Windows Setup Here
When you
plug in any of the USB DAC’s it will say that you are
installing new hardware. It will ask you if you want to go
to the internet for drivers or search locally. Search
locally as all the available drivers for any of these DAC’s
should be already installed in your operating system.
Start->Control
Panels->Sound and Audio Devices (or
Multimedia) and select as your audio output either {Brick,
Cosecant or Crimson) or USB Composite Audio Device.
You may want to set the Sounds panel to no theme so that
computer sounds will not go through your stereo system.
Note that the Volume on a PC is at 50%, this is where it is
suppose to be. More and gain will be multiplied to the
sample, less and it will be subtracted.
I suggest that if you are using Windows Media Player or
iTunes on a PC that you upgrade to Vista. In XP and earlier
operating systems (OS) the problem with these and other
applications is the KMIXER. This part of the OS will alter
the bits of songs and it will not sound as good.
If you are going to use iTunes on the PC then goto
the Macintosh Setup page
for information on that.
There are many good PC software choices. Many like
Foobar,
Winamp
EAC,
and we especially like J River
Media Center. We
feel the best all around program is J River so we will
concentrate on getting that setup here.
We have had better and easier results with J River when
used with Vista and Direct Sound. But if you are using XP
and previous OS versions then you will have to bypass the
KMIXER by use of an ASIO driver:
broadband.zoomtown.com
ASIO4ALL
this
free driver is easy to use and configure.
ASIO2KS
this
free driver is also very easy to use
ASIO USB
Audio is 49
Euro’s and is suppose to be very good, but setup is a
little weak.
J
River Media Center Setup Here
Tools->Options->Encoding:
Select as the Encoder Windows Media and the Settings as
Lossless Mode as displayed above.
Tools->Options->CD
& DVD:
To assure an error free rip of each track make sure you set
the
Copy Mode to Secure. This
is very important or the tracks will be flawed and not
sound very good. You can also set the speed to Max or
something lower to make sure the tracks are correctly
ripped.
Tools->Options->Playback:
If you
are using
Vista Direct Sound is best
option and the least amount of headaches. If you are using
XP or ealier operating system then ASIO is your best bet.
Here we show the settings for ASIO4ALL with medium
buffering. In the
ASIO4ALL Off-Line Settings program
you can fool with these options until you get the best
sound.
Hardware Buffering on some machines does not work. Also
make sure you have the Resample setting correctly set.
Back too the setup of Media Center
Tools->Options->Playback:
In J River they offer allot of DSP stuff which is not good
for high end sound. Make sure the eq, effects, volume
leveling and Temp & Pitch settings are off. You can set
the output prefernces here in this window.
Now you are ready to play and rip music. You can glance
over the literature for setting up remotes and hand helds.
Remote
Controls
There
are many suggested remotes and handheld for J River and
it’s best too look over the suggestions they have in their
setup guide.
If you want more robust solution for
iTunes 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. With iTunes
7.7 and later both the iPhone and
the iTouch remote
access were introduced by Apple.
You can also control your PC 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.