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In Reply to: RE: Upgrading Digital Front End posted by midirons on April 21, 2014 at 07:23:57
I found the sensibility of beginning the digital audio chain with quality information rather than fixing it downstream ear opening.
http://www.antipodesaudio.com/about_antipodes_audio.html
I don't own one of these yet but I had the Reference in my system for a few hours and it convinced me of the importance of just how a CD is transferred into storage.
Follow Ups:
Maybe of interest to you: during the week, we had Mark Jenkins, Antipodes Audio designer, speak to our Audio Society on 'Humans and Music.'
He started with human’s skill at spotting patterns, which enables us to learn faster, because we detect underlying patterns in our otherwise complex and confusing experience (and how that applies to music).
(Missing out a lot here) he completed discussion by observing how the human brain is a relatively slow processor, but has marvellous parallel processing capability.
Mark spent most of the time talking, but interspersed it with 4 stimulating tests. An A,B, and C (same music) of 4 different music tracks were played, with the challenge: "tell me if you can hear any difference in A,B, or C." (No other info was given ie we were blind tested).
Main hardware was Antipodes DS Reference Music Server, AURALiC Vega DAC, Antipodes cables).
Answer: yes there were differences.
A was lossless FLAC, compressed ... A's sound: dull, soft, rolled off, above all, boring.
B was lossless FLAC, uncompressed. B clearly sounded superior, (more alive, open), to A.
C, was WAV format. Hard to pick between B and C. (ps I'm not saying there was, or wasn't, a difference between B and C: I needed to be less distracted).
Finally, our resident computer type said: "I found Mark’s approach to audio to uncover unconsidered areas in my own thinking, which rather left me floundering".
The President: "Golly, I didn't know our speakers could sound so good".
A cracker evenings entertainment/enlightenment. (Some members muttered it was the best talk/presentation we've had).
Highly recommended. The real advantage that the Antipodes has is the work they have put into the playback hardware (power supply) and software. Linux-based. I think you can tweak a Mac or PC until the cows come home and the Antipodes will still beat it.
Thanks for the info on Antipodes. Still have some work to do on this as I've been using CPD directly to Preamp. Best. Forrest
Forrest-
you will get the best results w/ connecting your CDP to a preamp.
I have never heard an excellent system that did not have a strong pre-amp presence.
Thanks. So maybe I should purchase a high quality CDP (Sony SCD-XA5400ES, Marantz SA8005, Rega Apollo-R, Oppo 105, etc.)? I'd like to keep the purchase under $1,500. I would think that any of those would exceed the performance of my Arcam CD93. The Sony, Marantz and Oppo all have digital inputs so I can still dabble in computer audio. Any thoughts?
Yes. At your price point, the Oppo will give you all that is required to better the Arcam and add the DAC capability for computer audio.
I see you are on the coast, I get down there quite a bit (Prattville area here). When you get your system completed, would like to hear it sometime.
Feel free to contact / keep me posted.
Sent a PM a few days ago.
I have been off-line for the last few days. Here is a better way to contact- fantja@gmail dot com- I did not see a PM?
Thanks, Vic D. Okay, so then according to what I'm reading here, it's possible to rip redbook CD's, store them on a Hard Drive, then send the signal to a DAC and the results will be improved over straight CDP playback. I'm just trying to make sure I understand what's going on. I don't think I understand the process that well. Thanks for your feedback.
o
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