Pure Music!

ted_b · « **Reply #40 on:** 16 Jan 2011, 03:19 pm »

Quote from: borism on 16 Jan 2011, 02:22 pm

Remote still has some bugs in the 1.72a version. The album cover artwork gets frequently stuck and is not updated when the next song is playing. Also, under "albums" when I scroll down a number of the album artworks is mismatched with title/artist unlike in Itunes. However, on the good side, the music plays and remote works in directing playback.

You might want to restart iTunes. I have used every version (incl the newest 1.72a) of PM and have never experienced mismatched artwork via the remote. I HAVE experienced it in iTunes, but a restart fixed it.

By the way, the newer "preallocate" memory option in PM is a must. It seems to "fix" everyone's issues from crackling to sample rate changing.

I find PM 1.72a to be the best sounding yet, a big improvement over the 1.65's and 1.7.

jrebman · « **Reply #41 on:** 16 Jan 2011, 04:17 pm »

Thanks, Ted and others. I'm finally out of bed and will install this today.

-- Jim

borism · « **Reply #42 on:** 16 Jan 2011, 07:33 pm »

"You might want to restart iTunes. I have used every version (incl the newest 1.72a) of PM and have never experienced mismatched artwork via the remote. I HAVE experienced it in iTunes, but a restart fixed it."

Ted,
Thanks for the tip. Indeed when I restarted both Itunes and my Ipod-remote all was well and the album cover art was matched to the content. What does the "preallocate memory" option do?
Boris

jdbrian · « **Reply #43 on:** 17 Jan 2011, 04:26 pm »

Hi Folks

I am running a mini (bought just before the new version came out) and feeding a Tranquility DAC. I had PM 1.65 and it seemed to have a lot of problems with features not working or being inconsistent. I upgraded to 1.72 and it seems to be stable. So far I haven't had and playback crashes which were happening occasionally in 1.65.
There is one odd thing that is happening since going to 1.72. When I am playing music while using Safari, at every new song PM/Itunes comes to the front screen displacing Safari. I then have to bring Safari to the front again. I am new to MAC's and I can't see anywhere in the setup of Safari or PM to stop this from happening. Does anyone here know if this can be avoided?
As far as sound goes I found a big improvement when going from ITunes to 1.65. Better depth, transient response and detail. The only downside was that there seemed to be a lot more (maybe too much) HF information. Sometimes transients seemed a bit splashy and rough. With 1.72 this problem seems to be gone and I can't find any faults with the sonic presentation. I have not tried Remote yet on my Touch but 1.65 worked OK after I got used to it.
Overall PM was an excellent upgrade and well worth the cost. I am curious about the EQ plugin that the site says will be included in the future. I wonder when we will see that.
FYI the rest of my system is a W4S STI500 and a set of GR Research OB 7 speakers with all the upgrades.

Cheers
Brian

jrebman · « **Reply #44 on:** 17 Jan 2011, 07:41 pm »

As promised, yesterday I did upgrade to 1.72A and once I checked the preallocate memory option, things really started to work flawlessly. No more problems with stalling, hiccups, playlists not recycling at the end, etc. Now all just does what it's supposed to do, and sounds even better than before. Encouraged by this, I then dropped a nos pair f 5y3wgta rectifiers in my Fi monos, and a pair of National Union 45s, and wow, what a treat that was. The tubes need some more time on them, but man they sound lovely.

MY OWC 8 gb memory upgrade should arrive tomorrow and I'm looking forward to see what that does for the system as a whole. I'm also running with my stock power cable on the mini as I sold my MPC and am waiting for my upgraded MPC to arrive... along with a few other goodies from Dave, in.

-- Jim

Atlplasma · « **Reply #45 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 07:32 pm »

Version 1.73 now available. Release notes do not indicate reason for the update.

ted_b · « **Reply #46 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 07:43 pm »

Quote from: Atlplasma on 21 Jan 2011, 07:32 pm

Version 1.73 now available. Release notes do not indicate reason for the update.

?? There's a whole page of what 1.73 brings! It's in the change log of the user manual pdf that comes with every version. This version deals a lot with cleaning up the FLAC capability (gui, minimize iTunes, etc) among other things.

Atlplasma · « **Reply #47 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 08:52 pm »

Hi Ted. Help me out here. Are you looking at page 36? I only see notes for 1.72a as the latest update.

ted_b · « **Reply #48 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 09:02 pm »

Page 26. You might not have replaced the pdf when you downloaded?

Atlplasma · « **Reply #49 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 09:15 pm »

Hmm. I loaded the manual a second time and still did not have the latest info. My download may have included the previous manual. No biggie though.

mercman · « **Reply #50 on:** 21 Jan 2011, 11:10 pm »

1.73 requires preallocate be used for gapless playback. If you wish to play gapless and have 2GB or less of RAM, you have to use the older version 1.65a.

