I hope that CDs will also hit a revival life LPs. I have 7,000 CDs. However, currently there are CDs that sell for $100s each. Those are the Kevin Grey/Steve Hoffman CDs especially gold DCC CDs. I also favor Japanese jazz CDs from the 1980s which were expertly transferred/mastered. I have about 2 dozen remarkable Japanese jazz CDs from that era. I've been buying excellently remastered CDs for a decade now and jumped on the CD bandwagon since I bought my EAR Acute CD player. No, it's not the latest R2R DAC but wow, it sounds as good as my $22K analog front end.
As to LPs, many of my 1980s classical Japanese pressings, although perfect and often virgin vinyl, used lower quality submaster tapes which had lower resolution and compression compared to the original masterings. I can point to German pressed Living Stereo recordings which generally sound dynamically tepid compared to the originals, only superior in pressing quality. The master copy of the recording makes the difference there. |
breezer - Since 2006, I've been using an EAR Acute CD player. It has large D getter, earliest version Amperex 6922 tubes, a seriously upgraded power cord and sits on Stillpoints Ultra-minis. Now on their fourth version, my original Acute sells for 1/3 the price, between $1800 to $2000. Absolutely worth it, unless you want to stream. The subsequent versions include external DACs and higher resolutions like 192/24 instead of my 96/24. The latest version is $6795 http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/EAR-Acute-Classic.htm I've heard it and it sounds very similar to my original with STOCK tubes. Quite an accomplishment. |
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Does anyone know whether the EAR Acute which uses a Wolfson DAC is R2R or sigma-delta? |
As to inverted polarity, I've written several times in these forums concerning recording polarities which can often be wrong, especially for multiple instruments. These can be heard in many Mercury Living Presence recordings of pop engineered by Stan Ricker who I had several conversations with. So, LPs can be way out of correct polarity. I have Brasil 66 LPs where the first issue is in correct polarity and the second pressing is in 180 degree wrong polarity.
Also, CDs and digital recordings are not usually in incorrect polarity unless they were recorded that way or remastered incorrectly. I have noticed some of my Heifetz/Piatagorsky CDs have reverse polarity on some tracks.
Overall, most of my recordings have good polarity (correct rather than reversed) and have strong imaging, just like high end fuses by SR have a correct and incorrect polarity.
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Stereophile F...d Up on their review of the EAR Acute Classic, beginning with a defective unit (overdriving inputs with a 6 volt output) that sounded terrible, bright and brittle. They did not review the prior units.
Everyone else reviewed various models and found them exquisetly analoglike WITH NO HIGH END DISTORTIONS OR BRIGHTNESS. Since I've owned the Acute 1 for 13 years using especially rich sounding tubes, I do not hear brightness. I've heard the Acute III and the Acute Classic. NO BRIGHTNESS even with stock tubes. These are great sounding CD players. I've included several other Classic reviews previously. No mention that it sounds bright or with a peaked treble. I would said so as I've heard so many CD players (probably 100 by now) in my home, at friends homes and at audio shows. The EAR is one sweet sounding player, maybe too forgiving in the highs. |
So many recordings were made or mastered in reverse polarity. Here's an excellent expose of polarity issues pertaining to both equipment and recordings. https://iamyuanwu.wordpress.com/audio/audio-direction-ltd-adl/adl-absolute-polarity/Equipment is often in reverse polarity, with speakers being a major culprit, both reversed or drivers in and out of polarity to each other. Even two sides of an LP could be different (1 side correct, 1 side wrong). |
Polarity of a few recordings
Some Correctly phased recordings:Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop
Julia Fordham Swept
Enya Watermark
Bela Fleck UFO TOFU
Three Blind Mice CD’s
Reference recordings CD’s
Sheffield Lab CD’s
Mercury Living Presence CD’s produced by Sir Dennis Drake
East Wind Silver CD’s ( not the gold discs) Some inverted CD’s Mary Black No Frontiers
Babes in the Woods
Terri Garrison Only Love ( Waterlily/Vandersteen recording)
Fourplay Fourplay
Ray Lynch Deep Breakfast ( interesting that a fully synthesized recording can exhibit polarity differences)
Sarah K Gypsy Alley
Closer than They Appear
Harry Connick, Jr 25
Julia Fordham Porcelain
Mary Chapin Carpenter Come on, Come on
Enya Enya
Shepard Moon
Radka Toneff Fairytales
Ella Fitzgerald Clap Hands here Comes Charlie
Holly Cole Trio Temptation (voice and bass are inverted, piano is correct)
Don’t Smoke in Bed ( see note above)
East wind Gold CD’s
Note that Mercury Living Presence are in correct Polarity as opposed to the prior list which stated the opposite. Within labels, polarity on CDs change. Ella Fitzgerald's Clab Hand here Comes Charlie is in correct polarity on the gold DCC disc by Steve Hoffman.
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The 3 box set of 180 RCA Living Stereo CDs were remastered and sound fantastic overall. On the level of the Mercury CDs. Also, the Heifetz/Piatagorsky set sounds amazing. Also the Friedman, Browning and Dorfmann sets are very fine listening. The Friedman/Previn Franck/Debussy CD beats the already fine Japanese CD from a decade ago. There are some very fine remasterings being done. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Decca mono box and the Recital box. |
I've been reading on line concerning absolute versus inverted polarity. Let's say my CDs are mostly (92%) inverted polarity. They sound great. Why? Maybe my equipment, speakers and/or CD player make polarity inversions whose end result inverts polarity. The combination of an inverted polarity CD and an inverted end result from the audio system equals absolute polarity, where two mistakes make it right. So quoted in http://www.absolutepolarity.com/ |
You are mixing up reverse channels on SP 8 and 10. SP 11 and Ref 3 and 5 have reverse polarity. I owned an SP 14, nope. |
When I used the EAR 324, it had a reverse polarity button that did improve LPs that were clearly reversed. Stillness, second pressing by Brasil 66 greatly improved with the button pressed in. First pressing was correct and fuller sounding even after second pressing correction. |
There are 3 models of Kassandra DACs, between about $25k and $90K. Which one did you choose? |
