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Listened to the computer ...

due to major turntable modification in progress.

I cannot say with specifics what 24 is doing in comparison to its immediate predecessors, but there is no question this sounds very good but (here comes the big surprise) it is missing that enveloping musical cocoon effect that good analogue does so well. The image between the speakers is precise in three dimensions but there is not much of anything to either side of the speaker. Of course, this could be my DAC's fault. I am just reporting what I hear. I hope I would be considered the last person with a desire to savage cMP. I believe these are the tired old digital shibboleths and I am not saying anything that hasn't been said a thousand times.

Nonetheless, as fine as cMP is, it still is not the missing link that I so sincerely want it to be. cics has made immense strides in making digital music reproduction enjoyable; don't get me wrong I can listen to this and not be miserable, it is just the whole time I am thinking, "I can't wait to get that turntable working again".

Something I discovered in the last few weeks: with analogue I was interested in listening to unheard music which, for some bizarre reason, had not seemed interesting to me while on a steady diet of digital. I was buying lots of CD's but they were of music I had on LP.

With a CD of something I was familiar with on LP I assume my brain was able to fill in what wasn't there (upsampler cannot predict what isn't there at all) and I was able to enjoy the sound since it did sound MUCH better than the old THETA JADE and GEN Va by an order of magnitude. But as the old story goes one still cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Another thing is that I want to listen REALLY loud with digital and find nothing attractive about this with analogue. There is much greater dynamic range with the LP and one compensates with digital by turning it up LOUD to get some impact, I surmise.

To be fair, I have MUCH more money involved in the analogue set-up and when one makes a value judgment, ESPECIALLY considering cics's saintly generosity, it damn well BETTER sound better.

I am glad to have such a good back-up system. What else can one do for recordings never released on LP?

Even with all of the tweaking cMP requires to get started it is nothing compared to what is needed to get a top performing LP set-up.

And digital is quiet, one cannot dismiss this. It is a fine attribute.

Maybe cics has one incredible trick up his sleeve, and maybe there is a DAC that can change water into wine. No one will be more effusive in their praise of such a thing if it appears. But, excuse me for repeating it and I know it is said too often for many, but there is still a LONG way to go. Analogous to the line about the more you know the more you find you do not know ... I think this is happening with cMP and other digital advancements. After the glow wears off, even though one can sense a great improvement from what has come before, the "latest device" seems to point out even more clearly than you perceived previously just how much ground there is to make up. The audio tortoise and the hare ...

Cordially,

Rick McInnis
(admitted analogue partisan)

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  • Listened to the computer ... - rickmcinnis@dogwoodfabrics.com 20:04:13 05/06/09 (0)
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