Paul's Posts — 15 September 2012
By Paul McGowan
Through our mini series on streaming audio we’ve learned how iTunes finds and plays a track on your hard drive but we haven’t yet learned why programs that circumvent iTunes, like Amarra, Pure Music and Bit Perfect exist at all.
If you’ve managed to keep up with streaming audio in the magazines, you may have heard of these aftermarket programs that are add ons to iTunes – and since iTunes is the single most popular music management and playback program in the world – boasting tens of millions of users – one would question why anyone would spend money on adding an iTunes “helper” program like those I’ve just mentioned.
Here’s the deal: iTunes’ primary objective is to make playing music easy and to do that Apple sacrificed the ultimate fidelity that’s important to us Audiophiles. And who can blame them? Although it’s widely accepted that Steve Jobs himself was one of us and cared deeply about the way audio sounded in his home, Audiophiles make up only a tiny percentage of music lovers the world over. iTunes is set up to make sure the user experience is never in question and the net result of that, from a high-end perspective, is an unfortunate up and down sampling of all the music that passes through the program.
I think we’ve shown that once any music player begins to actually play a track it most go somewhere to be heard: your computer’s sound card, a USB connected DAC, etc. The problem you immediately run into is one of compatibility. If you are trying to play a 192kHz 24 bit file and your sound card, DAC or connected device doesn’t support that high sample rate (most don’t) then one of two things will happen: you’ll get nothing or you’ll get trouble. In either case you won’t get music at 192kHz 24 bits – you’ll get something less.
Most connected sound cards, USB and network connected DACS are limited to 96kHz 24 bits and so it is the responsibility of the interface driver to announce the restriction to the player so things are seamless. Make sense? The designers of iTunes simply want you to hit play and not worry about anything else – but we’re Audiophiles – and we worry about everything! So iTunes sends the high resolution file through a downsampler and converts it to the highest allowed rate your connected device can handle: in this case 96kHz 24 bits. Ouch!
To make matters worse, iTunes does this with everything – both up and down. So, for example, if you connect our upcoming entry level DAC the NuWave (which replaces the venerable DLIII), which can accept 192kHz 24 bit asynchronous signals over USB, iTunes will upsample everything you play to that sample rate – even standard CD’s and, unfortunately, their upsample engine isn’t all that good (none are) so your standard CD’s end up sounding digital and somewhat unmusical compared to their native resolution. This is not ever going to be acceptable to any of us – and if you’re an iTunes user you should know this.
You aren’t getting what you think you are getting – ever.
The aftermarket programs like Amarra, Pure Music and Bit Perfect (all MAC only programs) use iTunes only as a management tool and include their own player, bypassing the iTunes player and upsampler. That’s why they sound so much better. Unfortunately for Windows users these programs are not available.
One last nail in the iTunes coffin for Audiophiles: there is no support for FLAC – which is the single most used lossless compression CODEC for high-end lovers today. Sigh.
So in conclusion, if you’re a Windows user and are relying on iTunes – stop. You’re screwed sonically. If you’re a MAC user and are willing to convert all your FLAC files to ALAC as well as purchase one of these aftermarket programs, you’re in good shape.
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Gijs52
Paul, I do agree on your evaluation of iTunes as a source of music. Once you heard streaming music you will be aware of the restrictions iTunes causes and there will be no way back, you will be spoiled forever (:
However iTunes as a music managing system it still outperforms most others. It’s clean, has a good user interface, is easy to use and very fast. Combined with the eLyric Music Manager I can play both FLAC’s and ALAC’s on my Linn DS.
Till now I have not heard a difference between those two, but perhaps that something to explore too?
Paul McGowan
Indeed as a music manager iTunes is very good. I’d love to be able to figure out how to have a Windows version of Bit Perfect available as well – but alas it’s only “easy” on a MAC.
