Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Theoretical benefits to hi-res if only max 20kHz signal?
There are a number of rules in the audio world that haven't held up. For long time it was considered that we could only hear differences of at least 1 dB. That has been demonstrated to not be correct. I remember reading about a double blind test in Stereo Review that went bad because there was a .1 dB diffenence in levels. The listeners could pick it up. Bell Labs was able to show that filtering out everything above 30 KHz was detectable by a person who was tone deaf above 10 KHz. Jim Smith in his book Get Better Sound has a great story about discovering that he could pick out sounds that were below the noise floor in analog recordings but not in a digital recording of the same. The human ear is pretty amazing. The naysayers about cables always claim that only resistance and reactance count. We in the wireless industry are being increasingly plagued by a distortion called PIM, which occurs in cables and connectors. It is every bit as possible in the audio range as the microwave. And no one except maybe a specially built research lab can measure PIM in the audio frequency range. We only recently have developed the ability to measure it easily in the microwave range, which is orders of magnitude easier. If people are consistently hearing differences even though the theory or instruments say they shouldn't we should assume it is always a case of self delusion. We knowledge is dwarfed by our ignorance. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93483 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Equipment that measures beautifully but sounds bad???
I had a real eureka moment a few years ago listening to this combo in a shop. I was really impressed by the resolution and spaciousness and all that. Then I realized here I was listening to some of my favorite music and not caring about it at all. I was not engaged at all. When I explained it to the saleman he just drew a blank. Also, a long time ago I listened to a pair of top of the line BW speakers. The music I selected sounded horrible on them. Then the salesman put on some light jazz. It was amazing. The only problem was that I really like the album I chose and the light jazz was a waste of vinyl. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93320 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] $30, 000 audio power cable introduced
The radio guys here in my company (we make RF and microwave test and measurement equipment - the best there is) have found that a poorly executed clamp can actually increase noise. Buyer beware. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=91896 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Teflon tape
I read one forum where a guy tried this. He measured the current draw of the system with and with out the tape. It was actually a bit lower with the tape. I passed it on to one of the design engineers here who is a skeptic but has an audiophile friend, so is a bit sympathetic. Here is his response: That sounds like it's out of left field. Maybe the compressed teflon is damping microphonic vibrations in the plug leading to a consistent nonvibrating contact with overall lower DC resistance (hence lower current draw). Less vibrations would seem to imply less noise as well. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=89174 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Considering a dac
Looks like they are clearing them out. I believe they are going for $249. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90939 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Need test Inguz filter files
I'm one of those folks who can't get the Inguz test tones to work on my system. It appears that no one has figured out why this happens to some but not others. I can work around this issue and create filter files, but I don't know if the problem I am having will extend to making Inguz not work in other ways. I would hate to put a lot of effort and maybe expense into this just to find that I have other problems. I was wondering if anyone has any filter files they have created that I could install into my computer and see if Inguz can use them. I figure if I can use one file I can use any file. This would give me the confidence to go ahead and do the rest. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=65834 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Inguz dsp plugin - what are the results?
You definitely do not want to use the analog outputs on the DEQ. Of all the DACs I have compared it is the worst by a large margin. It is muffled and dull. No liveliness in the upper ranges. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60057 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Inguz dsp plugin - what are the results?
I am looking at using Inguz. I have the mic and preamp already but apparently I would have to upgrade to a more powerful laptop. I currently use an Asus eee as my squeezecenter and controller. I have a 500 GB portable USB drive bluetacked to the bottom of the case, so it is self contained. Works great. There is no reason to upgrade except for Inguz. Before I spend a bunch of money I would like to know just what I would be getting with Inguz. Judging from the website it is mostly an equalizer, though a very good one. Playing with the delays for a stereo system seems pointless as I have my seat exactly centered. It has some spatial enhancements, but I tend to be suspicous of those. Is there anything else I can do with it? I have Behringer DEQ2496 which I run in pure digital mode. That is a pretty powerful equalizer when combined with my 1/24th octave RTA software. The reason I am thinking about trying something else is that the DEQ spews out tons of emissions. It drives my FM crazy. That can't be a good thing. Bottom line, what would I be getting by going from the DEQ to Inguz? Thanks - Mark. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60057 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Power supply DAC for my SB3 - recommendations?
