Getting the most from the Logitech Touch

[BobM]

I just love that, when something says 6TB you expect that the formatting and such will maximize the usable space. Then you look closer and see you only have 4.5TB of usable space. I know storage is cheap but that's a lot of lost space due to partitioning/configuration issues and such.

Anyway, I use EAC always and the resulting rips and subsequent burns to CD do often sound slightly better than the original. I've found that a little bit of Macguires auto polishing compound on a soft cotton cloth helps to polish the original source CD quite nicely and definitely improves the quality of the rip. It's been a rare instance that this little trick couldn't get rid of a scratch and make the rip perfect.

[mdconnelly]

Bob... improves the quality of the rip?   That should only be the case on a marginal disk that might not rip correctly without being cleaned.  But I have experienced that cleaning a CD allows for a quicker rip because of fewer rereads when errors are encountered. 

[Deton Nation]

Well... I didnt explain myself very well.. lol as usual.
The Raid 5 setup is 4 drives (1.5TB) and if one drive goes dead, the other 3 can rebuild the 4th drive. For safety!  So you sacrifice the space of 1 drive with rebuild ability. You also get fast writes/reads because the info is written across 4 drives instead of goin go just one drive. Raid 10 is faster than 5 but you lose 2 drives spacewise.
M

[mfsoa]

Is there a list of bitrates for the stations on Internet radio?

I don't know how common the 256K channels are but I found one "AVRO Baroque Around the Clock" that sounds quite good.

-Mike

[richidoo]

I think there is a way to check the sample rate of the stream you're listening to within the interface. At least there was on SB3, iirc. Most were 96 or lower a few years ago.

Nice find on AVRO, thanks.
http://www.avro.nl/web/webradio/

[mfsoa]

I see how to check the bit rates, but I'd love to have a list of higher bit-rate stations to put at the top of my check-this-out list

[Deton Nation]

Yeah, I think Ive seen some 256K stations, a 24/96 radio station would be cool 

[mfsoa]

OK silly question time, maybe-

With plugging in/ unplugging my external burner, primary HD and backup HD, the drives sometimes get recognized a different letters than they were  before, so if dBPoweramp or Squeezesoft is told to use the "E" drive, sometimes that drive is being called "F" by the computer.

Is there a way to permanently affix a letter to a drive (is this "Drive mapping" ?) or do I need to use the same turn-on / drive install procedure each time?

Thanks guys

-Mike

[richidoo]

This might help, Mike...

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=631&tag=content;leftCol

Instructions:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-12843-0.html?forumID=102&threadID=256171&messageID=2464160

Some of the user comments may be helpful too.

[djbnh]

I agree.   I do periodically run a full copy of my music and family photos to another drive that I then keep in my office at work.  But to be honest, I've had 2 hard drives fail over the years, but have not lost any music due to screw ups or pilot error (well, none that I know of yet .   So the raid just let's me worry a little bit less day to day.

But sure, there are several ways to skin a cat and ideally using both provides the best safeguards.  Drives are cheap relative to what it would cost to replace my full music collection and the impossibility of replacing the years of family photos.

I have a Cyberpower PC running Win7Pro, GigaByte GA-X58A-UD7 mobo (SATA-III RAID, USB 3.0 - great for overclocking  ), with 1TB Raid 0+1 (four 500MB drives), and 1TB External backup via USB 3.0 (Rosewill external enclosure RX-358-U3B). I like the redundancy plus speed of RAID 0+1, as well as the security and speed of full external backups using USB 3.0. I hate losing any data or spending unnecessary time trying to recreate it, so I go the redundant route and have far less worries for it. YMMV.

[djbnh]

If EAC and dbPowerAmp both complete clean rips without error and with AccurateRip confirmation, then you should have totally identical WAV files.   There is only ONE clean rip.  Anything else is not a lossless, clean rip.  So, if you have two identical WAV files - one from EAC and one from dbPoweramp, I cannot fathom how they could sound different.  Not saying they don't, just can't see how.  And if they two files are not identical, at least one of the two rips was not clean (my money is on EAC, but admittedly, getting it configured correctly can be a bit of a bear).

I've played with lots of different ripping software and there is no question that some do better than others but, IMHO, EAC and dbPoweramp are the best.  In my experience, a clean CD will provide a perfect rip with EAC or dbPowerAmp as along as they're configured correctly.

I want to say your mileage may vary - but it shouldn't

I'm wondering about this, too. Only thing that comes to mind is that EAC has the read-write head offset feature, but if that is properly set, then I think there should be no problem. For me, EAC has produced superior results. It's also made me marvel at its ability to resuscitate the info from badly handled (scratched) cds.

[mfsoa]

Sometimes when I start listening to the Touch (analog out) the right channel is out. Usually I just turn it off and on again and all's well. Today this didn't work so I checked another input on my pre (CD player) and the system worked fine. Switch back to Touch input, still no R channel.

So I decide to swap interconnects L for R on the Touch to see if the working channel also moves, and both channels play no prob. Switch them back and they both play just fine.  Weird. Almost like there was some static charge that got relieved by touching the cables.

Anyone else have issues with losing a channel and having to kick it to get it to come back?

Ordered two Jerome power supplies today, one for me and one for Tommy (Digital Amp Co.). The engineer in him is skeptical but it also was when I swapped powercords and the SQ improved dramatically. ("It can't be happening. There's no reason for it to be happening. But it sure is happening"  )

-Mike

[eclein]

One of the most profound improvements I ever made to my system was installing the PE linear power supply on my DUET, "Why..but wait its just a PS.."...whatever the science is or isn't I know my system sounds better because of it. I'm pretty sure the Touch will also benefit from a groovy power supply!!!!