BD-Design - Only the best!
It seems that most people do not understand why the CrazyT is superior in sound and flexibility compared commonly used digital playback systems (like the Squeezebox, Windows Media Player, Foobar or even normal CD-Playback). Other people might run into problems with the hardware and software installation or need to know more information about setting up or buying things to use within their system.
Hopefully this page will make things more clear in time as the problem to understand is usually lack of knowledge but also prejudice or ingnorance...
Please use our forum to ask questions or dicuss the issue if you can't find your answer here. In time those answers will be added to list below to help people who would like to learn more.
HARDWARE & SOFTWARE:
Why is the CrazyT better than other solutions used for PC-Playback?
The CrazyT is with distance the best "DAC" available for digital playback through a PC based system as inherent problems with PC's are history with this dedicated DAC, the only thing the PC will be doing is sending buffers with data (error corrected like making a copy to an external hard disc) from which the data stream is generated within the CrazyT itself using its own very stable clock and clean power supply and passed on to the internal DAC. In other words, all negative influences computers have to an audio system are history with the CrazyTy. No dirty switching power, no cheap unstable PC clocks causing jitter and no corrupted data stream generating even more jitter leaving a clean and accurate data stream fed directly into the DAC itself. The DAC is based on a twin multi-bit converter without oversampling or using any filtering with a transformer based output section (no active elements used at the analogue side).
The sound is still somewhat harsch and "digital, why is that?
This is probably caused by wrongly earth connections throughout the system. Mostly the signal ground of the equipment is or even should be connected to the mains earth and if the PC is also connected to the mains earth then the galvanic isolation between the PC and the CrazyT signal ground is lost. Through earth the switching mains noise of the PC has entered your signal again and that is what should be prevented. The optimal way to connect things properly is to use a mains socket for the PC without mains earth connection.
What is the supported bit depth and sample frequency?
Basically the CrazyT only supports 16bit @ 44.1kHz WAV-files which is the same as 95% (perhaps even more) of the existing digital world of music.
Which file formats are supported by the CrazyT? Does it play MP3, WMA or similar compressed files?
No, the CrazyT Hardware only supports uncompressed WAV files (true 16bit @ 44.1kHz) simply because optimal quality (i.e. bitperfect!) is what we want to hear. FLAC (lossless compression format) is supported though as this file format is being unpacked to WAV again before playing.
Does the CrazyT have SPDIF or another digital input than USB to be able to use my CD-transport for playing my CD's?
No, even though it would be possible to add an extra digital input but then the whole concept of playing bitperfect without reading errors and ultra low jitter will become useless.
Sometimes it takes longer than usual to load a track, why is that?
Usually reason for slow loading is that the scanned cover art was done in a very high resolution giving very large files. For normal screen resolutions this is not needed and even worse, the cover art shown looks distorted when resized. Best resolution to scan your cover art is 96DPI with a maximum of 150DPI to show sharp and clear images without delaying the loading of tracks.
