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Got a question. Why would some CDs sound good on one player/DAC and other CDs sound good on another player/DAC, in mutually exclusive fashion?
Just got a new digital cable for my DAC and what a difference does it make! The DAC and cable are really not high-end, but entry level.
So, comparing to my older SONY XA7-ES, I have listened to maybe ten CDs, and I am enjoying most of them on the external DAC, but then I hit a CD or two that I must play on the SONY player because it sounds better that way. These CDs are all 1995-2015.
So, what am I hearing? Is it the phase or is it the filter or is it the conversion technology?
Follow Ups:
It may not be digital but it is what I've found in audio.
When you upgrade you only improve "more" of what you have and not "all" of what you have. Just be happy that more of what you have is better. Don't try to figure out why one tract or disc doesn't sound good. Because it's not going to change anything anyway.
In truth it's probably the recording engineer anyway.
You may be hearing the differences in phase, filters and conversion technology. However you are almost certainly (also) hearing the difference between the analogue output stages of the two players/DACs. DACS don't just function within a digital context. Same as hearing a difference between pre-amps. The sonic characteristics of a given CD may suit the sonic balance of one output stage better than the other.
Edits: 11/10/16
For whatever reasons related to you, your room and your equipment. This is the hardest thing about auditioning to get through, even if you have the equipment set up in your own place in your own system. The changes in sound quality from the shop to home can be enormous.
On the other hand, it's generally possible to improve sound quality at home through relatively minor and, often free (except for your time), adjustments.
In your case, everything is at home, but the challenges can be large because our brains can become educated in mysterious ways unless you listen for a long time, after you make systematic adjustments. Moreover, there is usually some randomness that you have to detect and work through by just being patient and not over-reacting.
I believe you are experiencing an expectation of how you want a particular cd to sound. The 2 cds that sound better on the cd player may actually be more accurately reproduced by the dac but you just don't like that sound with these two cds
Alan
That's an understatement. The difference I hear is actually not one of tonal spectrum because I believe there ARE differences in tonal spectrum but that would lead me to maybe prefer one over the other.
However, I am hearing the sound becoming unfocused, or just flat and un-dimensional, on one player/DAC and this makes listening to it really unacceptable to my ear, using Sennheiser's HD-600s.
That's an understatement. The difference I hear is actually not one of tonal spectrum because I believe there ARE differences in tonal spectrum but that would lead me to maybe prefer one over the other.
However, I am hearing the sound becoming unfocused on one player/DAC and this makes listening to it really unacceptable to my ear, using Sennheiser's HD-600s.
"I am hearing the sound becoming unfocused on one player/DAC"
Maybe the 2 cds in question are unfocused. If the dac has higher resolution than the cd player you are hearing the lack of focus on the dac but the lower resolution cd player is masking the lack of focus.
Alan
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