New Poll: Do ripped discs sound better than the physical discs?

[Samuel T Cogley]

EDIT: Too fast with the reply button.

[marce]

50 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

he gives no methodology so it is impossible to assess the veracity of his claims

 

 

It reads like an advert for Naim, end of story... Is the final file different on the Naim to the file on the PC, probably not, so the data contained in both files will be exactly the same, time for Sandy to introduce us to the dark bits, those we cant yet measure that lurk between the real bits, accounting for these night and day differences.

[marce]

59 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 The views expressed in the copy of article that I posted preceded my reports by quite a margin !

 Obviously many Audio writers were well aware that there is far more to computer audio than just 1s and 0s, just as many professional Audio Recording and Mastering Engineers have also been well aware of this.

Damm all those EE's have wasted their education and all those years wasted treating bits as bits, how does anything digital ever work...

[marce]

40 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 Get your posted information correct , then there will be no need to repost the same type of stuff.

Since when has your own equipment, by your own admission, ever been in a class where you would be likely to be able to hear these subtle differences, that sound far less than subtle as your listening equipment is further improved ?

Note also my reply to wgs about me being far from the first to notice that Computer Audio originally was quite mediocre compared with the output of a half decent CD player into a high quality system.

Many members still can't get their PC Audio to sound quite as good as direct replay from their CD player, yet others are able to , with a bit of effort, get markedly better Audio from their PC setup than direct replay from a typical affordable CD player.

 

Try reading other areas of the forum than just the General area where members put a great deal more effort into their Computer Audio to achieve stunning audio from the humble CD, and high res material.

Are they all " nut cases" too ?

 

 Did you even bother to read the contents of the article that I posted ? The writers were using far better than average equipment, and the differences became very obvious to them.

Yep my gear is crap, LOL, read some of the other stuff, a lot of it is people playing and having fun, they don't want hard engineering facts.

So in one post you decry my kit and presume to know what threads I read...

I read the article, an advert for Naim with zero content, just some opinions.

[wgscott]

23 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

You missed the Audiophile Insult Trifecta by one. You forgot to tell him that his hearing sucks.

 

I believe the phrase you are looking for is "Class D hearing."

[sandyk]

1 minute ago, marce said:

Damm all those EE's have wasted their education and all those years wasted treating bits as bits, how does anything digital ever work...

 Nobody is suggesting that Digital doesn't work, but many people are now finding that with both Audio and Video, that the audible and Visual results of using digital encoding and decoding can be further improved.

Nowhere is this more evident , than in other areas of this very Forum.

 

 Get up off your backside and try something like the J.S. designed +5V Linear PSU with you SBT, and you may be pleasantly surprised just as an  I.T. friend of mine was when he tried similar many years ago..

[marce]

28 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 I  don't doubt that you have a great deal of expertise in the areas you are working in, but they do NOT include the area of Computer Audio. Neither have you spent a great deal of time in this area using far better than average listening equipment.

 

Are you even using an improved PSU with your SBT yet, than the original cheap and nasty SMPS ? 

An  SBT is entry level equipment, and far below what can be achieved from PC Audio !

Its convenient and does the same job as my CD player use to do, and sorry but I have listen on better than average listening kit over the years, stop presuming and trying to say my comments are not worth reading because I don't agree with you.

[marce]

29 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

You missed the Audiophile Insult Trifecta by one. You forgot to tell him that his hearing sucks.

It does at the moment, due to an infection I have a bit of tinnitus, over 50 so qualify as an Audiophile revuer

[marce]

5 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Nobody is suggesting that Digital doesn't work, but many people are now finding that with both Audio and Video, that the audible and Visual results of using digital encoding and decoding can be further improved.

Nowhere is this more evident , than in other areas of this very Forum.

 

 Get up off your backside and try something like the J.S. designed +5V Linear PSU with you SBT, and you may be pleasantly surprised just as an  I.T. friend of mine was when he tried similar many years ago..

A couple of years working with Tandberg on video-conferencing systems was an insight.

Do you know what supplies I have tried with my SQ, something that you seem to be fixated on... I have other kit throwing about.

 

[Samuel T Cogley]

8 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Get up off your backside and try something...

 

I think you mean, "buy something".

[sandyk]

4 minutes ago, wgscott said:

 

I believe the phrase you are looking for is "Class D hearing."

 Class D may now be able to approach, or equal,  the quality of the better Analogue designs, but it is presently incapable of OUTPERFORMING the very best Linear designs such as the best Class A designs, which will always lose out to Class D in the heat generated , maximum Output capabilities and Power Consumption areas.

[Jud]

31 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

I have friends that still spin CDs and see computer playback as something like demonic.  Part of me sees myself as fortunate that I got into IT at a time that positioned me to embrace PC-based solutions later in life.  But I've heard some stellar sound from CD players.  Why not just have both lobster and cracked crab?

 

 

 

Two reasons:

 

- I don't have to buy a CD player, find room for it, run power and interconnects, etc. 

