I've heard that sound from hard-drive is better than from cd player, but my cartesian brain couldn't imagine it, so i've done the first step today and it seems to be real....
I was trying my new preamp in a friend place with a meridian cd player, micromega dac, classe audio amplifier and quad loudspeaker (the result was great, my friend want one now.........), I took my powerbook to show him some picture and after long listening test of preamp, I have the idea to connect the powerbook to the dac in optical mode, to copy a cd in itunes (in wave of course, not mp3) and to compare between direct reeding from powerbook cd player and hard-disk.
The result was a sound with more air, more space, a better image and a more natural sound.
So I thought that maybe this comes from the (I don't know) bad quality powerbook cdplayer, so I connect the meridian cd-player to the dac to compare directly the hard-disk with a good player.
Exacly the same result
Do someone had the same experience and have an explaination of the phenomen????
I was trying my new preamp in a friend place with a meridian cd player, micromega dac, classe audio amplifier and quad loudspeaker (the result was great, my friend want one now.........), I took my powerbook to show him some picture and after long listening test of preamp, I have the idea to connect the powerbook to the dac in optical mode, to copy a cd in itunes (in wave of course, not mp3) and to compare between direct reeding from powerbook cd player and hard-disk.
The result was a sound with more air, more space, a better image and a more natural sound.
So I thought that maybe this comes from the (I don't know) bad quality powerbook cdplayer, so I connect the meridian cd-player to the dac to compare directly the hard-disk with a good player.
Exacly the same result
Do someone had the same experience and have an explaination of the phenomen????
If your computer was playing the CD using digital audio extraction (DAE) with error re-read, like it would do when ripping the music to the HDD, it would sound the same. Unfortunately, CD players aren't re-reading errors, but correcting them. They would have to read at 32x to do this correctly.
If you have a PC, use Winamp and the CDReader plugin that you can find here: http://www.url.ru/~copah/CDReader.htm
to read the CDs with DAE and error re-read
If you have a PC, use Winamp and the CDReader plugin that you can find here: http://www.url.ru/~copah/CDReader.htm
to read the CDs with DAE and error re-read
Steve Eddy said:
I wasn't going to say anything
But I agree. His theories on cable jitter are a bit questionable. He should try working above 2GHz, that focuses the mind on things like that.I've never found cable length to do anything to the jitter of an SPDIF signal, 0.5m to 5m all gave around 1.5ns on our tester.
BlackCatSound said:I wasn't going to say anything
I've never found cable length to do anything to the jitter of an SPDIF signal, 0.5m to 5m all gave around 1.5ns on our tester.
Well, thing is, the only jitter that really counts for anything is the jitter at the DAC chip itself when it makes its conversion. That's the only jitter anyone can possibly hear.
se
hugobors said:
Very hard to me to even expect this. At least that the sound should be more natural.
After all the output from the CD drive is a digital signal, that is EITHER saved to a WAV file on the HD, OR sent to the DAC.
The quality of the signals from either CD or WAV file should be the same, as the content of the WAV file depends on the quality of reading of the track on the CD by the laser.
Two things must be different:
1. the reading of the CD track by a laser and
2. the reading of a file by the reading head of the HD.
Now remember: The WAV file was generated by the reading of the CD by the laser, if any errors appeared here, they must be saved into the WAV file.
Best case is that the HD reading head adds something on top of what the laser did read when the track was ripped to the HD.
This additional "something" is probably distortion, that is perceived as more "air". More air often fools listeners to perceive sound as coming from larger spaces, etc.
Agree?
My take is that you don't have enough information to make an informed decision. There are too many variables:
Is the playback chain the same when playing from the PC's CD or HD? Are you sure?
When comparing the computer playback chain with the standalone CD player chain you have further questions in this regard.
And you are using iTunes (i.e compressed audio?)?
There are of course a bunch of other assumptions.
There is no doubt in my mind that the audio data is most reliably read when using an excellent computer drive such as Plextor Premium CD Burner and one has enough time to allow for re-reads which the drive will do without addtional software. It is probably better than even the most expensive CD players for this bit extraction even if it reads without the possibility for re-reads.
One thing is for sure - the PC is the future of playback. Music data will reside on hard drives (or on drives on the net) and as implementations on computers is improved you will get at least as good sound from the PC as the CD player. I think I am there already - many sound-cards offer word clock in which allows one to minimize source, cable and receiver jitter.
Is the playback chain the same when playing from the PC's CD or HD? Are you sure?
When comparing the computer playback chain with the standalone CD player chain you have further questions in this regard.
And you are using iTunes (i.e compressed audio?)?
There are of course a bunch of other assumptions.
There is no doubt in my mind that the audio data is most reliably read when using an excellent computer drive such as Plextor Premium CD Burner and one has enough time to allow for re-reads which the drive will do without addtional software. It is probably better than even the most expensive CD players for this bit extraction even if it reads without the possibility for re-reads.
One thing is for sure - the PC is the future of playback. Music data will reside on hard drives (or on drives on the net) and as implementations on computers is improved you will get at least as good sound from the PC as the CD player. I think I am there already - many sound-cards offer word clock in which allows one to minimize source, cable and receiver jitter.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.