Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

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Re: Be careful.........

Posted by gdg on February 11, 2003 at 13:56:12

In Reply to: Be careful......... posted by Chris Garrett on February 11, 2003 at 05:52:27:

I know one needs a high quality analog volume control in order to bypass the pre effectively. My Resolution uses the same resister array network for volume control as found in the Rowland preamp. The fact that, if done right, the sound "can be" clinical simply makes my point that this is where HiFi diverges another area of euphonic manipulation in an effort to make everything sound good. Personally, I have no interest in tailoring the sound to my taste at the expense of acuracy. How can you tell it's accurate, you ask? First stick with technically plausible strategies. ie. technically there is no reason whatsoever to introduce a preamp into the chain if volume is handled correctly. Second, if the subtle differences in all recording become more apparent (deverge) you are probably hearing a fairly accurate presentation, some will sound better and some worse. For instance under some conditions the bass in my system sounds VERY thin while in others it sounds as though my Thiels have a subwoofer. That tells me the system produces accurate bass when present in the recording rather than having the loose, sloppy or pumped up bass found in many systems, which makes EVERYTHING sound the same (one note bass effect).
Another area that can be misleading is soundstage. I've found "some" tube gear makes it sound like every recording has a huge (phasey)soundstage, but on carefull analysis, the actual placement of images is vague and out of focus. My system on the other hand,sometimes produces a huge (and focused) soundstage and other times does not, depending on the recording. The fact that the system is capable of producing a large stage, but doesn't "always" do so , that tells me I'm dealing with an accurate presentation.
Finally, when I reach the limit of technically explainable phenomenon, such as is the case for cables, I will go the route that produces the most pleasing euphonic effect, but NEVER before. ie If I am running a passive I will start with a technically correct short low capacitance cable and then tailor the sound within the options available.
Ps I've known about the problems of digital attenuation ever since HDCD was introduced with the requirement for 6db of attenuation. I've had it disabled on digital gear in the past that accomplished the attuation in the digital domain.(Resolution does it in the analog domain.)

PPS The discussion about accuracy is not something that many people want to hear and I have no expectation of altering arbitrary and closely held belief systems. Posts such as this one sometimes draw out like minded people and opens a dialogue on what I believe is the the SERIOUS HiFi gear.

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