If you have to choose I would definitely buy a new DAC. There are supposedly good ones out there from Bereshford (sp?) and Cambridge for good prices, or a used one. I have tried a number of DACs, and find that they make obvious differences. I have played a bit with PSs and have not noticed any clear change. Let's say any change I heard was within the noise level of the imagination. I have read scores of posts here on PSs and have concluded that I can't conclude. Some people notice changes, some don't, some do till they are forced to try a blind test and then can't hear a difference. Good filtering on the power (mains) seems to make a difference. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=63349 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] The Blind Testing Controversy
Most blind tests I have seen are tests of whether the listeners can hear a difference between setups. Run each setup enough so the listeners are familiar with it then run two setups in a random order and ask the listeners to identify which one is playing. If they their ability to identify the setups is around 50% within statistical signifcant then it is just chance. If they can't tell the difference then should indicate that there is no discernable difference. There shouldn't be any subjectivity in that. It would be interesting if they came up a with a statistically significant negative result, say 20%, what would that mean? I've never seen that. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=61877 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Luddites, er I mean audiophiles
Luddites were people who tried to stop the dehumanizing aspects of technology. They were not opposed to technology, per se. The equivalent in an audiophile might be someone who embraces advances that actually advance high fidelity, but opposes the world being forced into 128 kbps MP3s whether we like it or not. I have an SB, a NAS, and a netbook to run SC. I have everything on FLAC and that is how I prefer to listen to my music. My CD's are pretty much just in storage. For portability I also have everything on 320 kbps MP3 so I can use my Ipod in my car. Both systems are great for what they are intended to do. I for one have no desire to go back to cassettes or 8-track. But they had their place in their time as well. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=61715 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Blue Train AKA format wars
OK got that off my chest. I was thinking of just this issue as I was driving to work today and listening to a very bad recording of very good singer, and thinking of many other good performances I have that I can barely listen to thanks to the recording companies. The irony is that in many cases I only know about how good the performers are from hearing them on Austin City Limits, which is far from a Hi Fi experience. But at least they sound like humans. I've been going through the book Get Better Sound. The author describes his findings from analysing CDs. He has found some that have as little as 10 dB of dynamic range. It's mostly for the radio, which turns into sales. And people fall for the artifical sound... at first. Just look at how many Bose systems, with their enhanced sound, get bought. Any body remember the old ad I think it was by ADS run that showed guy sitting in rumpled bed holding his head in regret with a speaker sitting in front of him with the caption something like will hate yourself in the morning? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=55737 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Squeezebox upgrades
I am going to stick my neck out here and suggest that rather than spend a fortune on what appears to be ridiculously expensive aftermarked linear power supplies use power filtering and isolation on the stock supply. I have read so many results from so many people and it seems that sometimes the switching power supply is a problem and sometimes it is not. I filter my power and I have not noticed the difference between a high quality linear supply with a 3A output and the stock supply for my SB2. And I no longer am paying the power bill for the ineffiency of a linear supply. They get hot! One DIY'er built an inline filter for the power supply and tried it both on his stock supply and his linear supply. He found that the stock supply actually sounded a little better - go figure. But it does suggest the problem is with the noise from the supply being picked up by other devices through the AC, not the juice going to the SB. That seems to agree with other experiences expressed on various forums and reviews. Neck now carefully layed out on chocking block - start swinging. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=54335 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Songs you use for critical listening
I always start out with Sandy Sasso's Tuxedo Junction off of her Mixed Grill album. Great varied recording with bass, vibes, voice. Everyone I play it for agrees. Great album too. Hod O'Briens Second Set album. For piano I like Lynne Ariale's Live album. For a higher pitched female voice Renee Olstead is good. The very beginning of the Rancounteurs album has the biggest, baddest, distorted sound that is actually very well recorded. Patricia Barber Use Me off of Companion. Funny thing is that almost all my favorites are live recordings. Joshua Redman has some good recording of sax. I wish I could remember which album. I never really appreciated it till I heard him live recently and realized just how rich a sax should sound. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=46640 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Best practices
subwoofers are notorious for grounding problems. Have you gone through the isolation steps. Putting in a cheater to eliminate the ground pin on the AC, connecting to different sockets and so on. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34279 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Audio Trends TA-10 Amp (t-amp)
