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Rediscovering the Joy of Digital?

Guys,

I've been into analog for a long time, and it's always been a royal pain in the neck to perform all the necessary adjustments to keep my tt at its best; not to mention the record cleaning rituals and the inflated prices they're charging for high-end analog gear these days.

I bought an early generation CD player back in the mid 80's, a modified Magnavox CDB-650, which was considered good at the time, but is not so good by today's standards. I also invested in some of Audio Alchemy's early DDE's, but they had some problems as well. So I went back to analog and bought a VPI Aries/JMW 10 and more recently, I have moved to a Michell Orbe SE with a Wilson Benesch arm and a Shelter 501 II cartridge.

It took a lot of work to get the Orbe/WB combo to sound its best and in reality, it's not a whole lot better than my much less expensive digital gear, but it sure is a lot more work. It's been my experience that you have to spend a lot more money on analog to get it to sound as good as today's respectable digital gear. I own a Parasound transport, a Bolder Cable modified ART DIO, and a Perpetual Technologies P-1A and it kills most of the Linns, Regas, and all but the highest priced VPI's that I've heard.

With my digital, there's no futzing with VTA, no worries about an expensive and delicate stylus assembly, and I have instant track access. Plus, it sounds virtually as transparent and liquid as analog and eschews those annoying ticks and pops.

My records and gear are sure taking up a lot of space. Perhaps I should dump my whole lot of LPs at the local Salvation Army and be done with it. Then I could sell that expensive analog front end that is a constant source of angst and buy something really cool with the money like a lot more CDs. Whadaya tink?
plato

Showing 6 responses by plato

plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Dougdeacon, now you've done it -- giving me yet another variable to think about and fret over... To suspend ... or not to suspend.

In NJ I had a concrete floor because my listening room was in the basement. I did end up using a fixed suspension on the Orbe and it really sounded stellar. The sound was very detailed and focused and the dynamics were excellent. But here in AZ, my room is upstairs and the tt is more susceptible to footfalls, so I reinstalled the spring suspension, but I don't think it sounds quite as good. It could, and might, but with different speakers and room acoustics, it's impossible to say. My gut feeling is that the overall performance is just a little diluted, but that could be all in my mind (I think it is, but I'm not sure).

I guess I could put back the fixed suspension and be careful to walk around on tippy-toes, and maybe make a sign to let guests know to be careful. Or maybe I could get a wall shelf, or perhaps I could suspend it from the ceiling on bungy cords, or maybe get an elaborate air-suspension platform of some sort.

With digital, the suspension choices are easier (and easier to install!) Let's see, do I go with the wood blocks or the BDR cones -- very simple to lift the DAC and/or transport, and try whatever feet or platform(s) I have on hand.

Hey, if I send you those records you've got to really promise never to give them back no matter how much I beg, plead or snivel...
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Great replies! This is turning into a fun thread; keep 'em coming.

Newbee you make some very good observations. I'm happy that I got out of that analog thread yesterday with my skin intact. Some of those guys are scary; they should learn not to take things so seriously and/or personally. I had thought the Civil War was over and that things weren't so black and white anymore. I hope we're all in this hobby for the fun of it and for the joy the music brings. :)

Russ, I also have an unused HD Seismic Sink. I guess it should go under the BDR Source Shelf with BDR cones in between??!! But then my custom dust cover won't fit anymore. :( I'm seeing a lot of interest in the LP collection... hmmmmm...

Hey Elizabeth, I'm glad to know that you have a sense of humor too. Congrats on your devine enlightenment. ;)
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Yeah Russ, you're right, I do need the rituals for self-affirmation. Now you guys got me going on the suspension kick again, and today I swapped back to the rigid suspension. I tentatively have the Source shelf sitting on some AQ Sorbothane pucks and a small mahogany wood block in the front which sounds marginally better than the BDR cones. The bass is just killer now (deep with great articulation), and the treble seems more detailed and extended; transients are very fast and clear and the dynamic contrasts are impressive. I think I'm going to live with it like this for a while and play through some more recordings before deciding what to change or not to change next. And the installation of the rigid suspension components on the Orbe looks really cool. :)

On the CD front, I should mention that I have recently discovered a couple of CDs in my collection that are less than 10 yrs old, that contain areas in songs which now skip and are unreadable by the laser pickup. These CDs look perfect and have undergone no apparent trauma (unless the ride across the country in the moving van somehow caused this). So this is a disturbing finding. Have any other CD collectors out there seen this yet?
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Hmmm, high-end MP3 -- I don't know Tom, in a car, it kind of makes sense because you can fit so many hours of music on just one MP3; and because of the noisy environment, quality isn't as big of an issue. But if they do come out with home "audiophile" MP3 players it would probably be relegated to a secondary source in any decent system; and maybe just a way to record your other media for playback in a car or portable player.

I think a large part of the appeal of MP3 is that it's cheap and you can download the music for free from the Internet. So once you make it "expensive" the market for such a product could evaporate. In any case, no one could force us to buy one...
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Zaikesman, I am listening to reel-to-reel and I have a small collection of prerecorded tapes that I cherish. When I started listening to the tapes on a decent machine, I was shaking my head thinking about all the money I had spent on my TT gear. But frankly, all my sources sound quite good and there are variations in the recording quality of R2R tapes too (not to mention losses from just sitting around for decades). But it's too bad that the R2R format fell out of favor because with today's advances, better parts, and improved tape formulations they could make machines that would have unbelievably great performance. It's unfortunate that most people value convenience of operation to quality of sound -- the general population, anyway.

Newbee, that's a good point that the CD skipping could be a transport-related problem. I'll check into that.
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Yes Zaikesman, your points are well taken. But if and when there is a consumer level digital format that truly is better than analog mastertapes there are two likely scenarios that could follow. One is that the music business people will insist on a copycode that will render it second rate and delay its release for about a decade; the other is that there will be a substandard "MP3" version of it that will ultimately be less costly and will dominate the marketplace...
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