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In Reply to: RE: Help- Digital vs Analog (long) posted by HiFiOd on September 03, 2015 at 08:27:25
Get a good R2R ladder dac
Metrum Hex
Audio-GD Master 7
Alan
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Native 16/44 just sounds best to me using R2R dac without upsampling or oversampling.
I have never been too convinced that NOS is what analogue people want to hear, I can accept digital having a different presentation, but there is a level of dynamics and fluidity that I have not heard digital do (not that I have heard that much), especially in the low frequencies. For example heavy rock or dubb, digital always comes accross light footed and nimnle but not massive or chest pounding.
There are many great digital recordings. Try some of these to see if your digital gear can do the job: the early Mercury CDs (Saint-Saëns 3, Fennell band recordings, Sheffields (Amanda McBroom, Moscow Sessions), "The K&D Sessions" on the K7 label, pretty much everything on the Chesky and Dorian labels. Also a pair of Brahms Sonata 1's: Capuçcon & Angelich on Virgin, and Steinberg/Abel on Wilson Audio. The Hyperion set of Garrick Ohlsson playing all of Chopin are excellent, as is the Bis SACD set of Beethoven symphonies with Vanska and Minnesota. For something lighter, Mike Henderson's "If You Think It's Hot in Here" is terrific - just got that one.
My own rig used to have greater dynamic range in digital than analogue. That changed once I made the old Thorens quieter. Now, dynamics seem to be pretty much up to the mastering engineer. On the good ones (digital or analogue) I've got pretty much all the dynamic range I need. The detail, brightness, a low-level harmonics are pretty close - comparing "Songs in the Key of Life" between a file and the Speakers Corner LP is interesting, and not at all one-sided.
Listen to a bunch of recordings before deciding where the limiting factor is. Details become apparent with time.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Bil,
Thanks for your input, I tend to prioritize performance over recording quality, so I would like a system that squeezes the mos out of the source, but then again that maybe a problem with poor recordings.
I saw your system in the AA, and I am curious, given your perofessional experience, about your set up, do you use the Oppo for music? do you use the CDR as transport and the DAC? I think you inferred correctly when you said dynamic range, that maybe where I 'feel' the difference. I am in NYC too, if you ever want to grab a beer or listen to some tunes...
I use the Oppo for CD/SACD/DVD/BluRay playback, and am quite happy with it. It might be a tad "polite" in its presentation, but overall it's pretty good.
I still use the HHB occasionally to make CD copies of now-unavailable or otherwise precious LPs. The CDs it makes are among the best I've heard. That could be, of course, due to the various colorations added by my analogue chain. It could also be partly due to the record levels I use: having used various digital meters that attempt to show real peak levels, I aim for an rms level of about -12 dBFS for all digital recording, including HHB and ProTools sessions.
I use a Metric Halo ULN-2 interface as my DAC/ADC and love it. It's a shame I'm not using the mic preamps in it, as they are pretty special as well. It will be good when MH come out with their long-delayed new architecture, replacing firewire with USB2, which will greatly increase the bandwidth to and from the ULN-2. ("Days of Future Passed" or something like that.)
And I agree: performance is everything.
Cheers,
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
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