Neil Young Archives: Getting The Best Audio Experience

Neil Young w/ Engineer John Hanlon

via frame film: MOUNTAINTOP by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

 

The question of how to achieve the best audio experience on Neil Young Archives continues to be a challenging question for even the most sophisticated rustie audiophiles.

Over the years, we have heard a wide variety of solutions from simple to extremely expensive.  We have been hearing about these dilemmas off & on going back to 2008 with NYA #1 and the BluRay system.  While NYA does have a specific section on Listen | Times-Contrarian, even so, the options and complexities boggle many rustie minds.

So how to get  the right technology mix to enjoy NYA in all of its splendid ragged glory?

Listen | Times-Contrarian | NYA

Are you looking for optimal high resolution audio for your phone?  If so, which platform?  Are you looking for optimal high resolution audio for your home  system? Or for your car?  Are you looking for home theater, surround sound, high definition video?  And on and on.

We our selves here at TW HQ, have been building our own systems since a teenager with tuners, amps, pre-amps, mixers, etc and are a bit stumped on how best to proceed with our next upgrade.

Back in 2009, we embarked on a major system upgrade for the BluRay for NYA#1.  Even then, we don't feel we ever really got the maximum effect of the high resolution 24/96 audio.  

And here we are in 2021 trying to figure out options. We're shooting for nirvana and poor Thrashette is losing her patience. We had set a goal of trying to achieve the whole solution. A solution that allows playback from any device, anywhere.

Initially, we thought that wireless speakers were the route.  But then discovered most don't support high resolution 24/96 audio which led us to BluOS. From NYA:

10-16-20

A Home System For NYA

BluOS hi-res wireless distributed audio platform is expanding the integration of the Neil Young Archives (NYA) - worldwide, after originally being introduced in May to North America.

NYA members from around the world have asked for this and we’re appreciative of Lenbrook’s expansion. Lenbrook International is the developer of BluOS.

image via "Horse Back" music video
Engineered and mixed by John Hanlon at Audio Casa Blanca Jan 6, 2012, assisted by Mark Humphreys and John Hausman

 

 

Which brings us to some exchanges with a reader Steven F. Steven wrote us the following:

 

I've got a Redmi Note 9 S. (Android phone) 

 

It's ready to go and integrate with any old school analogue setup. Just connect like you would a portable CD player or minidisk from back in the day. I bought it specifically for its audio quality and massive expandable micro SD slot. A massive 500 gigabyte! That's approx 100 DVD's worth. 

If a phone has an earphone socket it's got a built in DAC. You can run this into an old school amp setup using a simple analogue cable or plug headphones directly into the analogue jack.

Also you can use the newer type c usb socket out to analogue using the cable below. As illustrated below. No added tech interface needed. If you have a home hifi surround sound setup you can get a cable that does hdmi. I also have two Marshall Acton2 Bluetooth speakeers for convenience.

They don't receive full audio quality via Bluetooth but allow a non tethered approach yet also have an analogue in for tethering. They are a touch of vanity and cheaper yet superior quality speakers are available. If you've got an analogue speaker setup then I'd tether to it via the amp using cables.

The beauty of this phone is it's audio chipset...at the budget price. I don't have 'golden ears' but all ways of output sound amazing. 

I hope this helps. It's the cheapest setup I could find it's camera is high quality too. Big screen, charge lasts all day. 

Forgot to mention for my own files,  I'm using USB Audio player pro. It's a simple interface. But has abilities to playback high quality files on SD cards. With lots of other features like Qobuz, tidal and shoutcast integration.

N7 player is fantastic but doesn't have as many options like Qobuz. But on a kindle fire setup it has a Dolby setting that just gives music a really nice depth, in time Amazon devices will probably be the goto for audio enthusiasts in the future but the storage capacity limitations on SD cards and tweaked applications make trouble shooting glitches hard whereas a pure Android platform has more users and developers. I wanted a DIY Pono./ Setup.

 

The Redmi 9 audio chip setup is uniquely affordable.  Also, it has a built in 'cast button' to send the screen to external TV's and monitors.

I'm going to then maybe build a Rig around a Kindle Fire 8 or 10 the big screen would be appealing for a static home setup.

 

Amazon with its high quality switch to Audio means I would predict some very specific quality upgrades to its infrastructure very soon, targeting audiophiles but I haven't seen it yet.

 

Note: The Archives App currently does not work properly (if at all) on a Kindle Fire 8 HD. 'Side loading' doesn't work properly. 

 

I'm going to try an analogue mouse with different Web Browsers to try get the Archives full content. The big screen is perfect for the visual side.

I haven't found a video player I'm really happy with. VLC and MX player being the best. I think maybe MXPlayer Pro will be my purchase to iron out the niggles.

So, if you want a DIY Pono then the Redmi note 9 s is my choice. 

 

If you want a home Rig only, I'm guessing waiting for the next Kindle Fire range might pay off. 

I know this is all sounding a pain but I've tried lots of options beyond all this

 

Here's a review of the audio chip.

https://www.einfoldtech.com/2020/04/redmi-note-9s-review/

 

 

The Redmi Note 9S uses the Qualcomm Aqstic WCD937X audio codec has an integrated DAC (Digital-to-Analog) converter that supports up to 192-kHz/24-bit playback. The audio codec also supports dual oscillators; the dual-clock design supports sampling frequencies 44.1kHz and 48kHz independently so your music files can be processed at native sampling rates without any conversion.

Qualcomm WCD9375 codec added an extra element of quality. To improve the audio, Qualcomm decided to work with a group of audiophiles called Golden Ears. These are people who are able to “identify the slightest distortions in the music, the characteristics of different digital filters, reverberation, colouring, panning, harmonics and more”.

This is actually a very rare skill and you have it trained or naturally. There are programs that must be followed to obtain Golden Ears certification and usually take years to complete. Most manufacturers that use Golden Ears are those that make really expensive audio products that sell for thousands of dollars. Qualcomm has now brought the same high quality to its smartphone codecs.

Qualcomm adjusted the WCD937x codec using comments from a Golden Ears group. They designed a digital audio filter to do this. This filter can also be customised so that OEMs can design it to meet different needs and have their own particular sound signature. Qualcomm says the latter is necessary as audio quality can be quite subjective.

Many thanks for sharing here Steven! Hopefully this will be helpful for others.  Feel free to drop replies below.

More on Neil Young Archives: Don't Cry No "Tiers" Around Us + Comment of the Moment: Timeline Concerts on NYA. 

Also, more details on "To Feel the Music: A Songwriter's Mission To Save High Quality Music" by Neil Young and Phil Baker.

"To Feel the Music"
by Neil Young and Phil Baker

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