I will be looking for differnces which could explain why the 24/96 sounds so much clearer and real. Is it somewhere in the ADC/DAC chain or in the mastering and elimination of several steps of additional hard/soft vis direct download of files etc etc etc. Somewhere in the whole process of making CD's is a big difference from direct master digital downloads..... this is first step in my process of elimination.
The affect is not unlike doing D-to-D for LP's. So, I have the means to see what it narrows down to. I dont think dither has anything to do with it..... unless it has been applied to often in the process towards making a master for CD.
THx-RNMarsh
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Do you also have info on the FM 223? It's touted as 'the world's best phono preamp'. Has switchable eq curves. I wonder what the price is?
Jan
Computer drives are faster, but in the end, as long as the bits are sucked off the disc with enough precision to remain correctable, it doesn't make a difference.
Are you assuming that the big manu's have different CD drive production lines for 'common consumer' and 'computer'? I'd bet they come from the same line but the OEM adds something 'magical' to his to make it 'hi-end' ;-)
Jan
Which would be entirely logical if they would ground only one side of the screen to avoid ground loops. That, by the way, is also the source of those 'direction arrows' on some interlinks, which have been so massively misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Jan
The real issue is that the tonearm probably has a DIN connector and the preamp uses RCA. Reverse the cable and you get no sound, especially if you force-fit using a precision percussive device.
Do you remember the Radio Shack player that had certain critics going over the Moon? It was based on a CD-ROM drive---I think the company was Mitsui, and the claim was it had to be better than the typical consumer CD drive. We had then a cottage industry of enhancements, including huge power supplies that dwarfed the player itself. At some point the manufacturer said they couldn't make them anymore, I recall.
Except for a few high dollar top loading CD players I would expect that there really is no difference between a normal computer CD drive and one in a dedicated cdp. Why would the read functions and construction be any different? I can see that you wouldn't need to have a write function in a player but the bits for that are probably still present, though I can't say anything about that except conjecture.
I drove by the local record shop today, I do that most days and can say I saw an article about their sales the other day. It turns out that they sell far more vinyl albums than they do CD's. they have a huge following here in L.A. It does appear that there is a resurgence of album sales and new vinyl being put out for those who want to stay with there TT's and album covers. I don't see any problem with that if you are happy with listening to vinyl and the pains that come with that. Just go read the thread about building an Ultra-sonic record cleaning bath to get an idea of the contortions that they go through to get rid of dust! I still have my turntables and don't plan on getting rid of them but this is to play what vinyl I have kept all these years, I don't think I will be actively looking for more vinyl. But I do still enjoy the music even with the clicks and pops. Any future music purchases would be either CD's or downloads. Digital is here to stay and is the future of music distribution as far as I can see. Let's make that as good as we can, why settle for less than what is possible. Whether we get to the point where 24bit ever becomes the norm I wouldn't care to guess, but it sure is going to take much more storage space to hold those hi-rez files. I an still on the fence if you can hear the difference between a well recorded 16 bit and 24 bit file, but I am open to reading what all of you have to say. As long as we keep low bit rate MP3 out of the equation I think the picture should be something we can come up with real DBLT to answer the bit rate issues. Yes I know many have already posted much on the bit rate wars and if all we have to go by is the Nyquist functions the answer would already be done, but not sure that is the whole story yet.