You measure the total power level going in and the total going out. If the latter is greater than the former there is gain. You have an amp. The fact that the Panasonic also has a DAC doesn't really change that. If that was the case then a standard amplifier with a digital input (feeding a DAC) would not be an amp. By the way, class D amps still put out a analog signal. The difference is that they amplify the signal using on/off switching and timed pulse lengths. They then smooth out the pulses to create a conventional analog signal. Don't confuse the D in class D for digital. There is no relationship between the two. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33112 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Please recommend best quality solution
You wrote that you had an RCA connection between your computer and your receiver. I am assuming that this is an analog connection, not SPDIF. Most computer sound cards are pretty poor quality. Why not make a connection to your receiver from your USB port. You can either buy an external DAC or you could get a USB to SPDIF convertor (coax or Toslink, either is dirt cheap compared to a good DAC). I would buy the convertor first and see how you like it. And create some lossless files to do an A/B comparison with your MP3 files. I don't know what, if any, losseless files Winamp supports, though I have read that there is a FLAC plug in for it. For the time being try downloading www.monkeyaudio.com. It is free. I just started using it and am pretty much impressed so far. Much easier than the other favorite here, Foobar2000. Be sure to rerip your CD for the lossless files. Converting MP3 to lossless is pointless, though I am sure you already know that. I am using USB connection to a MP-Audio Transit ($80 on EBay), which converts it to Toslink, feeding that into my pure digital equalizer then into my receiver where it it converted to analog. I am pretty darn happy with this. If you are still not happy with this setup buy a DAC with a USB input. There are lots of audiophile versions available from about $500 on up. Just do a search in this forum on the subject. Though there are people who participate in this forum who feel USB is awful there are high end DAC designers who think USB from a computer with lossless files is the best possible way of playing digital music, better than any CD player. There are also people who think Toslink is horrible, yet I can't find a single test to confirm this. These people may very well be happy listening to their SB or Transporter through WiFi. If they were familiar with the circuitry involved with electrical to RF and RF to electrical conversion, and the compromises needed I think they would be amazed. Electrical to optical and O to E is such much simpler and less compromised. Anyway, my feeling is don't let all our opinions color your listening experience. Decide for yourself. One other thing. I would recommend against the Transporter. I am sure is very good electronics. But, ater living with the Squeezebox for over a year I have abondoned it and Slimserver because of the overhead. When they work they work very well. But I have found Slimserver to not be a robust program. It seemed everytime I tinkered with my computer I would lose Slimserver and have to play around till I got it back up. Some people like doing this, some of us are tired of always working on their computers just so we can use them. I read a definition of technology recently that went something like: technology is an idea that doesn't work well yet. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33197 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Please recommend best quality solution
If routine ugrades to Slimserver or Mozilla is tinkering, then I am guilty of tinkering. Otherwise I am not a tinkerer. I don't particularly enjoy working with computers. Too many rounds with Windows 95, 98 and ME, not to mention SCSI have pretty much purged me of any joy I ever got from them. I haven't had to reformat my C drive in years and I want to keep it that way. I only appreciate what they can accomplish for me. So I don't go out of my way to tinker with them. This is especially the case with the Laptop I use to run Slimserver. At present Slimserver is non-functional on both my desktop and my laptop and I have no idea why they went down. It happened at very different times. Like I said I have given up on the software and will use direct connections only from now on. When I sit down to listen to music I want to be able to listen to it without having to put on my nerd hat and troubleshoot a problem, even if it is only occasionally. Anyone want to buy a wireless SB2? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33197 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] revealing music
This is a very demanding piece with some keyboard work that drives me up the wall on a bad system. It is from her Mixed Grill CD. Great CD if you like jazz singing at all. But it can be hard to find. Another jazz CD is Patricia Barber's Companion. Lots of heavy bass. It is a live recording. For many years I have used Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon from their first breakthrough album. The self-titled one. Not because it is a good recording, but because the bass on it is very bad. I use it to judge how well a system can handle badly recorded music. I also use it to weed out speakers with artifically boosed upper bass, like Bose. Unfortunately the CD is improved over the LP, which was really bad. But it still works. The reason I like to use it is because it once taught me a lesson about high end speakers. Some of them are so intolerant of poor recordings that you find yourself unable to listen some of your favorite music. Not the kind of speakers I want. I don't have a good treble test CD at the moment. Jazz albums with clean recordings of cymbals would be good. I am thinking that the Renee Olstead CD would be a good test of higher female voices. She has a very light, pure voice. Piano is one of the best for testing. If it can handle a dynamic piano recording it can handle almost anything. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33246 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] An end to A/B/X (DBT) debates? (No, but...)
