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Weiss Saracon is fantastic!

Posted by Jim F. (A) on December 21, 2009 at 09:44:35

I've had a weekend to play with this, but I've listened to
quite a variety of stuff.

I never would have believed that an SRC could make **this**
much difference, and this is just 44.1->48.

I've been listening through the "front end" of my signal-processing
chain, in real time, via a computer with modest Cambridge
Soundworks satellite-sub speakers (very near-field, almost
headphones) and a not-so-modest Cary Cinema 11 D/A converter
(this computer doubles as my TV, not that I have time to watch
TV).

Source files were pre-processed via Sony Noise Reduction 2
DX plug-in in WaveLab (clipped peak restoration, -6.1 dB
pre-attenuation, post-limiter on; followed by Click and
Crackle removal, "Very Conservative" preset, rumble filter
off), processed and saved as 32-bit float. These were played
back in Foobar 0.8.3 as 32-bit files. Baseline SRC
to 48 kHz using Secret Rabbit Code, "best sinc", slow-mode on;
final Foobar output dithered to 24 bits with "Strong ATH
noise shaping". 24/44.1 Toslink S/PDIF out from sound card (Audiotrak
Prodigy 7.1, ASIO driver) to an RME ADI-192DD, thence to a
Meridian 518 set to reduce 24->16 bits via "Curve C" noise
shaping, thence to the Audio Alchemy EDR*S chain, thence
to an Apogee Big Ben, thence to second Meridian 518 set to
expand 16->24 bits (by filling the lower 8 bits with noise, also
"Curve C"), thence to a dCS Purcell doing SRC from 48 to 96
(noise shaping set to "Auto"), thence to an Assemblage
D2D-1 in "Transparent" mode converting S/PDIF to I2S, thence
to a Perpetual P-1A set to run its "Resolution Enhancement"
program at 24/96, and finally to the Cary Cinema 11 at 24/96.
Analog output of the Cary goes to a Musical Fidelity X-10v3
tube buffer, and then to the Cambridge Soundworks amplifier/woofer
box.

All right, so the comparison here was going from (pretty
highly regarded) Foobar 0.8.3 Secret Rabbit Code (best sinc,
slow mode) to playing the same files processed by Saracon
(input files are 32-bit float from the Sony pre-processing; output
files from Saracon are 32-bit, files are post-processed in Wavelab
to normalize to 0 dB and then dither to 24 bits using Wavelab's
Apogee UV-22HR. The Saracon-processed files were also played
back in Foobar, through the chain described above.
Note that one difference between the Secret Rabbit and
Saracon scenarios is that the (32-bit/44.1 kHz) files I was
playing back and upsampling in real time with Secret Rabbit
had a peak level at -6 dB, give or take, whereas the files
offline-processed by Saracon had then been normalized back
up to 0 dB. So the Secret Rabbit might have had a 1-bit
disadvantage at the point where the stream gets converted from
24 bits to 16 bits by the first Meridian 518 (the reason for
this, once again, is that EDR*S is strictly 16 bits in and 16 bits
out).

OK, so what's the verdict?

**Huge** difference (as audiophiles use the word "huge" ;-> ).
I've used both flavors of Secret Rabbit; more recently
I've used r8brain Pro and SoX and Audition 3. I can't
say I've heard any great differences among these.

Saracon is at a whole different level.

The differences are the sorts of things one would
typically ascribe to a better-resolving D/A converter,
but remember this is **all** the result of digital
filtering, and increasing the sampling rate only
from 44.1 to 48.

On "difficult" recordings, there's a layer of upper-
midrange glare removed (so much so, that in my
back-end processing I've resolved to use Burwen Bobcat's
"lightest touch" Basic 3 setting, rather than the
darker Basic 2).

The high frequencies (or what I **perceive** as the
high frequencies at my age) are exquisite and highly
resolved. You know the routine. Cymbals sound more
like cymbals and less like noise. Other percussion,
like orchestral bells, are highly resolved. There
are layers more resolution -- buried details are
more audible, or audible for the first time.
Even speech is more intelligible.

Really **really** difficult recordings shine, such as,
for example, a torture test that nothing before
has really passed -- an old MCA double CD entitled
"The Extraordinary Roger Voisin", from an even
older analog recording on the Kapp label of baroque
trumpet recorded **really close up**
http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Roger-Voisin-Manfredini-Altenburg/dp/B000009I77
The timbre of Voisin's trumpet is totally screwed
up (to the point of sounding like gross clipping) through
garden-variety CD players, and even through better-
pedigreed equipment. Saracon conversion made this sound
pleasant for the first time -- I could listen to the
whole thing without having to change the record.

Difficult pop recordings like, oh, Annie Lenox's
"Medusa" or Aretha Franklin's "Who's Zoomin' Who"
are reproduced with considerably less glare and
congestion. In all genres, the presentation is
less congested and more relaxed. Listening fatigue
is reduced.

Anyway, this was $850 better spent, IMO, than most other
audio purchases I've made.

Saracon is simple to use (though it requires a USB dongle --
as does WaveLab 6; my USB ports are getting filled up
with these things!). You can add files to a batch-conversion
list and let it grind away overnight. It computes
at 64 bits internally, and uses POW-R dither to convert
to whatever output bit depth you choose. It will output
64-bit floating or 32-bit fixed, though there aren't
many DAWs that can use these -- I think Cakewalk Sonar 8.5
can read 64-bit floating-point WAV files. You can
tell Saracon to apply gain reduction to an input
file before applying the SRC. It won't, unfortunately,
do more sophisticated DAW-ish things like normalizing
a file to a given peak level following SRC.
It will support Sony's WAV64 format for files bigger
than 2 GB (necessary if you're going to process entire
albums at 96 or 192 kHz without going to the trouble
of splitting them up).

So there you have it. There may be equally good SRC software
out there -- iZotope 64-bit SRC also has a good reputation.

Offline upsampling isn't for everybody, of course.
It's at the extreme edge of practicality, if it's practical
at all -- it's extremely labor intensive, and life is
short.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Sonic Craft

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