Wi-Fi hi-fi Chronicles

I have been obsessing about the the latest and greatest digital music hardware and software possibilities for a while. Here’s a condensed version of my findings.

What’s the best sound system for playing MP3s?

I have heard these in person, and can confidently claim that for both iPods, computer playback or any audio really, you won’t find a bigger bang for your buck than the AudioEngine A5 speakers. Designed by a team of former Apple, Gibson and Alesis audio experts, the A5 speakers have all the qualities of a great bookshelf speaker, but have an amplifier built right into them. Maybe Steve with throw out his iPod Hi-fi and get a pair of these.

Though the team originally set out to create speakers for sound mixing professionals, they quickly realized that with tuning, and extras like a USB port to keep MP3 players charged, their speakers would be the best system available. It’s an interesting story and the reviews are piling up.

If you’re in Toronto, Audio Oasis on Queen East has them for $389 (which is $60 less than Computer Systems Centre).

Should I be using the iPod headphone jack to send audio to the speakers?

Not really. Technically, the headphone jack is intended for headphones, not sending sound to a stereo. To get the best sound you would need a line-level signal, which is less powerful than a headphone signal. Apple sells docks for the iPod that provide a line-level signal, but even though they claim to be universal, they don’t work out-of-the-box with every iPod out there.

A more compact, compatible and economical solution is the SendStation Line Out USB. With one of these, you can keep your A5’s happy with a line-level signal, and your iPod charged via USB.

Can I play my iTunes on a sound system in another room?

Yes, and using the Multiple Speaker option in iTunes, you can even play the same music in multiple rooms. Probably the most affordable option is Apple’s AirPort Express. It’s been around a few years now and is for sale second-hand often for as low as $40. It works natively with iTunes and there’s software available called Airfoil that lets you send sound from any running application on your Mac. A nice design feature of the A5 speaker is that the AirPort express cradles right onto the back of one of the speakers, and also plug in for power.

Does the AirPort Express provide hi-fi grade sound?

Good question. Yes, and no. The device has it’s own built in digital-to-analog converter (DAC) which is rumored to be okay, but not great. Luckily you can even get a digital signal out of it which Stereophile magazine says allows it to assume a respectable role in a true high-end audio system. All you need is a TOSLINK cable and mini-adapter. Pretty smart.

Once you do, and only if you really want to get fancy, take a look at Hong Kong exceptionally well thought-out iBasso D1.

This incredible little device which can optionally be powered by battery can serve a variety of functions.

Inputs:

1. Digital optical (TOSLINK from AirPort Express, DVD player or maybe even your computer)
2. USB (from your computer)
3. Digital coax (from an older DVD or CD player)
4. Analog minijack (like from the iPod)

Outputs:

1. Headphone (big ones that an iPod is too weak to handle)
2. Analog minijack (a stereo, or powered speakers)

So you can take a digital signal from basically any source and and play it through headphones too big for the iPod, or go right into speakers like the A5s. You can even use it along with the iPods line out to drive stubborn headphones too.

Can I use my iPhone/iPod Touch to play music from my Mac upstairs on the A5 speakers downstairs?

Yes, thanks to one of the coolest pieces of shareware for sale today, Remote Buddy. It runs on your Mac and makes it browseable on the web, specifically designed for Safari on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

I have been a Remote Buddy user for some time, while I don’t yet have an iPhone (oligopoly anyone?) I have been using it to power the normally useless white remote that comes bundled with Macs. It actually makes the little clicker quite handy. The iPhone functionality was just thrown into it, although I think they should have created a separate product line.

Do MP3s sound good enough?

Definitely not for a system like this.

Music is Here, if here is Latvia

I made my first music purchase on Zunior. It was Sandro Perri’s excellent album Tiny Mirrors. Experience went smoothly and I highly recommend it.

I have a tenuous familial connection to banjo maestro Jayme Stone and desperately needed a digital version of his latest album The Utmost after having heard some tracks online. Zunior does not carry this album so I looked elsewhere.

Loosely connected to indie music store CD Baby, I came across a Latvian site called Music is Here. The site lacks a solid design, Paypal and contact information and that almost kept me away from making the purchase. I’m glad I was not deterred. It’s a great album and downloaded nicely in FLAC format, although they provide downloads in more formats than I can list. I have converted it to Apple Lossless and it’s taking up a sizeable chunk of my 4B Nano.

UPDATE: As expected a $10.63 charge for the album appeared on my credit card statement.

Zunior Digital Music Downloads

When I buy music I tend to lean towards purchasing local, independent music. Until recently I have been starved for an option that satisfies my embarassingly particular needs:

1. Downloadable. Why take up any more space on the planet when we’ve long since moved on to digital formats.
2. Lossless format. Why amass an inventory of MP3s that are less than CD quality? Sure, I might convert tracks to MP3 for my iPod, but I want nothing less than CD quality in the archives.
3. iTunes and iPod-compatible. If I can’t get it to play in my iPod, it might as well be 8-track.
4. Open Source. Music purchased from the iTunes Music Store will only play on devices licensing Apple’s technology. Cars for ages have supported MP3 CDs, but I’ve never seen one support AAC. Why build a library of songs that might not be future-friendly? No, transcoding is not an option.

