XXHighEnd

I had an email exchange with Peter this morning, when I posed this question:

I do have a question about using the XXHighEnd PC for "seeing" the internet.  I'd like to be able to play streaming music files off of Tidal, into the NOS1a.  If I just confine the XX computer to playing streaming music off of the Tidal website, as well as its normal duties playing ripped files through XXHighEnd, I don't think I'll have exposure to viruses.  Do you see any significant problem with this?

To this, Peter responded:

Well, I can see a bit of problems with Tidal and such. So a normal protection you can’t apply (but actually have to) because of that being detrimental to about everything and a more smart one would be more difficult that I would be able to cope with (I just don’t have the PC connected, so I don’t care about anything).
What about putting this to the forum ? Maybe someone has arranged for it in sufficiently decent fashion.

Good idea!  So what do you think?

As services like Tidal (in the US; www.tidalhifi.com) and WiMP (in parts of Europe and maybe elsewhere; www.wimpmusic.com) provide access to millions of tracks of music, in real time, at high quality (44.1 kHz/16-bit, 1411 kbps, lossless), it would be great if we could use our existing XXHighEnd PC to play tracks into the NOS1 DAC.  Otherwise, I assume we have to use a second computer that is linked to the internet to play streaming files, with the attendant USB cable input switching between sources (I think) into the NOS1.  I'm aware that playing streaming files, even lossless FLAC files via the likes of Tidal or WiMP, won't have the benefit of arc prediction and other magic that the XXHighEnd program applies, but it's a huge step in the right direction.  Peter has even alluded (I think--it's hard to decipher his allusions, or illusions) to working on something to use XXHighEnd (or maybe a modification in NOS1?) to apply that magic to streaming files.

I know that Peter is concerned about viruses, since the XXHighEnd computer is running without virus protection, and of course it would be crazy to willy-nilly surf the web on the XX PC without virus protection.  (Gee, even the name "XXHighEnd" could attract the wrong kind of websites and spam, if you get my drift!!)

But what about restricting the computer's internet use to Tidal or WiMP, to play streaming music?  Is anyone doing this "in sufficiently decent fashion"?  Any problems/concerns?

Mark

Maybe the question rephrased :

Is nobody using his audio PC (be that the "XXHighEnd PC" or otherwise) while being connected to the Internet ?
But if you do, what do you use for protection to satisfaction ?

Thanks !
Peter

Uh...yeah!  That's what I meant to say! :scratching:

Mark

No real difference Mark; I only tried to simplify the question somewhat. But it doesn't looke like people have the answers. Like me myself.

Nobody ?

Peter

My XXHighEnd PC is connected to the internet.
I do not have any concerns, why should I if I only go to sites I know are virus free? No mail program installed.

For protection so to say is that I have a virus free image of the whole system for the unlikely case I need the restore everything.
So basically a complete backup of everything.
Installing a virus software is not a good solution because these programs install services running in the background doing funny things.

Tidal and other services currently sound not good without Peters Software so I do not use them although I would love to.
So the only solution I see is if Peter programmed some kind of sound driver proxy directly feeding into XXHighEnd. There is other similiar software out there exactly doing that.

Regards, Michael

Thank you for your vision Michael. However, I am afraid not many will "dig it".
Shall I now try to be confusing (ain't I always) ?

This could also be my answer, but it is too difficult to make it practice :

I never ever run anti-virus software anywhere. For how long ? since forever. It is too detrimental for a well behaving PC anyway, and I seem to be able to have "virus sensors". And I never had one.
And this response is not much different from Michael's, although I run everything I require, like email and such.

So good advice ? no, I don't think so. But it would be true that if you really don't do anything else (than e.g. running Tidal) the risk would be very small. But also, for such an audio PC most of us got used to have a fresh install of that. Not me, but if I look back ... what about hundreds and hundreds (all receiving a free Activation Code again, so I know ...).

Peter

So the other subject :


Working on that ...
But as far as it is now it won't be easy to let it sound good that way. So currently I am working on all sorts of "tweaks" to let it go like it's required, but this is not easy and would come down to stealing. So that's not the way either.
Another project in my hands ...

Regards,
Peter

Hi all,

A bit of news about this; and sad news I'm afraid :
It won't go beyond what I said above, although I was on a good track of doing way better. So what happened in the mean time ?

Ehm, working on a real integration of Tidal. Beautiful.
Not so beautiful though is that today this exercise has been cut off by Tidal because the buyer of them (some baseball player I think) will be working on their own "new version" (I am not telling everything here) and what I was doing will not be allowed any more. Or at least it can not be by the old Tidal crue because it will be / may be working against new strategies, not in their hands.

Call it world news if you like, but notice this is first hand news.

Peter

Peter

How bout Qobuz?

Very solid library and long on the market.
Could be the more "stable" choice.

Regards Michael

Peter, many brands have Tidal integrated now

OPPO Digital adds Tidal Streaming Service to its Blu-ray players:

http://www.hifisentralen.no/forumet/bransjenyheter/79548-oppo-digital-adds-tidal-streaming-service-its-blu-ray-players.html


Tore

Hi there Tore,

"Embedded software" as how it is called for players like the Oppo, is something else than normal software.
I was working on this (together with Tidal) but halfway they bailed out (had to bail out) because of the purchase by Jay Z or whatever his name is.
So I had to give up, obviously.

Regards,
Peter