moonwatcher
Responses from moonwatcher
| Why do I prefer R2R over Chip based DAC's? Generally the blurb you hear the most (at least from the YouTubers doing reviews) is that R2R (resistor ladder-based DACs) often sound more tonally correct with instruments and for some "unknown reason" offer a wider, more expansive soundstage and... | |
| What to do with dead equipment I would simply note that if "this stuff worked great for 25 years" then you have indeed gotten the use out of it. If only everything else worked as long in our disposable civilization. Amortization of price versus the number of years you got out o... | |
| Ripping CDs @sandthemall yes, the .wav standard, established a very long time ago, made no provision for holding any metadata. I guess CDs have the metadata (when they do have it) in an index file, called a "schema" in computer-speak. Streamer/rippers might d... | |
| Ripping CDs @sandthemall the reason I suggested FLAC or ALAC is to better natively contain any metadata instead of relying on some 3rd party database. If your streamer/ripper or his Vault has that then more power to you, but I just don't trust such solutions... | |
| Tidal FLAC vs. Qobuz @p05129 I too was angry that Tidal didn’t honor their agreement with Best Buy’s customers and negated those who had already paid for a year’s subscription and forced us to start paying the full monthly price - without offering a discount for a yea... | |
| Tidal FLAC vs. Qobuz The upshot is Tidal seems to be abandoning MQA and moving to FLAC. But for now, much of the catalog is still available in lossy MQA. I have Tidal but none of my DACs support MQA so I’m glad for this development. Also note that MQA has been rebrand... | |
| Ripping CDs Sadly yes, rvpiano, you will need a PC or a laptop. Most laptops and PCs these days don’t have CD drives in them so you also need to buy a USB CD drive. These are fairly inexpensive, around $30. Perhaps you could borrow a laptop from someone. dbPo... | |
| What to ask when buying used speakers? @mtbiker29 cats can shred grilles. Friend of mine made chicken wire cages around his ESS speakers back in the 1970s because of that. He spray painted them black so they didn't look all that bad with a stained hexagonal wooden base at the bottom. ... | |
| What to ask when buying used speakers? @bigtwin if only others would ship items like that. Wow. Most NEW speakers don't arrive in such good packaging. Wish they would. | |
| Tidal FLAC vs. Qobuz I’m confused, which is somewhat normal these days, but isn’t the whole purpose of Tidal Connect is that you pass off the streaming URL directly from the Internet to the Bluesound Vault via the Ethernet cable from your modem/router? No lossy Blueto... | |
| New, Very Interesting CD Transport @creativepart dumb question to ask, but here in 2024, it can't be taken for granted: Does the Shanling ET-3 CD transport play gaplessly? (i.e. no inserted 2 or 3 second pauses between tracks when there shouldn't be, such as on Dark Side of the Mo... | |
| New, Very Interesting CD Transport Bits are bits and they should all sound the same - until they don't. Then we are left with a big "Hmmm." Just as people tell you that the quality of your streamer is at least as important as the quality of your DAC, (or at least should be on a com... | |
| What to do with a large collection @kmcong I have a not "huge" collection of about 1200 CDs from the 1980s to today. Out of all of those I think I had 3 that got "CD rot" due to oxidation of the aluminum layer due to a pin hole in the acrylic plastic. 3 out of 1200 isn't too bad, ... | |
| Why "bookshelf" sspeakers? If you want and value "scale", then as they say, "there is no replacement for displacement." But not everyone has large living rooms that can do justice to big floor standers. I found it slightly amusing that Paul McGowan of PS Audio just recently... | |
| Anyone listen to Music on a FM tuner anymore? Oh, regarding HD radio or what have you for digital...Techmoan on YouTube often has bemoaned the fact that digital stations in the U.K. are compressed to hell and in order to do more in the limited bandwidth, they are often lousy bit rates of mayb... |