30 Years of Perfect Sound?

He should listen to gear more and report what he hears rather than make technical conjectures why he thinks something must sound better. For example I have been privy to listening tests between a top of the line Wadia (and other stuff) to a battery powered Hiface directly feeding I2S into a PCM1704 DAC chip - it murdered the Wadia - a joke comparison. I also have a Playback Designs DAC - via PCM its a bit ordinary compared to my reference DAC but via DSD it is in another league.

Thanks
Bill

'Listening and reporting is only an opinion. Anyone can do that. Doing the technical research to understand why one might hear what they hear is a lot harder.'

Yes it is a lot harder - much much harder. And even if you are an engineer with many many years experience you will quite possibly get it wrong - check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CkyrDIGzOE

Best to simply listen to it and make up your own mind since even the experts can get it wrong - or to be more exact have to constantly revise what they thought previously.

There is simply no shortcut to actually hearing gear.

Thanks
Bill

CDP's can and do have jitter. How anyone could think otherwise is beyond me.

The reason I am knocking the guy is the simplistic approach he is taking. Listen to stuff rather than try and show technically its all perfect and don't worry about it.

Like I have said I have been privy to listening tests with some pretty expensive and heavily tweaked CDP's and computer audio. Computer Audio MURDERED it.

Thanks
Bill

Tmsorosk wrote

'Audioengr,,, We have demoed many hi end hard drives at audio club members homes and at length , the survey after was split about 50/50 as to which each member preferred. I preferred the CD.'

And on that basis you say that the only thing computers murdered is the sound?

What USB converter did you use? - thats the critical thing - not the hard drive. Was it I2S direct to the DAC chip?

Thanks
Bill

Audioengr wrote:

'I retired my highly modified CD transport many years ago, after my computer audio system left it in the dust. The modded CD transport was one of the best sounding on the market too. Lots of them still out there.'

I have done the listening tests, along with others, a number of times on mine and others systems against some pretty expensive and heavily tweaked transports with exactly the same result. In fact one person involved was very sceptical of computer audio and openly scoffed at it. On some early converters he was correct and people went away with tails between their legs. But along came the Audiophellio 2, Steves own Off-Ramp and a couple of others. Using those the person involved who has many years audiophile experience was instantly converted. On Diana Krall A Case Of You for example you can clearly hear the piano is distorted on the CDP and you can not hear the foot-pedals. After hearing it the person involved got rid of his heavily tweaked battery powered Maraantz that previously bested all comers. And the guy hates computers - but the sound quality increase was just too great.

Regarding the supposedly inaudible jitter of CDP's I can tell you this. Both the Audiophellio 2 and Off-Ramp have extremely low jitter - I seem to recall below 10ps. Yet you can clearly hear the difference between the two - with everyone I have demoed it to preferring the Off-Ramp. There is a lot more to this jitter thing than some would have you believe.

Thanks
Bill

Tmsorosk wrote
'The only thing that computer audio has murdered is the sound.'

Can I ask you what listeing tests you have done to confirm it?

Thanks
Bill

Digital vs analog is a very interesting thing. The best illustration of the issues involved occurred when a guy I know did a demo at an audio society. What he did was take a brand new sealed record on a very good vinyl rig (well over $10K) and compared it to the same album on a computer. To his ears the computer murdered the vinyl. Guess what - it was 50-50 which people preferred. Its the same sort of thing comparing valve to SS.

Thanks
Bill