Dmitrylo
As a Windows user I can say: free player foobar200 is definitely the best. It’s a modular player and it can use different audio plugins to assure bit perfect digital output . For exemple: WASSAPI, ASIO, Kernel Streaming.
iTunes ia a nightmare, I will never use it .
Undilutedigital
Paul, there is a stunning amount of misinformation on his topic out there. I’ll admit I’m confused. There seems to be a strong contingent who believe for Windows, iTunes just uses the Windows audio stack. And there’s no way around it, e.g., you are wasting yor ime with ASIO, etc. if so, how “screwed” you are depends on which version of Windows. All agree WinNT was an audio disaster, fr example However, MSFT is pretty pround of the Win7 stack; they’ve posted stuff on the web about it, e.g., the signal path is all 32 bit floating point. And, this is important, for my Toslink connection, the Sound control app LET’S ME SPECIFY exactly which sample rates and bit depths the attached device supports. Why would ask if hey don’t use that information? You may be right, but you haven’t convinced me that I’m screwed with iTunes / Win7.
Paul McGowan
Well,l you’re right that if you want to manually adjust the sample rate and bit depth through your control panel for each change, then iTunes isn’t bad on Windows. I probably should have been a bit clearer that you can manage it manually – but most people don’t even know that’s possible and expect it to just work.
maybe I’ll cover that aspect if you all think that’s important. To me, the fact that you have to manually change it is a deal breaker – because it then means you cannot use Apple remote to play your library and are required to sit at your computer to do so. The whole idea of streaming audio is to free yourself from sitting at the CD player or the computer – and if you do not do that you are definitely screwed.
nordicbob
Thanks for the tutorial about iTunes and HiEnd.
I recently bought a PWD MKII and am using it with Bit Perfect with my 2007 MacBook with 2GB of RAM. I am using the NativeX 44.1 with the filter set to “Auto” with my ripped CD library to AIFF. I am using a 1.5 meter Audioquest Carbon USB cable from the MacBook to the PWD. I have my music stored on a Seagate USB 3.0 rather than the MacBook. For some strange reason, Bit Perfect is not sounding as good as plain-jane iTunes on some nights. However this does not seem to be consistent and some nights the BitPerfect seems to sound better than iTunes. I do not think that it is my imagination.
I have tried just about every setting for BitPerfect in the manual and according to the recommendations there, but the resulting sound is about the same—a little bright and forward with a slight digital harshness. I use my Ayre C-5exMP CD/SACD player for comparison with the same music. BTW, iTunes on the PWD MKII with iTunes actually sounds a little better than my Ayre playing the same 44.1 music and, as you know, the Ayre is no slouch. The sound of the PWD MKII is stunning to my ears as well as the ears of my dear non-audiophile wife.
BTW, I am planning on upgrading a dedicated MacMini for music and will anxiously await for your upcoming changes to the Bridge which is installed in my PWD but not used yet.
Is it possible that my old MacBook is having problems getting the job done and causing this problem with Bit Perfect? I will also e-mail Bit Perfect about this but since I have the PWD MKII I thought that I would run it past you? Any ideas Paul?
Your input is most appreciated.
Bob
Paul McGowan
You want to make sure you have chosen Bit Perfect as the player – so if I remember correctly, from the Bit Perfect menu you choose the PWD as the device and make sure you’re in the Bit Perfect GUI playing music.
The guys at Bit Perfect are very helpful and they can walk you through.
dr.goodears
Hey Paul,
Steve was a serious music enthusiast at home, his system consisted of Wilson Watt/Puppy 5, Levinson electronics and a Linn LP-12 circa 1995.
As you are aware, your friend Chuck Zelig authored a 4 part series in The Absolute Sound magazine this year “Computer Music Audio Quality” culminating in a “Best-in-Class Programs” summary in the final installment Part 4 Issue 221 March 2012 that i believe will make for a good read with your audience.