 

- The aforementioned liking for playback software.

 

This of course doesn't mean I have the least objection to anyone else listening to CDs, or playing them for me.

[wgscott]

Just now, sandyk said:

 Class D may now be able to approach, or equal,  the quality of the better Analogue designs, but it is presently incapable of OUTPERFORMING the very best Linear designs such as the best Class A designs, which will always lose out to Class D in the heat generated , maximum Output capabilities and Power Consumption areas.

 

I don't think most people debate that.  I was just making fun of GUTB.

 

It did get me thinking:  I wonder if even the worst class D amps have a high-frequency roll-off more severe than that of the average 50 year old?

[sandyk]

6 minutes ago, marce said:

It does at the moment, due to an infection I have a bit of tinnitus, over 50 so qualify as an Audiophile revuer

 

 If I thought that Marc's hearing sucks, I wouldn't be suggesting that he upgrade the PSU for his SBT, then take it from there.

[marce]

2 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

I think you mean, "buy something".

Funnily over the last couple of years I have got rid of loads of kit, mainly speakers due to some encouragement from the wife, a few self builds, some KEF 104/2's some dinky little TDL Studio 1M's, a couple of CD players. Next kit I will buy may be something from benchmark with a SMPS inside.

[sandyk]

1 minute ago, wgscott said:

It did get me thinking:  I wonder if even the worst class D amps have a high-frequency roll-off more severe than that of the average 50 year old?

 

 My own experience is that extended HF response of Preamp's , Power Amps etc. does contribute to an audible improvement, even though your own hearing limitations are far, far, below that.

I have N.F.I. why that should matter though.

[Jud]

5 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Class D may now be able to approach, or equal,  the quality of the better Analogue designs, but it is presently incapable of OUTPERFORMING the very best Linear designs such as the best Class A designs, which will always lose out to Class D in the heat generated , maximum Output capabilities and Power Consumption areas.

 

I love me some Class A (Spectral and Pass in particular among those I've listened to), but I have also heard a couple of very stunning and musical Class D amps.  Also, Bruno Putzeys seems to be quite a smart guy, and those sorts of folks always intrigue me. 

 

I don't know what the best amp in the world right now is, nor whether it might not change tomorrow, but trying to decide between the very best Class A and the very best Class D would be a nice problem to have.

[sandyk]

1 minute ago, marce said:

Next kit I will buy may be something from benchmark with a SMPS inside.

 

 It won't b e a generic Asian SMPS inside it though, will it ?

Just don't expect wonders from it unless you markedly improve what is going into it .

 

 G.I.=G.O.

[Ralf11]

42 minutes ago, sandyk said:

... What's wrong with AC/DC too... ?

 

 

You want straight DC to avoid noise injection

[gmgraves]

1 hour ago, kumakuma said:

 

I wonder how many people here still own/use a CD player. I haven't used one in years.

I do. I have a Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD player, so for that much money, and the hundreds of SACDs that I have mean that I still use it.

[sandyk]

5 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

You want straight DC to avoid noise injection

 Interestingly, currently on TV we have ads inviting Crowd Funding of DC Power, with $50 shares.

 

https://www.dcpowerco.com.au/

[mansr]

52 minutes ago, Jud said:

I'm thinking perhaps either a file from an HDD or solid state storage might result in producing less jitter at the point of conversion than the same material played from a CD, but that's arrant speculation (on my part - happy to be enlightened).

All CD players, ever since the very first Sony and Philips models, use a crystal oscillator to clock the samples into the DAC. The motor speed is regulated to keep a FIFO buffer between full and empty. It's not like with vinyl where the rotation of the disc directly dictates the playback.

[sandyk]

5 minutes ago, mansr said:

All CD players, ever since the very first Sony and Philips models, use a crystal oscillator to clock the samples into the DAC. The motor speed is regulated to keep a FIFO buffer between full and empty. It's not like with vinyl where the rotation of the disc directly dictates the playback.

 

 It's still not perfect though, with servo tracking movements reflecting through the PSU area in many  players.

Perhaps just another reason why a ripped CD may sound better ?

[daverich4]

41 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

I do. I have a Sony SCD-XA777ES SACD player, so for that much money, and the hundreds of SACDs that I have mean that I still use it.

 

I have the same player but bought a Pioneer BDP 80 new on EBAY for $200 and used the process discussed elsewhere on this site to rip all 104 of my SACDs to DSD and now my Sony is collecting dust on its shelf in my rack. 

[Jud]

57 minutes ago, mansr said:

All CD players, ever since the very first Sony and Philips models, use a crystal oscillator to clock the samples into the DAC. The motor speed is regulated to keep a FIFO buffer between full and empty. It's not like with vinyl where the rotation of the disc directly dictates the playback.

 

Yes, understood. Just wondering whether there's slightly more uneven current draw regulating something like that than there might be with an SSD, for example, and whether that might make any difference at all regarding jitter.