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Went to CES this year to work on my transition to high Rez digital. I've heard many of the highly regarded players in my room or in others systems in the past. I'm actually very happy with my current cd based sound. As I listened to various DACS playing CD then high Rez, I was not bowled over. High rez was better, but only slightly so. The best (and most different) sound I heard happened to have one similarity. They were 2 non oversampling DACS with tube analog stages(Zanden and Ypsilon). These were without question the most natural sounding digital systems I heard at the show. They made CDsound miles ahead of high Rez. What gives?

PS: I understand the limitations of show auditions.
bflowers

Showing 4 responses by charles1dad

Agear,
With all the time, money and effort you have put in your system are you dissatisfied with your digital playback? I hope not. I'm constantly finding good sounding CDs to listen to. If you truly believe digital sucks you should consider going exclusively LP or R2R. Spending time on this forum it appears some just can't find lasting happiness with their systems regardless of the expenditure. Don't fall into that rut.
Charles,
Bill,
The Killer DAC sounds like something that I'd really enjoy. A component with one purpose, getting to the core of music's beauty, natural, realistic tone, vibrancy, harmonic richness and will convey the deep emotion of music. So much emphasis today seems directed toward the analytical hifi, ultra detailed, audiophile checkbox sound, it's very contrived and soul less to my ears.
The Killer DAC builder apparently loves and respects the art of music and the talent/efforts of the musicians.
Charles,
As someone who used a turn table for many happy years and still hears them in the systems of friends, digital doesn't "suck" at all. I listen to music long and often and enjoy it immensely and experience much emotional involvement. I'm in jazz clubs 3-4 times a month so I feel my ears certainly are use to natural sound. Neither analog or digital front ends fully capture the live acoustic experience I hear, but both can come close enough to be very satisfying. But I don't pursue a " perfect" sound rather I just want a reasonably organic character with realistic tone, body and harmonic beauty-honesty. I believe a good digital system delivers that these days. I avoid hifi sounding components like the plague.
Charles,
Hi Agear,
Well that's very encouraging to hear, Robert has told me how good your room and system are, so the "digital sucks" just made no sense to me. My feeling was what a waste of money and time if that's your end result (how sad that'd be). Glad to know that isn't the case.

I agree that the recording quality is the primary limitation. Pop and rock seem to suffer the most. My fare overwhelming is jazz and this genre is recorded much better and is very close to a "good" vinyl LP and often equal or better(it depends on variables involved). I've done enough comparisons with high quality digital and
analog systems to say this with confidence(I can really enjoy either). I can bounce between both
during a listening seseion with no problem if both formats are done
properly. Just my experience and certainly others will disagree.

I looking forward to hearing the Lampizator -Pitcher room in a few days. Curious how it will sound compared to the Trinity set up I'll also listen to while there.
Charles,