I’m going to assume that todays lecture on i-Tunes further answers the inquiry regarding the Sonos Connect music streaming system from Wednesday.
lmbwave
All,
Here is a good resource from AudioStream. It features Q&A on various digital audio topics realted to iTunes and third party media players. It’s a good discussion.
AudioStream: Media Player Q&A: 10 Questions for 8 Companies
http://www.audiostream.com/content/media-player-qa-10-questions-8-companies
nordicbob
What is amazing is how good iTunes can sound with one of today’s good Dacs compared to what was available 10-15 years ago. Back then I had a Theta DAC and transport which did not sound nearly as good as my PWD MKII via iTunes. Then to sound half way decent, one of the degittering boxes like the Genisis digital lens between the DAC and the transport was necessary.
Now we have a whole new world with streaming. Good that you are touching base on steaming. Perhaps an in depth discussion of the various types of streaming and compatibility issues would be helpful to those of us new to it?
Undilutedigital
Paul, Win7 does NOT require you to manually select the sample rate. Find a Win7 PC with an S/PDIF DAC. Go to “Sound” and right click on the S/PDIF connect and select “Properties.” Select “Supported Formats.” I’m connected to your “venerable” PS Audio DL3. I selected and tested all six options, and of course they all work with the DL3 (which should be no surprise to you). Win7 now knows the capabilities of the DAC. PRESUMABLY, it won’t resample / downsample unless it has to. But again, I can’t find any authority who seems to know. And I’m afraid you still haven’t convinced me that iTunes/Win7 leaves me “screwed.”
BTW, I thought Chuck Zelig’s 4 part series in The Absolute Sound magazine this year “Computer Music Audio Quality” culminating in a “Best-in-Class Programs” summary was an utter piece of crap. Didn’t believe a word of it. I want to read something from someone who actually understands what the software stack is doing. I found the Zelig piece just full of unsubstantiated, unexplained, and pseudo-quantified claims.
Paul McGowan
David, I am going to shy away from the Chuck Zellig comment.
I will do some more digging – and believe me I am no Windows expert – but our engineering staff has gone over this and the problems with iTunes in great detail and investigated its performance on the AP for verification. I believe that it was in Vista where Microsoft removed the dreaded K-Mixer audio platform and moved over to their 64 bit engine. It’s my understanding that everything is upsampled to 64 bits in Vista and all Microsoft systems after Vista including Windows 7.
As best I can tell, Windows Vista and Windows 7 upconvert all your samples to 32-bit floats and mixes them with 32-bit precision into an output stream that, by default, has the highest bit depth that your hardware can handle (if you are USB).
The output bit depth is customizable; you can change it in the properties of your audio device. If you change it e.g. to 16 bits, the audio engine will still use 32-bit floats for internal processing — it will just downconvert the resulting stream to 16 bits before sending it to your device.
iTunes, as best I understand it, still uses whatever your setting are to up/down sample to match. If it didn’t, how would you be able to play something on iTunes that didn’t match your hardware?
Undilutedigital
Thanks, Paul! But Win7 DOES ask for a COMPLETE LIST of the sample rates your hardware supports, not for you to select one, at least for S/PDIF. One HOPES they are doing the intelligent thing with that info.
As for bit depth, Win7 doesn’t ask, but I presume they just fill the fields with whatever they”ve got.
Sorry about the Zelig comment. I get frustrated when I read bold claims without explanation or at least insight.
Paul McGowan
Oh, don’t get me wrong about the Zellig comment – it’s just that I can’t publicly agree or disagree and remain a “gentleman” something I have often been accused of but it’s never been proven.
I try anyway.
I am pretty sure that over USB, anyway, the sample rate remains fixed on Windows 7 as on the PWD I can see the sample rate and it doesn’t change unless I tell it to when using iTunes. When using other programs, like J River it does.
Your DLIII, of course, already up or down samples everything it gets depending on where you set the SRC. Our new entry level DAC, the NuWave, has that issue eliminated and now offers Native resolution and 192kHz 24 bit asynchronous USB as well. Should be out in November.
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