MUSINGS: Myths, clichés and Hi-Fi+'s Taiko Audio SGM Extreme computer review. A hypothetical fast, fanless audio computer build. And "channels/bit-depth/samplerate" labeling convention - a suggestion.

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

-- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890

Once awhile, we in the audio world run into devices that are so ludicrous that it becomes somewhat entertaining reading or watching reviews about them. Like Super Bowl ads, the advertising can be fascinating in themselves regardless of whether you care about or even know how to play American football. The Dutch Taiko Audio SGM Extreme is such a product which I find fascinating - not because the technology is all that mind-blowing (server CPUs, Optane storage, large SSDs, big fanless case) - but in seeing what they're trying to do with the "spin" around the product to try to justify an asking price! (Previously, I've referenced the device in a related discussion as well.)

I thought it was interesting reading this recent Hi-Fi+ review by Alan Sircom and examining the claims. Just because a review might be written in a "subjective" fashion doesn't mean readers can't or should not be critical about the beliefs expressed. To a certain extent, I believe it is the responsibility of "rational audiophiles" to push back against the nonsensical, even mythical, ramblings of certain subjective, supposedly honest, viewpoints. I agree with T.S. Gnu, typically we cannot expect magazine writers to be bluntly honest in today's environment.

For those unaware, The Absolute Sound (North America) and Hi-Fi+ (UK) are glossy, subjective-only, sister publications that IMO read like the unabashed advertising arm of the "high end" industry. Over the years, TAS & Hi-Fi+ have advocated snake-oil of all sorts and TAS even published pseudo-science articles purporting to be empirical research (look up the articles from Charles Zeilig and Jay Clawson around 2011 - I've mentioned this back in the day, and here's an example of what they do/say).

HOWTO: Integrating WavPack 5-compressed DSD into Logitech Media Server (LMS).

piCorePlayer streaming WavPack-compressed DSD128 (1-bit, 5.6MHz) to TEAC UD-501 from recent nightly version of Logitech Media Server 7.9.1.

As I mentioned last time, it's great to see that DSD compression and metadata tagging are available in the form of WavPack 5. Starting from the post by michaelvv on the Squeezebox Forum, I decided to spend more time on getting WavPack-DSD working in LMS and managed to get it working quite stably installed on a Ubuntu Linux (currently 16.04 LTS) virtual machine in the Windows Server 2016 computer that serves as my repository of data, movies, and music. For a description of the initial software install, have a look at my HOWTO: LMS + BrutefirDRC Plugin post from last year. The hardware these days is my Intel i5-6500 server machine described here.

MUSINGS: On DSD, tagging, compression and conversion... Time for WavPack 5.

Many moons ago (back in 2013), I discussed DSD audio. While over the years I've talked about DSD from a a number of different angles (eg. JRiver realtime conversion listening, PCM <--> DSD conversion, conversion 2015, equipment DSD playback measurements like PonoPlayer / TEAC UD-501 / Oppo BDP-105 / Oppo Sonica DAC), concerns from that very first discussion about DSD still irks me these days!

The main issue is simply this: the lack of ability for gear and software to support both tagging and data compression when dealing with DSD. This IMO truly has been a ridiculous state of affairs for so many years! Despite years of cheerleading in the industry and even smaller sales outfits like NativeDSD Music already putting files out there for consumers, the relative inelegance of it all is rather silly.

As usual, I find it rather baffling that the typical mainstream audiophile press remains silent on deficiencies like this. To me, it is issues like these, while perhaps not "sexy" nor provides the press something to market to consumers, that when addressed can actually move the hobby forward. Unlike yet another megabuck product that provides a few minutes of eye-candy at best and affects the few, "infrastructural" changes can affect the many. Yet another example of the myopia of the audiophile press and an inability to muster any leadership in changing the industry and hobby in meaningful ways.

MUSINGS: On the Digital Music Collection, Metadata Tagging, and Hygiene...

 Happy New Year everyone! I hope the holidays went well and you're ready to take on 2017.

Today, I thought I'd spend some time talking about something extremely important and one which I'm surprised I don't hear more about looking around forums and audiophile watering holes... It's the topic of how one creates a collection of music. The difference between a collection and just plain hoarding is of course the discipline of organization involved in the collector's hobby. The collector knows what he/she has. The collector has mastery over the collection. Though responses may be variable, I believe a friend or even complete stranger would be able to appreciate the time and dedication that a collector has put into achieving this mastery as opposed to a sense of revulsion when faced with the hoarder (this is honestly the feeling I get when looking at this "collection").

Over the years, I have seen a handful of articles like this one which also introduces one to Picard, the free MusicBrainz software that will do the job in an automated fashion. If I were to start putting a new collection fresh today, I'll probably do something like this and grow from there, adding customizations, and checking accuracy along the way. However, I have been collecting CD's since the 1980's and over the years, especially after 2004, I have migrated all the "physical" music over to my music server. Through the years, although I have gone through multiple hardware servers, the data from the music collection really has not. It has been essentially rip once into a lossless format, and the CDs packed up in storage thereafter. As the years go on, I suppose like every collector, one develops a unique way to archive the albums, manage the directory structure, and a way to tag the files in a fashion that "works" for oneself.

Let's start the new year with a look at one way to manage the music collection (my idiosyncratic way :-). It has served me well and maybe some of what I do will resonate with you as well...