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[simp2005]

HI
Its my first time using the jriver software. I have it on my macbook going to the Hugo tt HD input. I have noticed that the mid frequencies sound very thin and low. Listened to some Police tracks just now and the vocals sound very low level and low in the mox. Any ideas what is causing this? I have the equalizer setting set to "Flat" and would have thoughtthis should be okay as the pre amp i go into from the dac does not have any tone controls on it. When i play my micromega cd transport into the Hugo TT via optical it sounds much better, Is there something i am doing wrong?

[blgentry]

I would check a few things:

DSP Settings:
A.  Turn off everything except for Output Format.
B.  Look at the Output Format > Sample Rate section.  Make sure you are mapping input rates to output rates correctly for your DAC.  I think the default might be down sampling some rates.  Set up the mapping for the rates your DAC can handle.
C.  In Output format > Output Encoding make sure it's set to NONE.  Output Format > Channels, make sure this is set to your true number of channels:  Set it to 2 if you have only 2 speakers or headphones.
D.  Check the Volume slider at the upper left corner and make sure it's maxed out.  100% is normally the absolute best sound quality.

That's all I can think of for now.  Good luck!

Brian.

[AndyU]

I have a Hugo TT. It should sound unbelievably good. imo you don't want or need any DSP or volume control. The TT supports up to 24bit 384kHz audio via USB, so there's no need to do any mapping, and the volume control is part of the DAC so there's no point preceding it with another one. You might as well leave the Output Format box unchecked. The simplest way to check that your MC settings are not doing anything is to look at the little equaliser icon in the top bit of the main window at the right just under where the track details are displayed. This should be blue, indicating MC is making no changes. You can right click it to see what the audio path is and what the bit rate of what you are playing is. In addition make sure you have disabled MCs volume control or that the volume is at 100% as somewhat contentiously MC regard their volume control as not making any changes (even when it is set to 0).

Another possible explanation for your poor sound is that you have in some way messed up your ripping, which is why you are getting a worse result than the cd. Again the audio path window will tell you what is going on.

[simp2005]

Thanks for your replies:-) i am now wondering if it is the rips i am using as it seems to be bad on a ploice discography that i downloaded and didnt rip myself(own all the albums on vinyl) but thought easier to download. Other dsd files i have downloaded sound good

[AndyU]

Thanks for your replies:-) i am now wondering if it is the rips i am using as it seems to be bad on a ploice discography that i downloaded and didnt rip myself(own all the albums on vinyl) but thought easier to download. Other dsd files i have downloaded sound good

Easy enough to find out - you said in your original post that your CD player sounds fine, so why not rip a CD that sounds fine into some lossless format - FLAC, ALAC or WAV - and compare. Rob Watts, the designer of the TT, has said elsewhere that the USB input of the TT is very slightly better than the optical input so if anything you might expect a very subtle improvement.

[simp2005]

Thanks m. I will give that a try tomorrow. Is jriver the best software to rip also?

[AndyU]

Thanks m. I will give that a try tomorrow. Is jriver the best software to rip also?

JRiver does a perfectly good job of ripping, but fwiw I used dBpoweramp (on a PC) because it gave me better tagging options for my classical  music and was faster,  but the rips are identical so I'd just use what you find convenient. Some people in the Mac world like EAC. Important thing is that you rip to a lossless format - I use FLAC. But the first thing is to sort out your sq issues with your Hugo TT - mine is simply the most involving, resolving, breathtakingly good DAC I've ever had, it completely raises the bar about what to expect from Hifi.

[simp2005]

Seems all good now :-) think the rip i downloaded was dodgy as i ripped the same cd myself which sounds as it should. Does anyone know how to make a full album play in a row? Every time i select a track from the iphone app it plays to the end of the track but doesnt go on to the next without me selecting that track

[AndyU]

Seems all good now :-) think the rip i downloaded was dodgy as i ripped the same cd myself which sounds as it should. Does anyone know how to make a full album play in a row? Every time i select a track from the iphone app it plays to the end of the track but doesnt go on to the next without me selecting that track

Great. Which iPhone app do you mean?

[simp2005]

Its the jremote app

[AndyU]

Its the jremote app

After you've clicked the album and the list of tracks comes up, there's a little triangle icon at the top of the window just to the right of the album name. If you tap this icon you get a list of options for the default tap mode. You want "Play all now" if you want a tap to play the whole album. Or possibly "Play all next".