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Bitzie. Took the plunge & iTunes alternative

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wolfie01902 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 3:24pm
Hello all,

I'm a newbie and this is my first post!

Just to say I won't need the loan of the Bitzie - as I've ordered one yesterday!

I'm pretty confident from comments and other remarks on here, who know a lot more than I do, that I won't be disappointed.

I was looking at the Audiolab M-Dac, too large to fit on my desk and the new Chord TX Chordette.
I really liked how the Chord looked but realised I was probably going on looks alone and the cost was really too prohibitive. £990!

So I await my Bitzie and rest assured I will post my humble opinions when I've had time with it

My system:
iMac, (the new 2013 model) with Grado GS1000 headphones, which I will use with the Bitzie

One question for people;
I use iTunes with almost all of my music lossless and I've recently started downloading from Linn and Bowers & Wilkins 24 bit studio masters,
But I keep picking up little snippets of an iTunes alternative as in "Just Add Foobar2000 (or a MAC equivalent)" as in the Bitzie info page, could anyone explain the "equivalents" and indeed the benefits for a mac user?
Bear in mind I use Apple AirPlay to a zeppelin air too.

Many thanks

Jeremy.

Edited by wolfie01902 - 10 Apr 2013 at 4:56pm
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mitch65 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mitch65 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 3:29pm
....having tried the M-Dac, I think your choice may well be sound Wink
Greg

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Audiolab 8000A
Auralic Aries Mini
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote morris_minor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 7:16pm
Hi Jeremy,

I'm a Mac user, though having a Squeezebox network I don't really use it for playing music. But having said that I do sometimes play the FLACs on the server on the Mac. For this I use a simple player called Cog (from sbooth.org), as iTunes doesn't do FLACs.

I think the reference to Mac equivalents to Foobar was for playing formats that iTunes doesn't handle, or for those who have a dislike of iTunes.

Edit: the Bitzie sounds great - good choice!


Edited by morris_minor - 10 Apr 2013 at 7:17pm
Bob

Majestic DAC/pre-amp
Accession MC/Enigma, Accession MM, Reflex M, Elevator EXP, Era Gold V
Solo ULDE, Novo, Lautus USB and digital, Libran balanced, CuSat50
2 x Proprius + Spatia/Spatia Links
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ICL1P Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 7:27pm
It seems Stephen Booth didn't develop Cog and it doesn't appear to be hosted on his website any more, unless I'm missing it. He has Play and Decibel.
Ifor
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Reflex M & ACCESSION M, CuSat50, Majestic DAC, a Proprius pair.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote morris_minor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 8:49pm
Sorry! Try here http://cogx.org/
Bob

Majestic DAC/pre-amp
Accession MC/Enigma, Accession MM, Reflex M, Elevator EXP, Era Gold V
Solo ULDE, Novo, Lautus USB and digital, Libran balanced, CuSat50
2 x Proprius + Spatia/Spatia Links
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fatmangolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 9:18pm
Hi Jeremy and thanks for joining us here in the friendly and helpful community of GSP owners. Congratulations on your purchase of the Bitzie.
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GoSUV Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Apr 2013 at 4:20am
If you mainly use iTunes for your music, I can suggest something that runs on top of iTunes (instead of in place of), which will improve the sound quality. The application is called BitPerfect. It tries to hog certain resources on the computer to give highest priority to audio output so that jitter is reduced. There is noticeable improvement with iTunes + BitPerfect vs. just iTunes. The app only costs a few bucks so it doesn't hurt to give it a try. There are more sophisticated apps that do similar things, and allegedly sounds even better than BitPerfect, but some of them cost hundreds of bucks.

I am not in any way affiliated with BitPerfect, just a customer. With that said, BitPerfect is still improving and there are some annoying bugs which needs addressing, but overall I'm happy with its bang for buck ratio.

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