I did some listening tests of my own to see what quality level my SBT is at out of the box via analog outs. I have to be honest I didn't find a large difference between the same music on phono vs the SBT. There is enough that I will try a DAC possibly, as there was two suttle differences in the music I played.
As a background, the two sources consisted of a turntable -> phono preamp -> amp, then a SBT to amp. Both of these connected to the same length and brand of analog cable to keep things consistent. The LP was a newly released Let it Bleed by the Rolling Stones, 180 gram DSD remastered and an HDtracks high res FLAC in 24 bit/96 kHz. The SBT was set to the same volume level as the phono, and both albums were played simultaneously to allow switching back and forth. The resulting audio while very similar, had two distinct differences. the analog turntable clearly being the winner, the only shortcoming I found with the SBT was a less natural sounding high frequency (lp sound was a bit more "sweet" if that's a phrase in audio.) and a lack of presence ( or air) to the music, though peculiarly a touch more bottom end. To make a long story short, the tambourine on You Can't always get what you want sounded like it was actually in front of me via the turntable, though while very clear, the same tambourine on the SBT sounded more like a tambourine recording. Will an external DAC bring this unit closer to an analog sound I witness through a turntable? Perhaps; but I am going to do a second test using the TT 3.0 through the analog, to test the theory that these tweaks actually bring your music closer to an analog sound than the stock. Which I assume is the point of this thread. The tweaks are free unlike a DAC, so I will try these first. -- Munroe ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Munroe's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=52982 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=91322 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
