Popular Post John Dyson Posted July 22, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, sphinxsix said: ..in most cases the first generation CDs are the best sounding versions (usually supported by the fact of master tapes ageing)? I don't. Discuss The earlier CDs usually have less 'loudness wars' processing. Almost all CDs starting from day one had the misuse of DolbyA as a multi-band compressor. So, more often then not, even the EARLY, 'PRISTINE' CDs aren't really at the level of 'master tape' quality, even though the technology allows for it. The worst form of master-tape aging have been the fires in the repositories. Those tapes from the fires (melted/burnt masses of acetate and plastic) are very hard to play in even the most advanced tape decks :-). In some cases, it JUST MIGHT be that the best copies of older recordings are the maligned and malignable 'digital sound' early CD releases. (Such recordings can now be recovered a step or two back into being closer to a master tape.) Actually, it it isn't the early CD releases, it might be the 'cutting masters' used to create the CDs. John sandyk and sphinxsix 1 1 Link to comment
John Dyson Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 1 hour ago, sphinxsix said: I wonder to what degree the quality of analogue-digital converters from the early CDs era can be compared to modern converters (was the technical progress in case of professional ADCs comparable to the progress in case of consumers' DACs?) and how much this aspect can influence SQ of the final product e.g. a CD? First, I'll preface an answer, where the biggest (by far) the damage created on almost every CD (modulo some specialty materials) is usually far greater than an LSB error or two on an ADC. Think of the compression applied to CDs creating errors far greater than the equivalent of multiple percents of distortion, even though the compression might sound a little less irritating than raw harmonic/intermod on a percent by percent basis. Also, the distortion created by the compressors as a side-defect are certainly greater than the 0.5% level. (LF distortion is MUCH greater.) And I mean, actual nonlinear distortion. After the compression damage to almost every CD -- then we can discuss the consumers and professional A/D & D/A converters. And, I do believe that good A/D and D/A converters are definitely better than poor quality devices... It isn't just the 'devices', but also the associated circuit technology (layout, proper analog amplification, etc) -- that make a difference. I'll bow out of the 0.001% vs 0.0001% and 120dB vs 100dB SNR discussions -- I am worried about much worse problems :-). John sphinxsix 1 Link to comment
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