I still buy CD's mostly from Amazon, but I rip every one of them and playback using Mac and Amarra. CD players are not even close. I dont do computer audio for the convenience, I do it for the sound quality. I modded CD players and transport for customers for 10 years. Even modded ones dont cut it IMO. I dont mod anymore.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Rrm - use XLD for ripping to Mac - its free:
http://tmkk.pv.land.to/xld/index_e.html
You must be on line to rip using Accurate-Rip for comparison. iTunes is not good enough.
I would recommend to rip CD's to AIFF if you want tags and album art to be preserved. If you only care about sound quality, rip to .wav.
These are great questions. More audiophiles should ask these. This way, you dont have to do it over, only once.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Granny wrote: "My computer audio front end and others I have heard do not sound as good as a great CD/SACD player in my experience."
You just need to buy the right computer interface. There is no reason why it should not beat both your CD player and your vinyl.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
"I swear it is this bottomless black hole of cobbled together computer audio with all of its twists and turns that confounds me."
Granny - The best thing is to pick a manufacturer and stick with them. Good ones have all of the questions answered for you.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
"are you so confident that you would make a wager that i would prefer your digital front end, over my favorite cd player ??"
Are we talking about a transport or player?
If it's a transport, I'll give you a money back guarantee that my gear will beat it. However, you must follow ALL of my advice for ripping S/W, playback S/W, format and use a Mac Mini.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Mr. Tennis - The problem with comparing my USB DAC with your CD player is that everything is different, the interface and the DAC. My DAC even has a volume control, so it would replace your preamp. It's not fair really. It will make your CD player sound like a boombox. This is an award-winning front-end that got best of show from TAS for the last 2 years at RMAF.
A more fair comparison to see how computer audio compares to optical disc would be to compare your CD player as a transport to my USB converter as a transport, both driving the same good DAC with the same S/PDIF cable.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Reb - Here is what I think of on-line streaming music: It will probably be a rent as you go basis, just like streaming movies. It will also be limited in bandwith by using compressed lossy formats, so the quality will suffer. I dont want to pay each time I listen to a music track, particularly if it's not master tape quality.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
"To Steve (Audioengr) or anyone else inclined to explain...How is it possible for a copy of a CD played from a computer hard drive to sound better than the original CD?"
Okay, simple. The jitter that is caused by the pits in the CD and their unevenness makes it worse than playing back using sync USB interface or networked interface.
This is easy to test. First rip a CD track using either XLD on Mac or dbpoweramp on PC with Accurate-Rip enabled. Then rewrite a CD onto 2 different CDROM blanks, one Mitsui Gold audio master and the other TDK or equivalent. Then play all three disks on the CD player. If any of them sounds different, then there you have the proof. If you argue that the rip is different, then listen for differences in the 2 CDROMS. If you hear any difference, then ther is your proof. The CD player jitter is affected by the pits on the disk.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
"the transport read is not and is reliant on error correction"
That is true, however there is actually very little error correction happening, if any, with a clean CD disk. The difference in audio quality is a result of jitter from the CD player, caused by the pits in the CD or the jitter from the clock in the player or both.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Mr. Tennnis - I will put my product where my mouth is. You put the money down. A bet requires both of us to have skin in the game.
BTW, did you read the Dec. Stereophile?
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
MRTennis wrote:
"i have only found one digital front end that i prefer to my cd player, namely the original zanden and its companion transport.
i will assume that you fabricate a fine product but i doubt it sounds like the original zanden or the original lector."
You would be wrong. As you can see from this old customer posts:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?icomp&1228141324&read&keyw&zzspoiler
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?icomp&1211443920&read&keyw&zzspoiler
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?icomp&1208020926&read&keyw&zzspoiler
even my older obsolete Spoiler DAC beat the Zanden 5000 and dCS stacks. My new Overdrive DAC is a LOT better, taking best of show from TAS in both 2010 and 2011 at RMAF.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
HFChoi - you are correct. With a clean CD, there are virtually no read errors with modern read heads. There will be some differences in jitter with each play however, based on lots of things, such as AC power, ground loops in the system etc..
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Ghost - Jriver is a good choice for PC. Make sure you are using Kernel Streaming or WASAPI plug-in. I would convert FLAC files to .wav using dbpoweramp. They will sound better IME. Jriver replaces WMP. Just make sure that your device, the V-link is selected for output in control panel - audio and sounds. Also, try different USB ports on your PC. Some can sound better than others.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
Ghost - yes, Kernel streaming is a JRiver plug-in option. Hopefully, your V-link supports it.
WASAPI is generally used with Win7 and Vista, but you can use KS also.
If the hard drive is on your network, then the player software should be able to find it. Read their help.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio |
