Can You Beat Simple?
I am trying to upgrade my digital source, but ultimately I find that the simple solutions work best. For example, I installed a DAC with asynchronous USB and fancy upscaling technology. I added an aftermarket power supply, RCA cables and USB cable. It sounds fantastic, actually. It does almost everything better than my CD player it replaced, except for one thing: musicality. It’s very fun to listen to and you can hear details like no other, but when I try to sit and relax and just enjoy the music without over-analyzing it, my cheapo CD player (an old portable one actually) with upgraded power supply is more relaxing, musical, and most importantly, emotional. What’s going on here? Why doesn’t modern technology take the cake in this situation? Are we heading down the wrong path with all this fancy technology including upsampling, asynchronous data transfers, ultra-high bit rates, etc? Does anyone ever stop to ask the question: Can your solution best a cheap portable CD player that should have went extinct with the dinosaurs?
+1 @charles1dad |
In the audio vernacular there is what’s described as "sins of commission and of omission". Some components are in my experience more adept at capturing or retaining these important musical elements such as tone density/timbre/harmonic overtones. I readily acknowledge that when listening, people key in or are more attuned to certain sonic characteristics. So not only do individuals hear things differently, but there’s also the added element of different focus and attention. I can only report and describe what I hear. Another listener could very well have a much different perspective/listening experience. Some audio components just sound overtly lean/thin/clinical/analytical and I do not like this presentation. It sounds synthetic and un-convincing. Someone else may interpret this same presentation as accurate and dead on neutral. Inherently subjective it is. I understand there will be discrepancies with assessment of audio component performance. I just know what sounds right to me (And maybe wrong to someone else), that’s all. I can understand the comments from the OP of this thread and the absence of an emotional-musical connection. I get his point. Charles |
Maybe, but it’d sure be helpful if you could share the rest of your equipment along with cables and power conditioning. If you chased specs as per ASR it’s not surprising you find your sound over analytical or clinical sounding. Not everything is captured in measurements, and certainly not personal tastes and/or system synergy. The more info you share the better feedback you’ll get here. FWIW. |
+1 You have identified a common theme. It seems whenever an audio component is described as lean/clean/hyper detailed, it’s referred to as “accurate.” If it were truly accurate the music reproduction would be unfailingly and undeniably musically enticing and emotionally engaging. Real instruments have harmonic color, body, richness,vividness and full bodied tone. They are not thin, dry, sterile and analytical. This is not accurate this is inaccurate/synthetic. Charles |
Without knowing your entire digital chain & system, we will be speculating as to why you’re missing musicality in your setup. If one thing sticks out like a sore thumb is your DAC description of ‘fancy upsampling technology’. A DAC with a poorly implemented filtering or upsampling algorithm may lead to a unmusical sound…..It appears you may have stumbled upon one of those ‘accurate’ sounding DAC’s that are everything but musical :-) |
That was my first impression when I bought Benchmark DAC. It sounded so clean - almost like some instruments were missing. I guess we got used to sound with a bit of distortion and/or jitter added noise that makes music sound more dynamic (like distorted guitar sounds more dynamic than clean Jazz guitar at the same loudness). We learned to expect two different sounds, clean one at th concert and slightly less clean at home, where added "dynamics" might compensate for recording compression. I took me a while to get used to Benchmark's sound, but now I would never go back. Of course even Benchmark's John Siau says that there is no right or wrong here.
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