Carver tweaked one of his amps to sound like a tube amp, fed one channel into one speaker, fed one channel of a high end tube amp into another speaker and placed the speakers face to face, I think just a few inches a part. I don't remember, but he must have reversed the phases. The result total cancellation, no sound being emitted. His claim, the two amps were identical. Hard to believe the results could be so clear. But Carver is well known his habit of shaking up the audio community. By the way, I briefly owned a Carver amp back then, hated the sound. Shrill. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33127 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Optical connection - inferior by default?
I don't know if it creates an audible change but most optical cable is subject to output level variations with bending. This effect is orders of magnitude greater than with coax cable, even at coax at microwave frequencies. The effect is very dramatic. So I imagine if you were to cause a vibration in the cable at an audio frequency there might be an analog signal introduced into the path. And maybe somehow it would get through the optical to electrical converter and all the various digital circuitry and then to the DAC, where it could introduce noise in the output - maybe. But then again a coax cable can carry any EMI that is in the digital source or is picked up by the cable. That is something an optical cable won't do. There is optical cable out there that is immune to bending. We are using some it here with our optical to electrical equipment. Maybe these high zoot cable manufacturers ought to use it. Then they could make a claim based on facts, though whether it makes an audible difference or not, who knows. A simple set of electrical measurements could settle this quickly. Jitter can be measured to levels well below the apparent threshold of human detection. We make low cost equipment that measures it to below 10 picoseconds. Unfortunately it is for use only at much higher frequencies. Has anyone seen anything backed up by measurements? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33146 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] CD Treatments?
There are lots of audiophile quality DACs that take USB directly. Or the USB can be converted to SPDIF. No gamer boosts or tin-eared computer designers (if that is actually a problem). At least one highly acclaimed DAC manufacturer (can't remember his name, sorry) states point blank that the USB output of a cheap computer into one of his DACs (of course) sounds better than any CDP made. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32993 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] CD Treatments?
I am an objectivist. There, I admit it. But I am still open minded. Just ask my Physicist brother-in-law who I drive nuts with my alternative explanations of things. The Stereophile article is very convincing. Something seems to happen with CDs that classic digital theory doesn't seem to explain. I have been making assumptions about how CDs are read that seem to be incorrect. So my question is, is it the digital information that somehow seems to be corrupted or is there something in the way it is read that causes the DAC to distort the sound. DACs are analog devices. It just can't be the digital information, or software CD would not work. Like he wrote in the article, a single incorrect bit will likely crash a program. So if we took a disk that seems to benefit from a treatment and we ripped it to the highest possible quality BEFORE treating it, and then ripped it again after treating it, then compared the results played through a high quality DAC. Would the two files sound different? I suspect not, but then I can't explain what the treatment does. The reason I suspect that they would not sound different is that once you remove the physical characteristics of the CD and your 1s and 0s are purely electronic anything other than the 1s and 0s would be removed, including jitter, noise floor, sidebands, spurs, whatever. Any thoughts on this? I can see myself setting up an experiment. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32993 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] CD Treatments?
Tell your brother he has a sympatising physicist here that is also driven nuts by your lack of understanding of digital technology. Brother-in-law, but really what is wrong with my understanding of digital technology? I am no expert, but I have been working with it since before the CD was invented. Unless I am willing to reject the conclusions of a great many experienced audio experts I have to think that something is happening that does not fit into the standard thinking about digital, at least as it pertains to CDs. Did you read the article from Stereophile? There is a guy who knows CD technology and he can't explain it or measure it. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32993 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] CD Treatments?