I drove by the local record shop today, I do that most days and can say I saw an article about their sales the other day. It turns out that they sell far more vinyl albums than they do CD's. they have a huge following here in L.A. It does appear that there is a resurgence of album sales and new vinyl being put out for those who want to stay with there TT's and album covers. I don't see any problem with that if you are happy with listening to vinyl and the pains that come with that. Just go read the thread about building an Ultra-sonic record cleaning bath to get an idea of the contortions that they go through to get rid of dust! I still have my turntables and don't plan on getting rid of them but this is to play what vinyl I have kept all these years, I don't think I will be actively looking for more vinyl. But I do still enjoy the music even with the clicks and pops. Any future music purchases would be either CD's or downloads. Digital is here to stay and is the future of music distribution as far as I can see. Let's make that as good as we can, why settle for less than what is possible. Whether we get to the point where 24bit ever becomes the norm I wouldn't care to guess, but it sure is going to take much more storage space to hold those hi-rez files. I an still on the fence if you can hear the difference between a well recorded 16 bit and 24 bit file, but I am open to reading what all of you have to say. As long as we keep low bit rate MP3 out of the equation I think the picture should be something we can come up with real DBLT to answer the bit rate issues. Yes I know many have already posted much on the bit rate wars and if all we have to go by is the Nyquist functions the answer would already be done, but not sure that is the whole story yet.
I'd bet it will be soooooooo much better than a VFB with global NFB. At least as much as 24/96 vs. CD.
The maddening thing: I have friends who believe that vinyl lovers like the clicks and pops and surface noise, which I think is utter rubbish.
A record cleaner is essential, and if you don't keep the records clean you are likely to do additional damage beyond normal wear to both the disk and the stylus.
As far as new vinyl, the quality of some of the remastered stuff is astonishing, especially considering that the master tapes have deteriorated significantly. It's not cheap. On the other hand I know some contemporary artists are issuing LPs along with CDs and of course the unbiquitous downloads.
Brad,
I imagine that you know of Amoeba music on Sunset Blvd, they have so much vinyl you can literally spend all day looking at it all, it is overwhelming. I will say I surely don't miss the clicks and pops when listening to a CD, why anyone would want to hear the surface noises is beyond me, that is why we cleaned the album and had little brushes on some of the cartridges I know of. I have to fix an old Harmon Kardon or my old Mac so I can actually listen to my albums and have an RIAA input, surely can't go turntable direct to an amp as you can with a CDP, otherwise I don't even see a need for a preamp much anymore, most cd players have more than enough output to drive an amp directly, unless of course you actually want EQ, which would be nice.
I imagine that you know of Amoeba music on Sunset Blvd, they have so much vinyl you can literally spend all day looking at it all, it is overwhelming. I will say I surely don't miss the clicks and pops when listening to a CD, why anyone would want to hear the surface noises is beyond me, that is why we cleaned the album and had little brushes on some of the cartridges I know of. I have to fix an old Harmon Kardon or my old Mac so I can actually listen to my albums and have an RIAA input, surely can't go turntable direct to an amp as you can with a CDP, otherwise I don't even see a need for a preamp much anymore, most cd players have more than enough output to drive an amp directly, unless of course you actually want EQ, which would be nice.
I've gone by Amoeba but never felt rich enough to dare go inside. All day? I'd say you could spend weeks there.
No, one does need a preamp. The range of pricing is fantastic, between something with a couple of RCAs and a wall-wart to very expensive stuff. And some of the high-end units are not necessarily that well-designed. I saw a schematic for one that used bipolar input op amps (poor for parallel noise) and a "super-regulator" cribbed from Walt Jung. I won't mention any names, as old age has brought on a certain caution commenting about people who might actually cross my palm with silver---it is good to eat. Not the silver, food.
And I don't know anyone who is measuring phono preamp performance adequately, at least in magazine reviews.
I'm saving for an ultrasonic bath to clean mine even tho do have a vac cleaner, it just gets a pain getting everything out for a cleaning session. The ultrasound will do car parts as well
I'm still unsure on the remastered stuff. It's so rare to find one that is really AAA and I can't see the point of buying a remaster from digital copy when its 3x the price of a download. Of course there was the beatles mono box set but that was too pricey for me.
For now I get so many great finds on ebay I'll not buy much new. Although for some reason SWMBO stopped me bidding on a collection of over 2000 albums recently
Outside the usual suspects on this forum not sure anyone is published decent measurements or even understanding what they should be!
Waly, you did not have courage to comment that amp (to many zeros and poles ) and now you are sarcastic again.
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