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RE: A question for reviewers

"people with excellent hearing can't even decide on tuntables and CD or SS versus tubes."

It isn't OUR fault, it's them, it's the revenge of the machines...

I'm still playing CD's in my main system and have added players for new formats like DVD and SACD so I now have three players that can feed SPDIF to my old EAD DAC and the SACD player can also feed audio to the preamp. I haven't bothered to add more line level switching as it's already enough of a morass.

The bottom line for most CD's is that one of the players will beat out the others, sometimes quite significantly. Worse, each time I've added another dimension, another way to read the disks, the media have obligingly responded by developing more refined player preferences.

So what gives? Either I am a delusional nut-case with a keen imagination or there are multiple uncontrolled variables in the signal chain. Of course they aren't mutually exclusive but I prefer the latter explanation!

We have a rich tradition of that sort of thing with cartridges, tonearms turntables and as you say amplifiers and speakers and ears... "System synergy" and taste still hold sway and always will to some extent but I believe better measurements would help constrain the former. Everybody talks about things such as interference rejection but nobody in this field seems willing to DO anything about it. We quantify and control it most everywhere else, what's different about home audio? Users buying magic power cords, bags of crystals and ultra-expensive unspecified "power conditioners" to go along with their gear of unknown susceptibility is not the trail to real progress.

Regards, Rick



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  • RE: A question for reviewers - rick_m 10:03:08 03/16/12 (0)

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