Finally there’s Zunior. Canadian. Indie. And they offer FLAC for an extra $2 per album. Now that a solution exists to get FLAC into iTunes (which can be later converted to MP3, AAC or even Apple Lossless) I finally have a legimate source for the music I love in the format I love it. Thanks Zunior!

UPDATE: As expected a $10.42 charge for the album appeared on my credit card statement.

Westbound Queen Car

Westbound Queen Car in Leslieville in the morning, photostitched

TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide for iPod

Wanna shorten TTC trip time?

This iPod-friendly version of the original TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide indicates where the escalators are located for a faster exit. Instead of printing the guide and carrying it around, you can use your photo-capable iPod, or other device, to save vast seconds of your life.

• TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide for iPod (552K ZIP)

Simply unzip, mount your iPod, and copy the guide into the Photos folder of your photo view iPod.

Thanks to gang at ttcrider for making these maps to begin with! Feel free to check out my other iPod guides.

* in Google Maps near you.

Ever need evidence that a specific address is surrounded by civilization? Well you probably know that googling restaurants near 100 Elm St. will list the restaurants nearest to 100 Elm St., but did you know could you simply search for * near 100 Elm St.? It works, although somehow not for every address.

Here’s a map of what’s near the CBC buiding and a complete list of * near 250 Front St. W.

Class D for Disruption

An interesting disruption has been taking place in the world of hi-fi audio for the last few years. An amplifier technology is responsible for reducing amplifier size and weight, the heat they generate, the energy they consume, and most importantly, their prices. This technology is known by many names (Class D, Class T, IcePower, digital amplification) but technically they are all Switching Amplifiers. Hailed as a giant killer, the Sonic Impact T-amp, a $30 Class-T amplifier made by a kitschy computer accessory company, was discovered by some audio fanatic Italians. Their glowing review sparked a revolution; people started replacing their big, heavy, hot amplifiers with small, light, cool ones.

Google News is turning up some interesting results for for “class d” amplifier from computer speakers, to subwoofers to even cell phones. Danish audio design king B&O has their own ICEpower technology which they incorporate into a 2500 W powered speaker but which is also used in another Danish firm’s really cool Firewire-compatible amp.

Probably the two biggest budget contenders are the Texas Instruments powered Panasonic XR series home theatre receiver and the very tiny Trends Audio 10.1 giant kill stereo amp. The Trends won a digital amp shootout besting amps costing twenty times the price. And in a more recent shootout, the $150 Trends amp was bested by a $450 unit.

Here’s the biggest list of switching amplifier makers I have come across. It will be interesting to see if this technology can be applied in other areas to improve quality and reduce costs.

Facebook surpasses Google.ca?

Why search when you can socialize, eh? According to Alexa, the Amazon’s traffic ranking service, Facebook has surpassed Google.ca in Canadian traffic.

In the U.S. it ranks 6th three spots below MySpace. Canadians, at least the ones with the traffic measuring Alexa toolbar installed, are now poking, gifting and feed-reading more than using Google. And as the Toronto network for Facebook now exceeds 800,000 one must wonder when and how it will slow down?

Home Theatre PC minus PC

The whole time I was waiting for the release of Apple TV, the devices I should have been lusting after were silently released by some Korean hardware manufacturers. Perhaps I had missed their release because their web pages are Search Engine Retardant containing no text, but images of text? When will companies realize that Google does not have a GIF braille reader?

The trend in Home Theatre PCs is to drop the PC and soup up a hard drive enclosure with multimedia features. Drop in a hard drive sized to your liking and start dumping your media onto it. A remote control will help you navigate your vast collection of JPEGs, audio files, video files, even HD! Some of these enclosures can output DVI for video, and digital out for surround sound processing in your home theatre receiver. And often sport Wi-Fi so you needn’t even connect them physically to your computer.

Here are all the ones I’ve come across. Please let me know if I’m missing any of them.

• eUreka LX350HD N
• Modix HD-3520
• TVisto
• abigs DVP-570HD
• G-Play Personal Media Player
• Mvix Wireless Hi-Definition Media Player
• TViX HD M-4100SH and HD M-5100SH

The best single online Canadian source I have come across to date is Ontario based onlybestrated.com

More Google More!

I’m a heavy Google user. Docs, Calendars, Photos, you name it. I also am searching the groups, books, and products. Google appears to be slowing rolling out a universal menu on the top left corner of the screen of their products. In it contains Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail and a pulldown menu named more. I can’t get enough of “more”.

If you’re searching the web it will extend your search into blogs, scholars, even patents. It seems to be inconsistently applied and less frequent for their .ca (Canadian) products. Google, please keep it up! It’s a real time saver!