Atlplasma · « **Reply #51 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 12:15 am »

I had purchased a 2 GB chip to increase my mini's RAM to 4 GB, which I thought was the max it would support. I now understand that it will handle up to 8 GB.

Since these things are not super easy to disassemble, I'm now wondering if I should order two new modules. What do you guys think? Would Pure Music benefits from an extra 4 GB of RAM?

jrebman · « **Reply #52 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 01:05 am »

Yes, 4 gb is better than 2 and 8 is better than 4 when pure music is concerned. You must not have a 2010 because changing the memory on the 2010 is super easy -- it's the HD that's difficult on the 2010.

I just installed 8 gb the other day and only had a brief time to listen since, but it did sound and work somewhat better. Exactly how, I really couldn't describe yet, but I believe Eric is recommending 8 gb as a recommended upgrade. Mine certainly worked well with 4, but with the preallocate memory feature, things could potentially be even nicer with 8.

Hope this helps,

Jim

Atlplasma · « **Reply #53 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 03:17 am »

The earlier models (mine is late 2009) are a bear to upgrade. But who wants to pay Apple prices for RAM?

I've been reading the Pure Music user manual (what a concept!), and it does seem that more RAM is better for playback performance.

JDUBS · « **Reply #54 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 03:05 pm »

Any recommendations on a good 8gb ram kit for a 2009 Mac Mini? I have 4gb, but I'm thinking 8gb might be worth a shot, based on this thread.

Thanks,
Jim

Nels Ferre · « **Reply #55 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 03:12 pm »

Quote from: JDUBS on 22 Jan 2011, 03:05 pm

Any recommendations on a good 8gb ram kit for a 2009 Mac Mini? I have 4gb, but I'm thinking 8gb might be worth a shot, based on this thread.

Thanks,
Jim

I bought 8GB Crucial branded memory for my 2010 Mac Mini for around $100 shipped from Newegg. Works like a charm. There are lots of other less expensive options but users are reporting very high defect rates with the less expensive memory.

Nels Ferre · « **Reply #56 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 03:16 pm »

Quote from: jrebman on 22 Jan 2011, 01:05 am

Yes, 4 gb is better than 2 and 8 is better than 4 when pure music is concerned. You must not have a 2010 because changing the memory on the 2010 is super easy -- it's the HD that's difficult on the 2010.

I just installed 8 gb the other day and only had a brief time to listen since, but it did sound and work somewhat better. Exactly how, I really couldn't describe yet, but I believe Eric is recommending 8 gb as a recommended upgrade. Mine certainly worked well with 4, but with the preallocate memory feature, things could potentially be even nicer with 8.

Hope this helps,

Jim

I still had drop out issues with 1.7 even with 8GB RAM. Once I went to version 1.73 and Hog Mode, it works perfectly.

The Mini does sound better than my MacBook. I had heard there is lots of interference using the MacBook for music due to interference from the screen. I didn't believe it until now.

ted_b · « **Reply #57 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 03:21 pm »

Nels,
Was your Macbook tweaked out at all (i.e SSD drive or anything; how much Ram)? The reason I ask is that I have Gordon Rankin's 2009 RMAF white Macbook (4.1) as my first/only true music server (was Squeezecenter prior to that) and it has served (no punt intended) me very well, but nothing to compare it to. Now that my room is done I am ecstatic over the resolution and naturalness I have, and am chomping at the bit to push the envelope anywhere I can.

Nels Ferre · « **Reply #58 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 04:00 pm »

Quote from: ted_b on 22 Jan 2011, 03:21 pm

Nels,
Was your Macbook tweaked out at all (i.e SSD drive or anything; how much Ram)? The reason I ask is that I have Gordon Rankin's 2009 RMAF white Macbook (4.1) as my first/only true music server (was Squeezecenter prior to that) and it has served (no punt intended) me very well, but nothing to compare it to. Now that my room is done I am ecstatic over the resolution and naturalness I have, and am chomping at the bit to push the envelope anywhere I can.

Ted,

Nope, bone stock Black Macbook with the 2.16 processor with RAM maxed out at 4GB. I didn't put a SSD in it, nor does the 2010 Mini have a SSD.....yet. Both units are running Snow Leopard with all of the latest updates. BTW the Mini is running the base 2.4 processor, so not a huge difference there.

To save a few bucks, I bought both from Apple as refurbished units- same warranty, appearance and operation as new. I couldn't be happier.

Nels

ted_b · « **Reply #59 on:** 22 Jan 2011, 04:11 pm »

Nels,
Thanks. One more follow-up; could you explain "sounds better" between the Macbook and the Mini?