Rip it to a USB flash drive in WAV or lossless compresion (no mechanical parts to complicate things). Then treat the disk and rip again, in the exact same way to the same drive. If you rip 20 minutes each time and you leave it in .WAV you'll need at least a 1GB drive. A 2GB if you do the whole process described below. Or put it on a hard drive. It should also work if you rip it to a CD-R but that throws in a big variable that someone is going to use as an excuse to say the test is invalid. One thing I have noticed about old CD-Rs that I have been ripping recently is that their readability if much worse in the outer part of the disk then in the inner part. Back to the test. Play the two back through whatever PC based player you choose. I hear there is a company called Slim Devices that make a couple of nice ones. If you can hear a difference then I'll be very amazed. It would almost have to be a digital artifact. And then bits ain't bits. To go further. Get two identical CDs. Compare them, if they sound the same then treat one and compare them again. If you can hear a difference, and can't hear a difference between the ripped copies then you can almost be certain that there is something in the nature of CDs and CD players that cause the difference. And it isn't digital. It somehow gets carried through and probably made audible in the D to A process. I wouldn't use only one disk. The time lag between listening and the fact that you couldn't go back and forth would pretty much render this test invalid. You could make a copy, but you would have to be sure that the copy sounds identical (to your ears) to the original. If you do use a copy treat the commercial one and keep the copy untreated. I think that would be more useful since a CD-R uses different technology altogether. If you can't hear difference the test is over. Snake oil will be seen dripping out of the device. But if you can hear a difference you can really make this interesting by adding a third test. Rip both of the CDs you just A-B'd, the treated and the untreated one. Use the same procedure described at the beginning. This is a good reason to use commercial disks so no one can claim they ripped differently. Now compare the ripped versions. Again, I really would be surprised if they sound different. If you do hear a difference I'm going to become a member of the church of the most holy snake oil. By the way, make sure you do all of this during same phase of moon and under the same astrological sign. Better not to do it during a full moon. You never know. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32993 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] CD Treatments?
I find that Brasso and other polishing compounds helps with the lighter scratches, but have not had any luck with the deep ones. I've also tried Plexus which fills in scratches in polycarbonate. Again, no luck with the deeper scratches. The most luck I've had with the deeper scratches is ripping with dbPowerAmp and just letting it work away, sometimes for hours ripping one CD. I've even tried various grades of sandpaper. Polycarbonate is tough stuff. Actually the best way is to go on Amazon.com and find a used copy in very good or better condition. That's saved me countless hours of work. It's worked everytime, except for that one Tracy Nelson disk that is out of print is selling for collectors prices. I just can't bring myself to spend $50 on a CD, not even on one of her best. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32993 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Q:'quality' speaker cable
Meant to add a K at the end $100K. Actually closer to $200K, and it won't even play CDs. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32454 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Q:'quality' speaker cable
As someone who works at frequencies in the Gigahertz I have a hard time believing cables can make a difference way down in the audio range - except for two things. One is, as mentioned, there can be a mismatch between components. It is not exactly a field where every company conforms to standards. Though at those low frequencies it would have to be quite a mismatch, except that the audio frequency range is some 10 octaves wide. That is a very wide range to simultaneously handle over a single path. I work with equipment that covers 10 octaves in the microwave range. It costs well over $100 dollars and can handle only a narrow range of frequencies simultaneously. And it requires extensive calibration every time it is used. 10 octaves is huge. I saw a website once where the DIYer suggested a simple LR tweek to bring cheap cables up to snuff. Actually, he didn't think cables made a difference but suggested it just to assure a good match. Someone could probably design a simple adjustable LCR box that would match any amp to any speaker. Then the cables could just be what they should be, as transparent as possible. The hard part would be adjusting it. It is not uncommon to have adjustable capacitance on the input to a phono preamp. Just an idea. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32454 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Modding the Squeezebox
I heard a Boulder modified SB2 with a fancy interconnect and Boulder PSU against an SB+ the other week. Although the Boulder SB2 is much better than a standard SB3, everyone agreed the SB+ was better still. I'm curious whether this was using the digital outs or the analog (analogue) I still have a hard time believing that digital in/digital out is going to sound different. It just runs contrary to my understanding. Maybe jitter is being introduced. I would love to see spectragraphs comparing the two. That should take care of the jitter question. Also, you say the Boulder modded sounds much better than the standard SB3, but apparently it wasn't part of this test. I'm open to getting mods. But someone is going to have convince me that the SB2 used only as a digital transport is going be improved by this. Sorry guys, if not a DBT, at least a side by side comparison. No memories, especially after spending a bunch of money to get the mods and waiting weeks in anticipation. There has been a lot about research into the placebo effect recently. It is a powerfull thing. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32739 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Modding the Squeezebox
