The long wait is over: The new Bridge II Code is live! (currently on hold pending a bug fix) v3.6.2

Not only is it impractical, but it’s been my experience that VMs are memory hogs that slow down the performance of any computer. When using a low overhead OS like Linux it may be okay; but Windows? I don’t think so. Thanks but no thanks.

I’m with you on remotes. I don’t like a gaggle of them lined up on my table, and I don’t like the compromises of the programmable smart remote (currently I have the Harmony Touch). I will give props to Comcast (horrors!) in that when they updated DVR hardware, they did two things that I respect. One, they added RF so line of sight is no longer an issue. My equipment stand is behind a hulking center channel speaker, and has perforated metal doors. Second, though the remote is all new, they retained most of the key button locations and it’s easy for me to go back and forth between the old one (bedroom) and new (big system). BUCKET LIST: Compliment Comcast

I think it’s very handy to use Roon to control your volume. For safety you could set up a max volume level just incase you slide the volume control too far. The Bridge sounds pretty good, even better now with the latest firmware (but with a few odd issues) and I think it sounds good because it does I2S straight into the DAC. Ted has mentioned getting I2S to sound good is the easiest out of all the input options. Other inputs like USB for example need galvanic isolation and/or regens to sound their best. I would imagine adding galvanic isolation for your ethernet cable into the Bridge would step things up a notch with sound quality.

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I’m perplexed right now. I have 3.6.2 loaded and I’ve confirmed the version. My artwork has started appearing on two separate albums. Was something changed and the version remained the same?

Seegs - Does your system pop when adjusting volume with the software controller?

No, I hear nothing odd when I change the volume within either the desktop version or android application. I don’t have any of the DSP or volume limiter settings turned on. So if you do, maybe that’s where the noise is coming from?

No DSP. It wasn’t happening initially. It got where if I swiped back and forth it would click a bunch then choke Roon. Rebooting Roon seems to have fixed it.

Thanks for all the tips - I’m familiar with all of that, I just don’t keep up on all the changes/features in Roon, so was unaware of the volume control.

Re. Windows on Mac, there are several solutions: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3224399/microsoft-windows/5-top-ways-to-run-windows-on-a-mac.html

For a brief and highly unusual use such as downgrading the Bridge firmware, plainly anyone can find a way run Windows on a Mac. Or borrow a Windows machine.

One could also simply choose not to have a stroke about the current bugs, and live with them until a solution is available - either way, it’s a trivial burden.

Trivial indeed.

I am continually amazed at how much emotion is invested by some in something as insignificant as an operating system choice.

My chosen monstrously successful technology company can beat your preferred monstrously successful technology company. So there. :slight_smile:

I guess it’s as trivial a choice as choosing one digital to analog converter over another. DS DAC? just as good as the other guy, right? After all, it’s just software and electronics…

I won’t. I do. And it’s not.

Exactly; it is simply a preference.

For me, it’s a functional thing. I simply cannot use macOS because there are so many applications and functions that I use in Windows to which there is no macOS equivalent.

Yes. For me, it would be akin to buying a car which I could operate only on 10% of roads.

But Macs meet others’ needs. I also know a couple of people who are happy to pay the price premium in exchange for Apple’s walled garden and brick and mortar service locations.

It is good to have options.

That is so 1990’s thinking.

I’ve been using Macs since 1983 and have always been able to do whatever I needed to do with them. You wouldn’t have Windows today if it wasn’t for Apple and the Mac. Sure, there were many apps that you could not get on Macs but that doesn’t mean there weren’t alway always alternatives. Your 10% is a little too strong. With the Mac you run on 80% to 90% of the roads.

With macOS today, I have more flexibility than ever. I can all the Mac apps I want plus all the Unix apps I care to run. Windows can’t do that. Plus, I can run Windows as a VM or natively if I really want to. Macs are much more flexible today than ever. They can do more than a Windows machine can. The price premium isn’t what you suggest it is either. Considering the performance, the prices are just about on par with equivalent quality and spec Windows boxes.

Yes, it is good to have options…and a bit of a reality check.

I have lots of both in my life. My wife has an iMac, I have airport extremes and expresses running my network. I’m typing this in an iPad mini and use an iPhone to run JRemote. I also have a big Win 10 machine that runs JRiver. There’s no perfect software or computer system. It’s not that hard to jump back and forth. They are both easy to make do what you need done. Plus, given the money we spend on this hobby, having a Windows and Apple machine to do different tasks doesn’t seem like a big deal.

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I’m absolutely certain many people can do whatever they need with a Mac. I happen to be one of those where this is not the case; the applications I need/want are simply not available for Macs. There are some alternative programs which can be run on a Mac, but they are not competitive in performance or price. Thus, for me, a Mac is a poor option.

