when they are accessed through applications such as iTunes and Winamp, but in fact the data may only reside in these apps' database, because they don't actually write tags to these files themselves.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
18 September 2011
USB Audio – Synchronous / Asynchronous premium
There are a couple of methods for sending audiodata over an usb cable. Here's an explanation of the principles behind them and the advantages of one over another.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
25 August 2011
Influence of the Music File location premium
The physical medium on which your music files are stored has an influence on the sound when played back from it.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
24 August 2011
Optimizing Winamp 5 for Windows XP premium
Winamp 5 has a few settings you should know about that have a large influence on the sound
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
24 December 2010
Lossless Audio (FLAC) premium
Lossless computer audio file formats such as FLAC are technically lossless indeed. But do they sound the same as a WAV?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
26 October 2010
Computer Audio part 5 – Playback Applications premium
Mac compared to PC, two iTunes sound enhancements and a range of DA-converters and USB interfaces
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
24 August 2010
Optimizing iTunes for Windows premium
This popular program for Mac and Windows needs some tweaks in order to make it sound good on Windows
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
24 August 2010
Kernel Streaming premium
What is Kernel Streaming and why do you need it?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
25 July 2010
Computer Audio – SSD versus HDD premium
This may be hard to believe but the type of drive also has an influence on the sound.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
9 July 2010
SACD and DSD premium
SACD promised even more perfect sound forever. It was hoped that it would replace CD and revitalize the music market. Alas it did not, but the DSD format is still around. Here are my thoughts on the subject.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
20 October 2009
Audible Differences Among CD Transports premium
There are quite large differences in sound among CD transports. Yes, even when you only use the digital output, still you can hear differences in the perceived speed, attack, and fluidity.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
5 June 2009
CD Transport + DAC or Integrated Player? premium
As always, both methods have their own advantages, but there is one unique clear advantage to taking the integrated player route.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
5 June 2009
Separate Transport + DAC versus Integrated CD Player premium
Does a separate transport and DAC sound better than an integrated player?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
18 May 2009
The hidden setup menu of the Meridian 508.24 CD player premium
This apparently simple player secretly has some fine tuning abilities hidden in its configuration menu.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
Digital Cables compared – AES/EBU, Coax,Toslink and ST Glass premium
Do digital cables really make a difference in sound? And if so, what are the differences?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
Recording LP’s: digital or analog? premium
When recording LP's, what sounds better? Digitized or recorded analog?
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com
21 June 2008
Upsampling explained using dCS Delius + Purcell premium
Upsampling explained by means of two reference dCS components: Delius DAC and Purcell upsampler.
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Owner of Hifi-Advice.com