PRC Recording Studio PRC Recording Studio PRC Recording Studio
Genealogy of my kin

Killing the CD player project

My 2004 New Years Resolution was to kill off all audio CD players for listening to music. I've had too many of them, they break, and worse, it is too hard to find the music that I've paid for. I have duplicate copies of far more CDs than I want to admit. I moved all the files to a music server and play the songs from there. So that is one resolution that I've actually kept.
        Rather than using MP3 or WMA files, I use simple FLAC lossless compression of the WAV files.

I have a music server, from my OneBigCD days. It needed bigger disks, but other than that, it was ready. I got a 200GB disk for $105 and it installed in an instant.

I bought a Slim Devices Squeezebox. Very cool. Highly recommended. I've written some utility software to help manage your collection. And some assorted notes on software to rip and compress your collection

I started using the Squeezebox D-to-A converter. I splurged for a very good Digital to Analog converter, a Benchmark DAC-1 (about $975) (RCA and XLR out) (192k)

Other DAC's that I looked at before I bought the Benchmark include:

What's in a Squeezebox?

A squeezebox is a small box, about the size of a large paperback book. It has a fairly large display on the front, two network interfaces (both Ethernet and WiFi), a computer, OS and soundcard.

The electronic heart of the series One Squeezebox is a specialized IC for all audio processing, the Micronas MAS 3509F. Search google for the engineering data sheet, there was a copy here.

SlimDevices has releases a new and improved product, called the SqueezeBox 2. It is better and priced the same.

Some internal geek specs on the SB2 CPU:

Of interest to mid-level audiophiles, the SB2 has some significant audio quality improvements. Sean Adams, CEO and hardware guru of SlimDevices, wrote:

"Although I don't often contribute to the audiophile discussions, I really do enjoy reading them. Regardless of who can hear what, the fact is that there are indeed some real measurable characteristics such as output levels, THD+N, and clock precision where we had room for significant improvement. Squeezebox2 has completely done away with all the limitations - we're now doing all of the audio decoding and DSP work in software, and this gave me the freedom to design the digital outputs and analog stages exactly the way I wanted them. Please see the FAQ and the hardware specs page for details on the new design."
The SB2 uses a Texas Instruments PCM1748 DAC chip. It is a very cool 24-bit chip that can handle sample rates up to 100kHz for extended audiophile formats. According to TI, it is "24-Bit 96kHz Sampling Enhanced. Multilevel Delta-Sigma Audio DAC". Inner secrets about the SB2 DAC: http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm1748.pdf

User Interface

The only real user interface on the Squeezebox itself is a display, it has no buttons. The Series 1 SqueezeBox used a Noritake-Itron Vacuum Fluorescent display. Data sheet is here.

For the SB2, Slim
Squeezebox2 also has a new vacuum fluorescent display - we had it custom designed by Noritake specifically to support the ideas we had in mind for new fonts, animations, and visualizers. The display is slightly larger physically, and has more than twice the resolution at 320x32 pixels. It has multiple brightness levels of course, but it also has grayscale capability, which we use for the visualizers and graphics.

Slim remote control

The SqueezeBox comes with a small remote control. It works OK to control the device. But I've got way too many remotes to want to add another. Now I'm learning about hacking remotes with JP1.

Links

Related links about audiophile quality music reproduction:

Software for DVD-A creation

My recording studio work is nearly always done at high rate (96kHz) and wide (24-bit) samples. I had great hope that the high resolution music formats, SACD and DVD-Audio would become popular, allowing my audiophile listening to be improved over RedBook CDs, and to allow my studio to have a quality edge. But both formats seem to be nearly dead. I had hopes that the next DVD format would have high/wide audio, but it looks (August 2005) that we are going to be stuck with another Beta/VHS format war in that area as well. Do these companies ever learn?

All these questions are answered over here: http://www.discwelder.com They make two different varieties of DVD audio-mastering software: Diskwelder Steel and Diskwelder Chrome. The former sells for about $500 and gives you most basic DVD-A surround mastering tools; the latter sells for about $2500 and adds more menuing capabilities and professional mastering tools. Both work under Windows 98 & XP.

Here's one work around for DVD-lab: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/userguides/169251.php

Copyright © 2004-2005 Farrell and Associates.