Scott can probably provide more insight but I think ADI has effectively exited the premium audio ADC market. The current products are less focused on ultimate performance. The current serious players for ADC are AKM, Crystal, TI and a few boutique houses. None of the major players have released new stuff in the last 10 years it seems. From what I have been able to determine AKM has many of the pro and semipro sockets. The AKM 5394A is the best performing ADC I have found but I'm sure someone here will tell me why its no good.
Before this subject ends, I would like to say that many here have little idea or experience about hi end vinyl reproduction.
V15's and moderately expensive Grados just don't make the grade. Neither do record changers. No wonder you are put off by the very idea of vinyl reproduction. You can't resolve what the record 'ideally' has to offer, so to you, it is a waste of time.
Well, I'm glad that people are also finding fault with inexpensive D/A's too. Sometimes you guys act like the $100 player is all that anyone would need on this planet! '-)
V15's and moderately expensive Grados just don't make the grade. Neither do record changers. No wonder you are put off by the very idea of vinyl reproduction. You can't resolve what the record 'ideally' has to offer, so to you, it is a waste of time.
Well, I'm glad that people are also finding fault with inexpensive D/A's too. Sometimes you guys act like the $100 player is all that anyone would need on this planet! '-)
nobody...ever....acts like that...ever
not even going to touch the rest of that post... par for the course
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I've heard some very fancy vinyl playback systems, multi-kilobuck MC cartridges, Forsell turntable, pricey big stepup transformer, tube preamps, custom room etc. Unfortunately the source material was in need of cleaning. But it sounded pretty nice, although not, to my ears, revelatory.
I tried to get the guy, Elliot Midwood, to deploy his washing equipment but he kept changing the subject. Perhaps he was conserving precious fluids, or the machine was broken.
The vinyl listening came after sighted A/B tests with digital material, and was by then more for pleasure.
The occasion was to demonstrate that a solid-state all-JFET buffer amp placed in the signal chain from preamp to the equalizer ahead of the power amp would be inaudible. I may have related the results: Elliot was impressed that it did appear transparent, as he was fairly well convinced that all solid state was bad news. However he said he might have heard a little less bass extension, and although I thought this unlikely it came to light that the input resistor at the buffer was a teensy bit smaller that the input resistance of the equalizer, so it was not a bad call. Indeed, I was very impressed with his acuity.
But --- of all the accessories that should be regarded as crucial for vinyl, right after the basic setup itself a record washer is I think the most essential. One of the nice things about the lower-bandwidth Shure was the brush on the stabilizer, which besides assisting the tracking of severely warped records did a bit of last-moment cleaning ahead of the stylus.
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As Bob pointed out here, and detailed extremely well in his recent Linear Audio article, the key to using high R high L cartridges is understanding their electrical loading requirements and accommodating it in the preamp design. If you do that, you can get excellent frequency response and overall performance- that's why cartridges like the V15 series have gotten such high praise from "independent" reviewers.
Of course, if your only design tool is high input C FET stages and you don't tailor your designs to accommodate these cartridges, you'll do better trying to convince people that cartridges like V15-V intrinsically have "low resolution" (whatever the hell that means) and sound "soft" and "smooth." Saves engineering work outside the designer's comfort zone and supports the high end marketing of his Team.
To be fair, I can also make the same cynical comment toward tube designers who use high mu triodes in the front end with a whopping Miller capacitance. Most 12AX7 stages that I've seen are particularly bad in this respect.
Of course, if your only design tool is high input C FET stages and you don't tailor your designs to accommodate these cartridges, you'll do better trying to convince people that cartridges like V15-V intrinsically have "low resolution" (whatever the hell that means) and sound "soft" and "smooth." Saves engineering work outside the designer's comfort zone and supports the high end marketing of his Team.
To be fair, I can also make the same cynical comment toward tube designers who use high mu triodes in the front end with a whopping Miller capacitance. Most 12AX7 stages that I've seen are particularly bad in this respect.
Speaking btw about bass extension, read the review and measurements of the $42,000 TAD C600 line-level preamp in the latest Stereophile (June 2013). JA finds the low-frequency -3dBr point mighty high when driving the admittedly unrealistic 600 ohm load. I'd conjecture we'd pop the hood to find a very expensive but rather undersized output coupling capacitor. But what do you want for a mere 42k? And, it has gain! All of 12dB.
The noise reported is low but not strikingly so.
The noise reported is low but not strikingly so.
This approach seems equally unsatisfactory but in the other direction.
The system sounds great at the hifi show but starts screaming when you plug it into a regular mains supply at home.
If hi end manufacturers are aware enough of the "problem" to use fancy mains conditioners at shows I really don't understand why they don't build in proper filtration to their actual products so they are essentially immune to dirty mains - it's not exactly rocket science.
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For the 2001 CES I was attached to a speaker manufacturer who was showing in two rooms. The room we shared with VAC ran like a top and sounded great. The other room (across the creek) was shared with a New Zealand builder of very solid solid state electronics, who had brought with them not only an outdoor generator, but also an indoor AC-to-AC convertor.
The folks with all the AC gadgets fought with their sound right up to Sunday morning, and on the last day of the show, gave up and plugged into the wall. Can't say I could really hear what was bothering them about the sound, but they were certain of the cure. Go figure.
Thanks,
Chris
The folks with all the AC gadgets fought with their sound right up to Sunday morning, and on the last day of the show, gave up and plugged into the wall. Can't say I could really hear what was bothering them about the sound, but they were certain of the cure. Go figure.
Thanks,
Chris
The response measured by JA can be modeled as a 2.4uF capacitor in each balanced output wire.
Not really, I am somewhat disappointed in the level of this conversation, but I can't do much about it.
Let me show what the subjective difference between two cartridges available from the mid '80's. One is the Monster Alpha 2 (made by Namiki, Japan), this was the cartridge that I used for evaluation for a time, until 1991, when it was lost with all the other audio equipment.
The other is the famous V15, by an audio review magazine, called 'High Performance Review' that seems to know what it was doing.
Please note the SUBJECTIVE impressions between the two cartridges. Which would you use for serious evaluations?
Let me show what the subjective difference between two cartridges available from the mid '80's. One is the Monster Alpha 2 (made by Namiki, Japan), this was the cartridge that I used for evaluation for a time, until 1991, when it was lost with all the other audio equipment.
The other is the famous V15, by an audio review magazine, called 'High Performance Review' that seems to know what it was doing.
Please note the SUBJECTIVE impressions between the two cartridges. Which would you use for serious evaluations?
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The V15, properly set up. It will be much more truthful- which is a different matter than "preference." The horrific ringing of the Alpha 2 is pretty much impossible to correct, though one could play with the EQ to get rid of the upper midrange sag.
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