Hopefully we are talking about reds;) Seriously though, I could have stated things better. Before I run out and spend all that money I need to be reasonably convinced that it actually makes a difference. Then with enough description I can decide if different in this case is better, or at least more to my liking. When the review of a bottle of wine starts out saying it has the flavor of cherries I'm off to the next review. If that one says full bodied with big berries then I know two things, one is that the two wines are different, and I will probably prefer the latter. But if someone says that they bought a case of $5/bottle wine, tried one, liked it but then decided to trade the rest in for a case of $20/bottle wine, and paid the difference. Then they waited 6 weeks in anticipation before they got the new wine, tasted it and said they liked it better, but without any details I'm not going to rush off and trade my $5 wine for $20 wine. Actually audio is much more difficult, the differences are more subtle and our memory of sound is notoriously poor. Since the option of listening to the two side by side is not available to me I just some more detail. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32739 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Interconnects
It seems that you are looking for cables that shape your sound in a certain way. I've always thought the purpose of cables was to not change the sound. One problem I think you'll have is that the shaping of the sound is going to be affected by how cables interact with the components. So what might work with one set of components won't work with another. After all, that is what has to be a happening. Designing a totally neutral cable should be easy, and cheap ,if the impedances of the components are controlled. I work in microwaves which are thousand times more difficult to transmit than audio. The key is to control your loads. That is something that the audio industry doesn't really do. As I understand it the exotic companies are sometimes the worst offenders. They sometimes have to sacrifice standards for that little bit of extra sound quality. Anyway, instead of experimenting with a bunch very expensive cables, maybe you ought to try an equalizer. You can get a decent one for less than a lot of the cables you could buy, and you only need one to see if it works. You can always resell it and go back to experimenting with cables. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32532 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] the goal of audio reproduction
I like the idea of it reproducing what the engineer intended as the base point for my system. That way every recording is treated the same. THEN if I want to play with it I can. If you start with a system that colors everything some recordings are going to sound great and others lousy. I have heard too many audiophile speakers that have exactly this problem. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32374 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] What kind of Audiophile are you?
After reading the thread on what the goal of audio reproduction is I was reminded of a question I have thought about a bit over the years. We've probably all heard of the audiophile who spends a fortune on equipment and listens to nothing but sound effects. Then I am reminded of an article I read in Audio mag (that ages me) in which the author defined an audiophile as someone who spends far more money on their recording collection than on their equipment. That seems to cover the two extremes. How many of us have heard systems that had all the Hi Fi credentials but sounded horrible. I would put Theil speakers in that category. Great soundstage, very clean and crisp and treble that consists of fingernails on a chalkboard (oops aged myself again). I think I fall into the the music comes first group. Would you rather listen to mediocre music on a fabulous system, or great music on a mediocre system? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32378 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] the goal of audio reproduction
What makes a speaker musical and what makes one a great sound reproducer? Some speakers seem to sound great and handle every recording with ease, others sound great with good recordings and mangle poor recordings. Which is the truer reproducer, or are neither of them? I'm looking for the latter, and one able to produce big dynamics, like I hear at my local Jazz club. Any suggestions anyone? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32374 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] the goal of audio reproduction
I meant to say I am looking for speakers that can play all types of music, and that don't mangle bad recordings, and have lots of dynamic range. No WAF for me. And the dogs don't seem to care, except when there is a dog barking on the soundtrack. Then it can get interesting. Might be a good test of system fidelity - can you fool a dog into attacking your speaker? What would be even more impressive is if the dog attacked an empty space between your speakers. Then you would know that your soundstage is great. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32374 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Definitive sonic differences between itunes and eac/flac
I ripped one CD to Apple Lossless using ITunes. It was a disaster. It didn't sound worse, it was unlistenable. I have no idea what went wrong. Before I got around to troubleshooting I decided to go with Flac and EAC instead. That has worked great. The fact that ITunes went ahead created this atrocious recording suggests to me that it does not have the protection against defective results that EAC has. I'm not surprised, my somewhat limited experience with ITunes has not impressed me. It is aimed at users who just want it simple and don't care that much about finesse. I use it only to download to my Ipod. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32212 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Digital Coax - EH???
