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Article: Reality Quest: Power and Digital Audio with the Sean Jacobs DC4 and Sound Application PGI TT-7 (Part 1 of 2)


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Thanks RayDude, I'm really enjoying the DC4 power supply and I'm only 2 days into the breakin! One of the most amazing things I'm finding (besides just general better sound in all respects) is how much more I'm enjoying large scale classical music. With the stock Dave SMPS it just always felt wrong to me - not enough energy being transferred. But now with the LPS I'm getting a sense of what a symphony really sounds like. I've attended quite few over the years and have played (trumpet) and sang (choir) in many so I have a visceral sense/memory of what the sound is and it's amazing when it happens right. That's one thing I find with my Abyss headphones - that they essentially put me "inside" the orchestra or perhaps row 5 center (my favorite position), where speakers often put me a bit further back in the hall - still nice, but I really like the "in the music" perspective. Once all is broken in, I'll report back more and also about the Abyss-direct from Dave vs via the Formula S. I'm curious, what Headphone amp do you use? 

On another somewhat related issue, I see many posts from folks about great music and I'm wondering if you with the Dave and your great setup - do you prefer DXD or DSD (either direct from the download or SACD or converted to DXD or DSD with the beta software you're using. My experiences with DXD (352K) vs DSD128 is that I slightly prefer the DXD via the Dave, although I expect I'd see different results if I had a different DAC that's more focused towards DSD vs Dave's focus on PCM. Thank for your insights!

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Good to know your experience on this Ray-Dude, thanks!

 

And yes the potential of different mastered versions of the same basic recording is always an important factor. I'm wondering if at some point, "regular" (16/44K) recordings (which of course is most of the music out there digitally) might be sonically almost equivalent to a true HD recording? (assuming same original master for the basic recording). We know that a 16/44K recording can't have the 24 bits or beyond ~20KHz information content, but I'm not sure that's of primary relevance compared to the correct D/A reconstruction of the information, of which the upsampling (either in the DAC or separately) is of prime importance. Your beta SW is I'm sure giving you a good sense of this! 

 

And I can't remember if you've mentioned this before, what headphone amp do you use with your Abyss headphones, or do you go straight from Dave?

 

And completely off topic, but still related to things excellent and since wine experiences are often mentioned here I thought you might appreciate, it's my favorite Barbaresco - and it's one that not many folks are familiar with: Roagna Crichet Paje. I find it to be better than even the Bruno Giacosa red label Barbarescos... It's quite spendy although I was lucky enough to get this for $80 per bottle years ago - unfortunately that's sadly all gone now. This one needs lots of aging before it's drinkable but then turns into magic when it is. Also there's a normal Roagna Paje that's much more affordable and still really good!  https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/roagna+crichet+paje+docg+barbaresco+piemonte+italy

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5 hours ago, ray-dude said:

I'm 99.9% 2 channel listening these days (at home, no office), but I have a Hugo TT2 for the Abyss headphones (DAVE is not quite manly enough for those cans)

 

In the upsampling experiments I've been doing, there is a definite and tangible benefit to reconstructing signal from redbook sources (Chord DACs do this natively, but one can go well beyond what Chord DACs and even mScaler can do with SW upsampling).  The main benefit is in the time domain.  We don't hear 705kHz steady state frequencies, but we do hear timing cues at a time resolution that is enhanced at those frequencies.

 

If DAVE were able to support 32fs, I'd definitely be upsampling to 32fs (vs 16fs).  I don't think we're close to topping out on time resolution yet.

 

That being said, upsampling 44/16 content to 16fs vs upsampling 192/24 content to 16fs, I generally give the nod to the 192/24 starting point.  Mathematically, they should be very very close.  I suspect the difference is damage done when the 44/16 content was decimated from a higher resolution master.  If I start with 192/24, decimate to 44/16, then upsample, the differences are very very small.

 

I continue to be amazed at how much the MScaler improves the sense of space, especially in the bass. Like when I step into a large hall or when I hear really deep bass sounds, there's a sense of the size of the room that seems like it wouldn't be related to timing issues and upsampling, but it is! ... Perhaps Rob Watts follows through on the 16Mtap MScaler he's working on - not as good as the beta SW you use, but still better than the current MScaler.

 

As to headphone amps, I am also considering the RAAL SR-1a headphones that Chris likes so much and am hoping to find a headphone amp that can drive the RAALs (limited options other than regular speaker amps through a converter box to handle their super low impedance of 0.18 ohms of the RAALs) and also the Abyss (lots of options) with the same amp.   

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15 minutes ago, fas42 said:

I have yet to come across anything which makes me the slightest bit interested in any format beyond Redbook - all the music information that matters exists on a CD, say, already; it's just a matter of refining the playback chain, however you wish to do this, so that this can all be clearly heard.

In a sense, with the right DAC (including how the DAC internally does upsampling or perhaps this can be done before the content is sent to the DAC), what you say may become increasingly true as DACs (and upsampling SW) get better and better. But until such time, and even if that does happen, I definitely hear a difference in playback of really good recordings natively done at 24/352K (upsampled to 24/705K) compared to the exact same recording played at 16/44K.  (using a Chord Dave with MScaler). But I will easily say that a great recording at 16/44K will trounce a less-than-great recording in any HD format. The basic recording/mastering is the much larger variable IME.

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