We are finally getting there; take a listen to the MSB Analog DAC or the Light Harmonic DaVinci; both are really fantastic... hi-rez PCM sounds excellent and I think good DSD even sounds better. |
As soon as we evolve digital brains. |
Tbg,
One thing that's inevitable in high end audio is there's never unanimous consensus or universal agreement on anything. If someone found a better capacitor than thr Duelund CAST and for less money, more power to them.
All I can do is report my experiences and certainly for me the CAST is a terrific product. I'd recommend them without reservations. If others feel the same way concerning the Urushi that's good.
Charles, |
Charles1dad, while I have not done a comparison of the Duelunds with the Urushi and other blocking caps, I do have two friends who have and both report the Urushis are both cheaper and better. I use them in everything where I can get them in. |
Grannyring is right, he recommended I try them in my Yamamoto YDA-01 DAC(the output capacitors). The sound went from already very good to genuinely superb! I 've no desire to replace it with anything else. I can't imagine any audio component not improving substantially with the addition of the Duelund CAST capacitor. |
I can tell you with assurance that the Duelund CAST caps will indeed improve the sound. I have upgraded several front end dacs and CD players with these caps with huge, not small, gains each time. The improvement after burn in will not be slight. You won't strain to hear the difference as it will be obvious without burn in.
Few things are no brainer a, but this is one :-) |
Jwm, I was referring to the two posts by Jwt, not you. |
Bobbob, not really the Modright 105 sounds fantastic the way it is. I'm just wondering if the performance can get even better with the Dueland Cast caps. I think these are the best caps out there right now. |
Hi
Jwt, I don't understand your two seemingly contradictory posts.
Thanks |
Dan likes the Dueland caps but they are very expensive. I don't know if they would fit as they are a lot bigger in size. |
Good question Jwm, I'll leave that duty to you and please report back with the results!:) Seriously, a good question and maybe one to present to Dan for his opinion? |
Tubegroover, I wonder if we could improve the sound further by replacing some of his caps with dueland caps. |
"He is a class act and wonderful to talk to on the phone."
Yes he is Jwm, someone you want to do business with. When I purchased the Modded Oppo it also became evident how well his ears work as well as the build quality and engineering put into this modification. It really is a great product, particularly at the price and I would guess well beyond This can't be overstated, speaking of getting it musically right, a realm beyond good sound, capturing the performance in such a natural convincing manner.
|
That's the other Ric Schultz.
;-) |
Jwt, I don't think this is Rick Schultz that makes the magnetic cable. I have Dan Wright's Tube modded Modright Oppo 105 and really enjoy it. He is a class act and wonderful to talk to on the phone. |
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1379507211&openmine&zzBo1972&4&5#Bo1972 |
The soul of the music is in the heart and soul of the listener. Digital has done it for me already. |
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Bifwynne, the ARC Reference DAC is $16k and the CD9 is $13k.
ARC does not have a $30k DAC.
. |
With carefully chosen gear, it is possible to achieve! |
Last week I bought a Olive 06HD streamer. I also bought the brand new pure silver Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder with the new xlr connectors. I use a Purist Audio powercable with oyaide 004 connectors. This combination is stunning and one of the best analogue sound I ever heard from a digital source. In 2 weeks I will write a review about it! |
Using even a half assed A to D converter a recorded LP is undistinguishable from the original play. This take time.
Then there's are the LampizatOr DACs. This take money.
The soul is there. |
When I had my Oppo modified only after 3 trips maybe 4 trips back to EVS was the upgrade done closer to my spec's but each time I had to cover the shipping and non of the error were my mine. I felt this was unfair to say the least. The player is still working and still supplying a sound like a pig getting killed by a knife thru the back of the neck or something. When turning off the OPPO unless the amplifier is off a very loud startling squeal sounds off thru the right speaker, I complained about this totally uncommon issue but was assured "everyone knows they are supposed to turn off their amplifiers before turning off the blu ray player, right, does everyone know that, I didn't think so. After being quoted an exact dollar amount for the work I requested after each and every time the layer was either sent back or personally delivered Ric asked for more money as though the original agreement was simply a piece of paper to light a joint on because it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. After paying for enough gas to drive to LA and back I decided enough was enough with the extremely shady operator who couldn't get the unit right the first time, the second time it sounded broken, the third time was a nightmare from hell and to this day I'm not sure what if any of the things I paid for were bought and installed. I was forewarned by a couple of people to NEVER do business with this complete idiot but having know this guy for many years I didn't think things could get any stranger but I was so wrong. Now I'm stuck with a piece of junk I've got over $2400 dollars in, so do yourself a favor and pass Ric by and have a person who knows how to treat other people do your upgrade, who needes all those hassles and for what, a bunch of pieces he makes by hand for next to nothing and he'll install a multitude of incorrect parts just so you'll have to send the darn thing back to you so he can figure a way to milk you like a cow if given the chance. Don't go there, you've benn forewarnd by a stupid buyer of his ridiculosly inexpensive upgrade that can or will take up to six months if he can get away with it. Totally unreommended. |
I tend to agree with Koplo above. A good setup, though always sounding subtly different, compared to a good vinyl setup, sometimes even betters it in subjective listening tests, EXCEPT for big orchestral classical music. Redbook, in what ever way it is processed, just cannot do it here to my ears. Neither can SACD nor can HiRes files.