I'm no expert on this stuff, but as long as the signal stays in the digital domain jitter is not a factor, unless it is so extreme it causes a misread. It is when the digital stream that contains jitter is converted to analog that by-products are produced. The DAC being, essentially an analog device, is where the problem rears its ugly head. Again I am no expert, my experience with jitter is purely in the digital domain, but if you can completely immobilize a cable I suspect the cable would cease to be a source of jitter. So cables may vary in their suseptiblity to vibration. Lengths of cable would vary as well. Not to mention how they are routed. It would be interesting to try suspending a cable in front of a tweeter and hit it with a bunch of high frequency sound. Measuring jitter isn't hard if you have an eye pattern analyser and a synthesizer. I happen to work for a company that makes both, but they are not designed for low frequencies like SPDIF. Too bad, it might be a fun experiment. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31733 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Bel Canto No Risk Purchase Plan
To me not just should there not have been any restocking fee the postage to and from should be refunded. No Risk is just that, you don't risk anything. Anything short of this policy is deception, intentional or not. When I run into a situation like this I always have to wonder if the difference between the claim and reality is deliberately intended to deceive or just laziness on the part of the marketer. Both situations are depressingly common. Having said that, I agree the original poster should have read the policy and not inferred the obvious. I have found after decades of mail order buying that you need to read policies very carefully if you think there is any chance you may return it. It seems that with the advent of e-tailing and the intense competition that has ensued the mail/email order places are getting nastier and more crooked. Caveat Emptor -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31562 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Digital or Analog output?
DeWayne, interesting Wiki. Based on that and other posts here someone using an AVR would be mostly wasting their money buying a Transporter, since the internal DAC and preamp should be bypassed anyway. I have tried doing an A-B between the analog and digital outputs of my SB2 into my Harmon Kardon 7200 AVR. Truthfully, the difference was very small, to the point where it might have been imagined. I tended to favor the analog outputs. But as most of us are too aware of, small differences are probably overwhelmed by our psychological reactions. I was thinking seriously about buying an external DAC for my SB2. Maybe that would be a waste of money. I'll have to repeat my comparisons first. I've come up with some good recordings to do that with since then. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31497 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: New Squeeze Box Owner, DAC question, Bel Canto, Lavry, Benchmark
The BelCanto was reviewed in the latest Jazz Times. He liked it a great deal. As a point of reference, their reviewer is very tube-o-philic. No transistors for him. His ideal is the single ended vacuum tube amp. But then he really liked their amp, which appears to be a class D - go figure. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30812 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Music in your car
It looks like a great idea, but it seems to be limited to only OEM systems. I wouldn't be willing to give up my Alpine head unit. The original Acura unit doesn't come close to it. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29925 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Music in your car
The simple statement that 70 dB of audio noise from the car will reduce your listening to the remaining 26 dB of SNR on the CD is just way to simplistic. Think about it. If you could only pick up 26 dB you could barely hear your music. The human ear is extraordinarily capable of picking up sounds out of the background. It goes way beyond the simple addition of decibels. Anyway, if going lossless would tone down the harshness in the highs I would hear that, and greatly appreciate it. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29925 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Effect of cleaning up power?
I once was a tech in lab that unknown to me had voltage difference between the grounds of two circuits. One guy plugged a tape recorder into one outlet and the source into another. It blew the inputs to the recorder. I found a voltage between the grounds on the two outlets. Tying them together solved the problem. This also why I am skeptical about separate circuits to separate pieces of equipment. I would think that having the entire system plugged into one circuit would be cleaner and safer. In my own system I can't plug my subwoofer into the outlet near where it is located and the rest of my system into a separate circuit. It creates a terrible 60 Hz hum. -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27255 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Using Transporter with DVD-A, SACD, HD DVD, Blu-Ray, etc
I got really excited about SACD and even DVD-A until I bought an MP3 player on impulse. I now have 3 players and have stopped buying DVD-As and non-hybrid SACD's. The reason is obvious. I am not going to buy two copies of the same music. And I am going to put any music I like on my MP3 players. I think the music industry is hurting itself by protecting their music. If I can't put it on an MP3 player I probably won't buy it. Downloading is too expensive, too limited and too low of quality. They seem very out of touch with what is going on. When I bought my 60GB player and realized what I could do with it I went on a CD buying spree. I bought more CDs in the 6 months after I bought my player than I had in the 3 years before it. And they want to stop me from doing this? -- regalma1 regalma1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6658 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27136 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
