Re: Digital Source Material
I am just dipping my toe into upgraded digital sources.
Our old ONKYO discrete amp has it's own pretty good DAC, but I've since added the iFi Zen (shop) and Topping DX-3 (my office/music room). As you say, the Burr-Brown chipset in the Zen seems to hold its own against the Topping, which is surprising...
FIRST order of business should probably be nice linear power supplies (heck, the Zen is running off laptop USB power).
Currently using Spotify "Premium" which nominally supports 32 bit/384Khz (almost said "cps"; how's THAT for old?).
However (a) sample rate/freq must be changed AFTER Spotify boots (very aggravating) and (b) not clear what rate/freq the source material was digitized at, plus (c) "experts" say that anything "finer" than ~24/192 can't be detected in blind testing...
Just today, did a blind A/B with the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer between mono LP of Oklahoma! soundtrack and the Spotify digital version at 32/384 nominal. Sources were about 2-3 beats off, so pretty close to synched.
She preferred digital (better bass) and I preferred LP (clearer mids and upper registers).
The salient point, I think, is that the SOURCE shouldn't be taken for granted; that alone has been a bit of a revelation, since many audiphools are stuck on VINYL, Now & Forever, which can't be right.
WRT digital, the question, in a rapidly evolving environment, is what's the biggest bang-for-the-buck? I am bookmarking YashN's post, and I'll get back to that later.
I am just dipping my toe into upgraded digital sources.
Our old ONKYO discrete amp has it's own pretty good DAC, but I've since added the iFi Zen (shop) and Topping DX-3 (my office/music room). As you say, the Burr-Brown chipset in the Zen seems to hold its own against the Topping, which is surprising...
FIRST order of business should probably be nice linear power supplies (heck, the Zen is running off laptop USB power).
Currently using Spotify "Premium" which nominally supports 32 bit/384Khz (almost said "cps"; how's THAT for old?).
However (a) sample rate/freq must be changed AFTER Spotify boots (very aggravating) and (b) not clear what rate/freq the source material was digitized at, plus (c) "experts" say that anything "finer" than ~24/192 can't be detected in blind testing...
Just today, did a blind A/B with the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer between mono LP of Oklahoma! soundtrack and the Spotify digital version at 32/384 nominal. Sources were about 2-3 beats off, so pretty close to synched.
She preferred digital (better bass) and I preferred LP (clearer mids and upper registers).
The salient point, I think, is that the SOURCE shouldn't be taken for granted; that alone has been a bit of a revelation, since many audiphools are stuck on VINYL, Now & Forever, which can't be right.
WRT digital, the question, in a rapidly evolving environment, is what's the biggest bang-for-the-buck? I am bookmarking YashN's post, and I'll get back to that later.
PS those Tube Depot EH KT88s were bought on flash sale for $33 each for a matched pair (which I like only because somebody has actually measured the bias, unlike alot of the cheapo Russkie tubes I buy on FleaBay, which I have found to have a below-100% "yield" on average).
REALLY should have bought several pairs at that price. Of course, I should have bought Amazon at $50, too...
REALLY should have bought several pairs at that price. Of course, I should have bought Amazon at $50, too...
A more recent revalation for me has been the impact of software volume control on sound quality. My own setup involves a PI running Moode that feeds a Mani 3 DAC into the SSE for digital. It really hit when I made a headphone adapter for the SSE. With software volume control I don't get a black background and it loses some detail. Also explained why the Modi 2 in my back room sounded better than the 3 since I had the software volume disabled on it.
Now I need to find a way to easily control the volume with my phone that doesn't degrade quality so I can keep my lazy but planted 🙂
What's special is the in-depth knowledge of the iFi on both the Burr-Brown and the XMOS interfaces and how to extract the most of both of them.
Ask iFi first, since it is known they have integrated some of their isolation solutions in products - it is probable you may not need to do so. They're very close to their users in terms of communication and support.
Try DSD, especially DSD256.
Some downloads are on 2l.no (although sourced from DXD), Bluecoast Records (native DSD), nativedsd (native DSD), etc...
There is a lot you can already do with your setup and the iFi: comparing DXD to DSD (same track), checking out the various oversampling or not on the software side, testing the filtering on the software-side, taking a PCM playing that, and then compare to the same over-sampled PCM and then compare to the same track real-time up-converted to DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 via the software, compare PCM tracks to the same track sourced in DSD.
There are many months of cool listening sessions that you can do, starting right now to find your DAC's sweet-spot.
The SET is the revelator - it will show everything and won't mask the rest.
For specific questions, go to the audiophilestyle forum where people like Miska (Jussi) (HQ Player) and Damien (Audirvana) hang out and respond to questions, on top of many very knowledgeable users. Head-Fi users, although headphones-focused, also do a good job trying several pieces of gear together, testing and listening to them.
I know, I'm the one who told you about the Electro-Harmonix KT88s, the sale, the time-limited nature of it and where it was to be found
BTW, we're also shopping for a new Home Theater Receiver as our old Panasonic SA-HE100 MOSFET Receiver gets in overload often these days.
Heard good things about Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha, Sony, i.e. the usual suspects but open to recommendations.
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