Fidelia 2.0 is a most unexpected but satisfying surprise...
This will be of interest only to a small number of music lovers, but was a most pleasant surprise to discover today, as regards the impact for my own listening in environments with a modern MacOS computer...
Some upgrades come very slowly... especially from firms whose main focus is relatively high end specialty tools for recording studio work... in this case, I am talking about AudioFile Engineering, and FIDELIA, their digital music player, introduced many years ago for MacOS. This is not a streaming app emulating source like ROOT or Spotify. This is just a very high fidelity player, seemingly designed to even higher standards and with surprising new capabilities, though perhaps not in light of the general market this company serves, professional audio studio work.
To this end, a number of techniques are employed to achieve bit perfect playback using exclusive mode, bypassing the normal MacOS audio mixer with a signal path that prevents interference from other audio devices, and maintains bit perfect performance with advanced sample rate following or conversion, and processing modules for Headphone processing with frequency-dependent cross-feed modeled on real head acoustics, sample-rate conversion, and final-stage dither sit in the listening path. Needless to say, nearly any digital format you may have heard of is supported, including AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, DSF/DSD, APE, and the standard formats used in the Apple Music Library. Support is provided for setting up a Library of local and remote files under the FIDELIA LIB heading, but the local existing Apple Music Library is also available as a separate choice.
No DAW or outboard processing required to shape the chain, resulting in an experience not like the sonics of a good PC or Mac, but that of boutique Hi-Fi components- my first reaction was to wonder how it could be possible they could have incorporated the equivalent of a Brainstorm DCD-8 with external Rubidium reference oscillator in the signal path...
Furthermore, those doing mastering review and typically using 3rd Party DSP solutions will find that this player has "slots" to support adding these professional tools in for professional tasks, or... just because.
Every organization these days seems capable of producing luridly optimistic prose to promote their products, but from the opening bars of Animal Logic (Stanley Clarke, Steward Copeland, Deborah Holland) "There's a Spy (in the house of love), my first reaction was who upgraded my speakers while I was installing this software? Tonal purity and transient definition mirrored what I would expect were a Brainstorm DCD-8 clocking system with an accessory rubidium oscillator in the digital signal path. Startling, not subtle.
A number of cuts from Eric Johnson confirmed the perplexing phenomenon- including the recent favorite of Jon and Steve, "Texas". Superb transient and tonal resolution... Eric Johnson "Gem" fully lives up to the title...
The monitor speakers used for this evaluation are Tuk Kantos, which do incorporate an air motion transformer treble unit and a carefully designed ported enclosure with a woofer that looks suspiciously like one of the inverted dome cone Peerless drivers... with the built in USB amplification which accepts a wide range of sample rates.
https://audiofile.engineering/fidelia/
Of interesting note for some, an iPhone based remote control application is available.
THE FORCE AWAKENS....
Some upgrades come very slowly... especially from firms whose main focus is relatively high end specialty tools for recording studio work... in this case, I am talking about AudioFile Engineering, and FIDELIA, their digital music player, introduced many years ago for MacOS. This is not a streaming app emulating source like ROOT or Spotify. This is just a very high fidelity player, seemingly designed to even higher standards and with surprising new capabilities, though perhaps not in light of the general market this company serves, professional audio studio work.
To this end, a number of techniques are employed to achieve bit perfect playback using exclusive mode, bypassing the normal MacOS audio mixer with a signal path that prevents interference from other audio devices, and maintains bit perfect performance with advanced sample rate following or conversion, and processing modules for Headphone processing with frequency-dependent cross-feed modeled on real head acoustics, sample-rate conversion, and final-stage dither sit in the listening path. Needless to say, nearly any digital format you may have heard of is supported, including AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, DSF/DSD, APE, and the standard formats used in the Apple Music Library. Support is provided for setting up a Library of local and remote files under the FIDELIA LIB heading, but the local existing Apple Music Library is also available as a separate choice.
No DAW or outboard processing required to shape the chain, resulting in an experience not like the sonics of a good PC or Mac, but that of boutique Hi-Fi components- my first reaction was to wonder how it could be possible they could have incorporated the equivalent of a Brainstorm DCD-8 with external Rubidium reference oscillator in the signal path...
Furthermore, those doing mastering review and typically using 3rd Party DSP solutions will find that this player has "slots" to support adding these professional tools in for professional tasks, or... just because.
Every organization these days seems capable of producing luridly optimistic prose to promote their products, but from the opening bars of Animal Logic (Stanley Clarke, Steward Copeland, Deborah Holland) "There's a Spy (in the house of love), my first reaction was who upgraded my speakers while I was installing this software? Tonal purity and transient definition mirrored what I would expect were a Brainstorm DCD-8 clocking system with an accessory rubidium oscillator in the digital signal path. Startling, not subtle.
A number of cuts from Eric Johnson confirmed the perplexing phenomenon- including the recent favorite of Jon and Steve, "Texas". Superb transient and tonal resolution... Eric Johnson "Gem" fully lives up to the title...
The monitor speakers used for this evaluation are Tuk Kantos, which do incorporate an air motion transformer treble unit and a carefully designed ported enclosure with a woofer that looks suspiciously like one of the inverted dome cone Peerless drivers... with the built in USB amplification which accepts a wide range of sample rates.
https://audiofile.engineering/fidelia/
Of interesting note for some, an iPhone based remote control application is available.
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