The quest

Steve, looks like I'm going to have to spend more time at your next room at the next show. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

It's long been my belief that those of us old enough to have been raised with tubes as the only means of powering not only stereos but even TVs have a romantic link (for lack of a better word) to it and to the sound of vinyl due to it's coexistence. They went hand in hand.

That bar for what sounds good has been passed down and improved and tweaked to the point where vinyl is the standard but digital has come a long way in a shorter time and continues to improve apace. I can still detect when a record is being played in another room at an audio salon due to it's identifiable nature. Incredibly pleasant, natural and wonderful to behold when done right.

For me it's not a matter of settling for less with digital but learning anew to appreciate what it can do and the potential it has to get even better. At times it can sing to me as well as vinyl. But that's me. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

Someday I'm going to have to make it to an RMAF affair. I have no doubt that PC audio can sound great but there's a learning curve to it and it's in a constant state of evolution, barely out of it's infancy and yet to attain adolescence, where most things are ironed out, standardized (somewhat) and about as foolproof as plopping in a CD and pushing "play".

Laptops are considered a no-no and yet this great sound comes from several laptops that most PC savvy folk wouldn't go near. Consensus is still a ways to go as to which route is best and for those reasons, along with what my own ears heard at the last two Newport Audio Shows, I'll sit it out awhile and polish my system to my own satisfaction. I won't know better until I hear better and like I said, the best digital I've heard was that MSB CDP. Maybe I am tone deaf, but I doubt it. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

Funny, I don't hear any of the glaring errors spoken of when doing things via CDP. I guess they've come a long way, I'm very lucky, or I'm just plain tone deaf.
I don't think it's the latter.

As for PC digital, all I hear is problems with interfaces, cables, jitter and all sorts of interference, not to mention great debate as to which rate is best, fllters, etc.

One can point out obvious flaws inherent in any system when done wrong, but when done right, all bets are off. Blanket statements are nothing more than a ringing endorsement of nothing really, at all.

All the best,
Nonoise

I'm the first to admit that i'm not fond of change, especially after quite an investment in what I like, but I've been to audio shows where the latest and greatest in PC was being touted and it didn't sound any better than the rest of the exhibits. More or less the same save for the MSB room where I thought PC audio had equaled or surpassed vinyl until I found out that they were using the CDP part, spinning a disc.

Come to think of it, when at the PC rooms, they had that look in their eyes, like they all came from Santa Mira, and there was this guy outside in the halls, who looked like that actor Kevin McCarthy, screaming something about pods and not to listen.....:-)

All the best,
Nonoise