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Digital tweak fest

Posted by mike1127 (A) on July 26, 2010 at 23:54:00

Digital usually suffers in comparison to analog---but after a lot of experimentation, I am convinced its faults are not so much in its “digitalness,” but rather the susceptibility of CD players and DACs to RF contamination, vibration, and problems in the optical interface to the disc. With the help of some tweaks, my digital system is now much closer to analog.

I want to review some of them.

First up is a CD mat: Herbie's Super Black Hole.
http://herbiesaudiolab.net/cdmat.htm

This is a small diameter, super-thin carbon fiber/silicone mat that damps vibrations in the clamping interface.

Before jumping in, let me describe my system. My CD player is the Naim CD5X, which I have always liked for its musicality and analog-like qualities. I am using the AKG K601 headphones together with a SET zero-feedback tube headphone amp, the Donald North Audio Sonett.

http://www.dnaudio.com/DNA-Sonett-headphone-amplifier.html

Even before tweaking, I feel my system has incredible musicality. What do I mean by “musicality”? It means I listen for emotions, for the ability of music to dance, to take flight, to soar to spiritual heights. I rarely talk about “detail” but I do talk about resolution. And I care about how beautiful music can be.

---- Herbie's Super Black Hole ---

I tested this with four tracks. In all cases, the Super Black Hole gave dramatic improvements in musicality. Technically speaking, I think this boils down to transient response, compelling pianos (soft sections) and microdynamics, but here are the details.

The tracks I used were:

Mozart's Piano Concerto #9, first movement, performed by Alicia de Larrocha on piano. This piece features a lot of massed strings playing with quite varied articulation, and lots of solo piano.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony, first movement. This is an intense brassy high-percussion fanfare.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony, fourth movement. A quiet, spiritual, and lyrical piece mainly for strings.

Mozart's Hoffmeister Quarter performed by the Hagen Quartet. This demonstrates solo and small-ensemble string playing with varied articulation and rhythmic qualities.

And now the results:

Mozart's piano concerto #9, first movement. Characteristic of Mozart, this piece opens with a catchy little phrase: one sustained note and five little dancy notes. It is followed by chords on the piano. The SBH brought out the contrast between the sustained note and the dancy notes... the sustained note was played with pressure on the strings, and the dancy notes were played lighter and slightly quieter. This subtlety was evident with the SBH and almost inaudible without it. Then, the piano enters. With the SBH, Alicia's chords had the same quality of being “pressed” (tenuto) as the first note on the strings---clearly she was mimicking them. Without the SBH, the keyboard sounded more like it was “slammed” and not tenuto. Later in the piece, string tremolos were much lighter and more transparent with the SBH.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony, First Movement. This is a brass and percussion tour-de-force. With the SBH the big percussion and brass chords seemed a bit quieter and lighter in attack. At first this seemed to cause a lack of impact, but with more listening, I decided the problem was a kind of monotonous heaviness and strain in the non-SBH configuration. It was evident that the SBH was not really softening the attacks when a kettle drum played rapid triplets—-this section had far crisper and more intense attacks with the SBH.

Transient response is an important part of music, and in my opinion good equipment can render transients with a range of character---some delicate, some soft, some crisp, some powerful. It is that range that is important. When a device imparts a monotonous coloration, that full range is compromised.

Mahler's fifth symphony, Fourth Movement. The strings enter pianissimo (very quiet). With the SBH, they were quite lush and very, very compelling. Their beauty was not lost in the quietness. Without the SBH, they tended to lose presence and focus when they got quiet.

Mozart's Hoffmeister String Quartet. This recording has great presence and resolution---it tends to sound good on any system. But the SBH brought improvement to a couple areas. As this piece starts, two or more instruments play repeated notes. Their dancy character was much more evident with the SBH---more noticeable that the articulation had both a light attack and a bit of a pressed middle, and how those details contributed to the dancy quality. Basically it made them sound like better players (and they are already great players!). The SBH also improved the differentiation of timbre between the violins and the viola.

To analyze these changes, I think the SBH made a difference to the transient behavior of the CD player, and improved resolution (including micrdynamics). It improved subtleties and brought out of hiding things like emotional character and spirituality.

Next time I'll review surface treatments.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Crux Audio

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