MAC OSX Setup Here
System Preferences->Sound
Select the USB DAC you purchased here from the selection of
available output devices.
Also select the
Sound Effects window and make sure all the
beeps and other OS sounds go out the internal speakers, so
they don’t go to the stereo. For the
Proton also
set the
Sound Effects so that beeps are not used as
Feedback for the volume control or this will come out of
your speakers or headphones.
A
little information about setting up for 24 bit
DACS.
iTunes takes a snapshot of the settings for an output
device ounce it loads and will upsample to that output
format while it is running. Do not change these settings
while iTunes is running or the output will be resampled to
the new setting which is bad (because it is being effected
twice, not ounce).
Applications->Utilities->Audio
Midi Setup:
With all the 24 bit
DACS you can set the Format to 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96K. If
you are using only Red Book CD’s that are ripped to your
hard drive I would suggest setting the output to 88.2K.
This seems to be the best sounding setup for Red Book (i.e.
16/44.1K). This will tell iTunes to upsample from 16/44.1
to 24/88.2K. The idea here is that even multiple upsampling
is much better sounding than odd (i.e. 44.1*2 = 88.2 will
sound better than 44.1*2.177 = 96) If you would rather not
upsample then set this to 44.1K and iTunes will merely pad
the 16 bit data with zero to make the output 24/44.1.
If you are using a mix of high resolution 24 bit material
and Red Book 16/44.1 then the best bet is put the Format
control to 96K. This is what I keep it set to in my
setup.
iTunes
setup information here for iTunes 8
iTunes is a free program from Apple, it is available for
both Macintosh and PC (best used with Vista). You can
download
iTunes
here.
Ok so here is how we optimize the computer side. First make
sure that all the importing is done with Apple Lossless
format. As the name suggests no data is lost in this
format, kind of like zipping an audio file. The data in is
the same as data output.
If you have an earlier version of iTunes I suggest you
download and install the latest version. A wonderful
feature of Computer Audio the upgrading of capabilities
every few months.
iTunes->Preferences->General->Import
Settings...
Also
there are usually items in the configuration such as error
reading and recovery and buffering size (used for internet
streaming, in iTunes Import settings). Always set the
parameter for error recovery when reading audio CD's. If
there are any other buffering options, always set them to
the highest allowable. Here is a image of the iTunes setup
screen for Importing:
Apple Lossless Encoder will assure that the data on the
hard disk will match that of the original disk.
Note: We have found on slower machines than using AIFF over
Apple Lossless will recover some space in the music. Albeit
that the files sizes will increase. You can convert
Lossless files to AIFF by setting the Encoder to AIFF. Then
select a song or songs and click
Advanced->Convert selection to AIFF
and iTunes will make copies of your Lossless files in AIFF.
You can also view the KIND of file by editing the View
options which will show AIFF, Lossless etc. Do note that
the files in Lossless and AIFF are identical in output and
conversion is truely bit true. We think the problem is that
slower computers tend to have problems converting from
Lossless to PCM data on the fly. Were AIFF is basically PCM
data with embedded cue information (song names, group
etc...).
Automatic will keep the speed and the data size the same as
the original (i.e. 44.1K/16, 24 bits and so forth).
Use error correction this is vital so that when there is a
read error on a CD it will re-read to fix the
error.
iTunes->Preferences->Advanced:
You
can specify your Library location by going to the Advanced
page and setting it too a removable drive, such as a
firewire drive.
iTunes->Preferences->Playback:
Make sure that the Sound Enhancer and Sound Check are off
as each of these will effect the data going out of iTunes.
Also make sure you have the equalizer off
View->Show
Equalizer.
If you are using iTunes on a PC I would suggest using Vista
instead of earlier Windows version because DirectSound does
not have the KMIXER in Vista.
iTunes allows you all the options mentioned above. You can
download import music, import songs, make play lists what
ever. I think it is one of the best FREE software packages
you can find to augment the Wavelength Audio USB DAC into a
full media package.
Just a few notes about adding a hard drive, NAS server or
other location for your Music Files.
In 10.x your music files are located here:
Music->iTunes->iTunesMusic
In this directory you’ll find index files, library files
and a sub directory called iTunes Music (where the songs
are).
Hand
moving these files is not a good idea!
There are 2 commands to expand your library:
1) File->Add to
Library
Use this when you want to address music files that are
located elsewhere but do not want to add to this area.
Make sure the option in Preferences->Advanced->Copy
files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library
is check off or it
will add all these files to your present library directory.
2) Preferences->Advanced->Change:
iTunes Music folder location
If your present file system is strapped for area and you
want to add a new area, then simply change the folder
location. All your original music is fine. iTunes will now
store all new Music Files into this new location. Note: All
of the iTunes music information and misc files will stay in
their original space in Music->iTunes->iTunesMusic.
If you want to experiment there is also Max for OSX
which is a open
source code type program.
Remote
Control
Many of the newer Macintosh computers come with an IR
Remote control. If you want more robust solution I suggest
getting a Bluetooth Enabled Palm Pilot and the
Salling Software Clicker.
This gives you
complete control to do just about anything with your
computer. Keyspan also offers the TuneView remote that enables full
control of your iTunes. There are also two excellent
products for iPhone and iTouch in Signal and Remote Buddy. These run a small
webserver on your Mac or PC and use Safari (Airport) to
browse the iTunes library. With iTunes 7.7 and later
both the iPhone and the iTouch Remote APP were introduced
by Apple. These can be downloaded to the iPhone/iTouch
via the App Store and is free of charge. If you are
using the Proton another remote for your iPhone/iTouch
is Rowmote. The nice thing
about Rowmote is that it controls the
system wide volume control which means you can adjust
the analog volume control in the Proton via
iPhone/iTouch from anywhere. The volume control under
Remote from Apple will control the digital volume
control in iTunes and that is not a good thing to use
for high quality reproduction.
You can also control your Mac via another computer using
VNC. There are many ways to do this and it can be a bit
complicated. A simple search of the internet or contact us
and we can help you set this up.