[The fact that multiple virtual machine programs, Boot Camp, Windows compatibility layer, etc. exist is proof alone the offerings for Macs are limited. Why the need for all of this Windows compatibility options if Macs do everything. :wink: ]

I also happen to dislike Apple’s need to control - what apps you can download for your phone, what hardware is compatible/will be supported, even whether you can readily readily open the machine. Others find this comforting. This reaction may well arise from having been involved with computers long before the first Mac was even an concept. For that matter, this was pre-DOS, too.

I last witnessed the Mac price premium when shopping laptops a bit less than a year ago. For me, laptops are toys and perfect for buying the latest and greatest. I routinely compare what everyone offers when shopping for such toys, including Apple. The Apple equivalent to the state of the art Windows machine I bought was literally a good 30%+ more expensive; not worth considering - as all the reviewers also pointed out. :slight_smile:

Again, use what you prefer. Windows users are not zombies; Mac users, not [insert demeaning name here]. It is exactly like buying a DAC. It is all about what you happen to like.

Bottom line is that the situation with the Bridge software for now is what it is. Your options are to like it, tolerate it as it is until fixed or you find the means to downgrade, or move on. Pretty simple options considering we are up in arms about the 3" square display and not the sound quality. Continually complaining about these “minor” inconveniences serve no purpose. My 2 cents.

No…there are plenty of things you literally cannot do on a mac as there is no software control to do certain things within the operating system. And yes, there are plenty of application that have literally no equivalent within macOS. A few examples of what I mean is that macOS is garbage from a video playback standpoint. As it stands macOS has no native support for HDR. On top of this the quality media playback methods on macOS are few and far between. There is no equivalent to madVR on macOS. This rules out quality rendering, scaling and high quality video processing.

Then we can look at gaming. macOS has a horrible catalog if you want to play games and many that are ported to work on macOS often give you far less frames per second on an otherwise identical computer from a hardware standpoint.

If you like granular control over pretty much every facet of your computer experience macOS is not the operating system to choose. Something Linux based or Windows based is by far the better choice. There are a lot of 'stock" features in Windows that mac users are often forced to pay for through 3rd party software because Apple doesn’t include them within the OS. For instance I know a lot of you guys pay for something called “bit-perfect” on MacOS. It’s ridiculous to me that it isn’t an option within macOS that’s easy to access or included with the OS like in Windows. This has been a stock feature in Windows since Windows 7 was released almost 10 years ago.

If you were to go to a computer enthusiast forum equivalent to this audiophile one, you will not see people using mac computers. They will be running something linux or windows based. To them, macOS/Apple is the Bose of the computer world.

There are a lot of other things I can mention, but I have a feeling that most of the mac guys here simply don’t want to hear it so I’ll leave it at that.

I agree with much of what Elk has stated in terms of the capabilities of Mac’s or their lack thereof. I am a computer scientist by profession. I spent the last 23 years of my career working for the government in cyber security and computer forensics. I was a DOS, Linux and Windows guy in the mid 90’s and eventually converted 100% to Mac. You can read into that all you want but once I made the switch to Mac, I have never looked back, nor regretted my decision.

Anyway, I still do government work, and my system of choice is Mac. I do a lot of weird sh@# still with computers to this day and I don’t need a Windows machine to accomplish any of it. Based on MY personal experience, Windows runs much more reliably Bootcamp’d in a Mac environment. I am not talking VM (i.e. Parallels or any other inferior option). I strictly use Bootcamp. Why might you ask do I prefer Windows run on a Bootcamp’d Mac as opposed to some (any) PC hardware environment? My answer is simple. I have pushed hardware to its wits end doing processor and memory intensive work on the forensic side. I have never had a more reliable and stable environment than running Windows in Mac. I’ve procured some of the most expensive PC equipment imaginable (think Homeland Security budget) and yet I still prefer Mac and Windows run in Mac.

If you understand how hardware interfaces with software, this should be of no surprise. Think about an operating system like Windows. How on earth can you expect Windows to perform reliably when you have to accommodate an infinite amount of disparate hardware and the often shoddy firmware programming that accompanies it? You can gripe about the cost of Apple computing devices but what it has going for it is stability - which stems from the development to perfect an operating system that absolutely plays well with the select hardware it is assigned. Apple only has to develop firmware for a specific set of hardware devices. A Windows machine is asked to do the impossible. It is an operating system framework that is expected to perform well with every single piece of third party hardware and firmware that any given company develops - much of which is absolutely garbage. It is too much to ask of it in my opinion. It simply doesn’t stand a chance.

In my professional experience, Windows performs more efficiently and reliably in a Mac Bootcamp environment compared to any PC based platform I have ever used, cost no object. BUT, I understand why some want/need to maintain Windows. In case you didn’t notice in this post, I use both Mac and Windows and rely on both. I just chose to use Mac exclusively for both my Windows and Mac needs and feel Mac hardware is better able to run Windows OS more reliably than any PC hardware I have experienced.