audioengr
Responses from audioengr
| What are the advantages of tubes in a CD Player? Tubes are actually much more ideal for voltage amplification, such as small-signal in a DAC or CDP. Transistors are better at current amplification. The main disadvantage of tubes is the high-voltage and the high output impedance, along with the o... | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? The upsampled data, either using SRC on a computer or 24/192 from the Northstar transport is more dynamic, much smoother on vocals and more detailed than native 44.1.Steve N. | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Seandtaylor99 - I would not put the onus on either the DAC or the Transport. Either can have very low jitter. However, the closer you get to the D/A chip with a low-jitter clock, the better the result. The problem is that most modern DAC chips don... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Jsadurni - I have a couple of Off-Ramp customers that are using the Altmann DAC. They seem to like it. I dont really understand what this JISCO thing is. I have reports from some that it is better turned-off. Others seem to like it on. Looking at ... | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? "Why does North Star allow upsampling at the transport level? Is it indeed the same upsampler as in the DAC."Identical. The reason is the I2S interface. It is evidently more efficient design-wise to upsample in the Transport and then output 24/192... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Still waiting for Alex's response: If it's not jitter what is it????DSP??Steve N. | |
| Cable length for 110 ohm AES/Ebu digital AES cables have the same limitations as S/PDIF cables when it comes to jitter. They both cause dispersion of the signal, which results in jitter. The longer the cable, the higher the dispersion and losses. See this article for more info:http://www... | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? Clio09 - if you are talking about the Northstar Transport, the only way you get 24/192 is out the I2S output. The Northstar DAC has I2S, AES and S/PDIF inputs. The AES and S/PDIF inputs upsample to 24/192. The I2S just passes through.For the Monar... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Seandtaylor99 - I have customers with these. I have to hear it to believe it.I've heard a true reclocker, my own Pace-Car. It is still in debug, but amazing sound.Steve N. | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? Blindjim - In the past I would not necessarily recommend upsamplers in hardware, but the new 24/192 chip I mentioned is quite excellent. It is used in the Northstar 192 and the new BelCanto DAC3 as well as the Dodson 218. Great sounding upsampler.... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Zaikesman - I would be wary of drawing conclusions about jitter reduction from a Monarchy DIP. It certainly helps, but as you say, is far cry from elimination of jitter. Even the expensive Big-Ben, which incidently works much better is not jitter ... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Alex - You claim that ther are other "Factors" than jitter. What are they?The ability to read disks without error is a capability of even the cheapest $50 transports. What else is there than jitter?I suppose one other thing could be galvanic isola... | |
| Transport - does it matter to the sound at all? Jsadurni wrote:"Are you saying that the only difference between a good transport and a bad one is in the High frequencies?"No, the jitter is the difference. The HF are the most noticable effect of jitter.Steve N. | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? SRC is Secret Rabbit Code, written by a coder in Australia. It is a plug-in for Foobar2000. Foobar2000 is a free player for computer, the best-sounding of the PC players IMO.I posted recommendations for the best software combination on my forum, b... | |
| Up & Over sampling Is one superior to the other? Here is what I have experienced:1) SRC is the best-sounding software upsampler for Foobar2000, at 24/962) Hardware upsamplers all sound about the same, not so great IMO, with one exception: for 24/192 upsampling, the SM5847AF chip is wonderful. Im... |