However with voices, chamber music or jazz combos, in a well set up computer rig, the soul is definitely there.
If even then you cannot hear it, the reason for it lies not in the music, but elsewhere. |
As soon as adequate isolation is used from ac to digital and digital to analog. It's a magical transformation. Cheers. |
Naim gets to the soul of music, IMO. |
I'd like to add a "lay techie" comment. I hope that digital does improve to the point that it is consistently better sounding than vinyl. I'm NOT saying that all of my LPs sound better than my "redbook" CDs because they do not. But, IME and to my ears, subject to a few exceptions, my vinyl set up is better sounding than my redbook CDP.
Nevertheless, I am optimistic that the music industry at large will settle on a uniform digital format that will set a new standard of music playback and that will reliably out perform vinyl. Believe me -- I like to load and play for 60 or more minutes without worrying about picking up a tone arm at the end of a 15 to 20 min. playback, or replacing styli after 1500 hour so hours of use.
One other observation. ARC has been aggressively pushing forward on the digital front, now offering a new dedicated REF DAC and REF CD-9 CD player (replaced the REF CD-8). These new offerings are ridiculously expensive ($30K for the REF DAC and $16K for CD-9). Interestingly, these new products provide a half a dozen or more formats from which to choose. I hope ARC guessed it right. ;>')
Cheers. |
Kijanki, hmmm. Thanks for your comments. Will see if I can keep a more open mind on the topic in the future... |
I depends on implementation. Good SMPS will be superior to linear power supply. It will be quieter plus line and load regulated. Yes they are smaller and more effective but it is not the reason Jeff Rowland uses them in Capri Preamp.
Linear power supply, as I said before, is also SMPS - a very primitive one (that switches at max voltage) and without regulation, at least in power amps. |
Kijanki, sorry for my delayed return, but I imagine that what Charles is referring to is reflected in the fact that most equipment modders (and I realize that not every single one of them out there is legit, but many are) usually start by swapping the SMPS for a linear (based on sound, again like what Charles is saying). I had always heard that the digital environment under the hood was possibly rather noisy (self noise), but have recently had my eyes opened in my own rig to just how much that may in fact be true. And additionally that these same digital circuits are also it seems much more sensitive to that noise (whatever frequencies of it may be involved) than analog their counterparts...and again I suspect SMPS's may simply create more noise and induce more jitter in their own right. I would like to find favor with SMPS's, they are smaller, cheaper and cooler running, but continue to find IME that linear usually sounds better, sometimes a lot better. But, I do agree, to each his own. |
SMPS, a great case can be made for them on paper and in theory,the problem for many is what you hear once the listening begins.Many who have compared both(Linear and SMPS) simply find linear power supplies(with good implementation) to sound superior.Those who find SMPS equal or perhaps better, well by all means buy them.People will rely on their ear/brain processing as they should.People will ultimately buy/keep what sounds better. The entire point of home audio is enjoyment of one`s music collection and long term satisfaction.
Regards, |
Ivan, I would like to disagree with you on the subject of switching power supplies. Every power supply is "switching" if you think about it. Linear power supply takes energy from the mains in narrow current spikes. Width of these spikes is proportional to load (PWM) while "switching" frequency is 120Hz. Problem is that 120Hz noise is much more difficult to remove than high frequency noise. You most likely think of crude computer switchers that made bad rap for all of them. Modern switching supplies can be so quiet that some designers use them in preamps where efficiency is none of concern. Such switchers have many advantages over linear power supplies. To start with they are line and load regulated. They are also quieter switching at zero voltage/zero current (linear switches at max voltage). Remaining noise is much easier to filter out. They are also much smaller. Transformer switching at 100kHz can be 10x smaller than one switching at 120Hz for the same power not to mention huge capacitance necessary to remove 120Hz ripple and provide any load stability in linear supplies. Because of all that designers used them for class AB amps as well. Newest class AB Rowland Model 625 amp uses SMPTs switching at 1MHz. Why, then, there are still so many linear supplies? Perhaps because switcher is much more complex to design properly while market tends to believe (including you) that it has to be big and heavy. There is also catchy word "linear" that is very misleading. It is big, unregulated, noisy and it is also a switcher - a very crude one. |
BTW, check this out, it's a good read: www.audiostream.com/content/draft |
I think digital will swing fine if it will ever get the analog right, plain and simple. IMO, they can at least start with tossing ALL switching-mode power supplies into the garbage where they belong. (I no longer think they really have a place in any component. They just generate way too much noise).
Regards. John |
Koplo, you said, 'no analogs at all, even at the loudspeakers' terminals.' Without 256 independently driven small drivers, how can you have digital to a speaker?
If you play the music from the hard drive into memory before playback, how would SSDs differ from HHDs? Also SSDs are too limited in size, especially for DSD native. |
Here is a total full-range computer-driven tube system for under $35K that was one of the best of show, voted by JA:
http://www.stereophile.com/content/empirical-audio-vapor-audio
The best sound I have heard at ANY show in 15 years of exhibiting at shows, including Stereophile, RMAF CES and Newport. Killer speakers too. I want some....
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
I think we should announce to the traditional audiophiles,
it is time now we all should migrate to computer audiophile systems.
To replace the spinning-CD transport with terrabyte SSD.
There's already ExactAudioCopy, RubyRipper, & else, (choose JACK, no ALSA, unisntall PulseAudio),
and no ErrorCorrectionCode, and using SSD inside laptops (no spinning HDD).
And in the future, many manufacturers will create more pure digital amplification like NAD M2 (bye-bye tube, bye-bye bipolar),
and interface like Berkeley Alpha USB,
so there are no analogs at all, even at the loudspeakers' terminals.
The sound ?
Even really challenge the 100,000 vinyl+tube systems, with the cost of under 15,000 !
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@ TBG, would I need a DSD Dac, Player, to use the DSD double DSD recordings?,, And, What are some good DSD players out there that have a pre built in, or volume control?,, Where would I buy double layer DSD recordings?,, Thankyou, cheers! |
Oddly enough Geoff, no.... I have not noticed any obvious band-pass filter limitations on most of my very standard CD pressings, nor an overall lack of dynamics in the music. Invariably, occasional slight treble distortions appear to be originating from places other than my vintage Esoteric X-01 CD player.
Guido |
Of course, you could always argue, and successfully IMO, that the problem with digital does not lie with either the recording technology or the media (optical discs) but with the playback system. Has anyone noticed that stock off the shelf CDs for the most part tend to sound like papier mâché? And that they sound like the dynamics are compressed, that information appears to be missing, and they sound rather irritating, you know, what with all the distortion, lack of fully developed bass and wiry, rolled off high frequencies. |
...when people start listening with an open mind! |
With the advent of double DSD recordings and native DSD DACs, I think we will be surprised. I now have a few sacds done on my harddrive as DSD files. I don't yet have a native DSD DAC, however, but these are far superior to the sacds played on universal players or HD 192/24 files.
There is, however, a characteristic difference between digital and vinyl. One is a pain to use, especially for albums redone to 45 rpm. The other you can sit and use your Ipad to control everything, mute it, go back to one cut, etc. |
...unless digital is maybe the thing that creates a lot of the unrest in the world maybe? You, know, the "digital edge"?
They say the lord works in strange ways, after all.
On the otherhand, unrest has been around since way before digital, so maaybe not. |
"When Jesus comes back for the second time..."
Maybe, but he'll have higher priorities I'm sure. |
When Jesus comes back for the second time... |
I found it as soon as I stopped looking for something wrong with digital. A new reference DAC has helped. |
I think the answer is soon. It will be with a Lenco, a quality amplifier of the cartridge, and recorded at double DSD. I will probably hear it this year. |
I agree, CDs are already loosing importance, as many tracks are available as downloads only via Apples pants iTunes Store. I say pants, as anyone who knows good sound will NOT like paying top dollar for substandard mp3 compressed audio.
Apple has got too big, and are forcing everyone down this file format to suit their servers and iPhone/iPad requirements, How sick is that? How has it got so off the rails that music lovers have to accept a big quality step backwards??
Notice how Apple forced Adobe Flash out as it used up too much of there battery power on the iPod! Notice how they are now selling laptops with smaller HDs to force users down the cloud route.
I only wish Amazon or other 44.1 or even better resolution music will become available as downloads. |
It is available now. Jitter is the enemy of digital. Current high-end DACs and format converts now measure jitter in femtoseconds rather than picoseconds.
The problem we all face in a few years is that high-quality formats are disappearing. In a decade we all will look back at the good old days when high quality red books CDs were available. |
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It's there now - IF you use the right A/D and DAC systems.
Nearly ALL professional recording set-ups are digital today, so even if you think you are listening to an all analog chain - it some point before you bought it, your record was digitally mastered.
The best digital systems run at 24-bit / 96 kHz and, if the bitstream is reconstructed using apodizing (time-domain-optimized) filters, it is completely transparent to my ears. |
