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Post by aurender on Jun 1, 2015 15:54:05 GMT
How do you define best?
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ynwan
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Post by ynwan on Jun 1, 2015 16:37:47 GMT
Best sounding.
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Post by danielquinn on Jun 1, 2015 16:54:14 GMT
That is a meaningless term outside of each persons own definition.
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Post by pre65 on Jun 1, 2015 17:13:25 GMT
That is a meaningless term outside of each persons own definition. I think that is taken for granted on here Daniel.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2015 17:16:03 GMT
So David
Is Raj personally delivering your Vivaldi equipment?
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Post by aurender on Jun 1, 2015 17:18:27 GMT
That's really why I asked which definition of best was being used. have you made a comparison of both to make that judgement? If so, then fine but if not, how do you know? Which systems did you use for the comparison? I'd certainly like to compare the best analogue has to offer against a top end digital front end. I've tried a reasonably good current analogue front end in my system which was not as good for me as the digital system I use. I've not had a state of the art turntable in my system to compare. |
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Post by aurender on Jun 1, 2015 17:19:46 GMT
So David Is Raj personally delivering your Vivaldi equipment? Hi Tony, that's the plan. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2015 9:03:05 GMT
So David Is Raj personally delivering your Vivaldi equipment? Hi Tony, that's the plan. Morning David Just had a feeling that would be the way it was happening  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2015 10:37:02 GMT
Yes best sounding ..I did say IMHO. |
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Post by aurender on Jun 2, 2015 15:30:59 GMT
Yes best sounding ..I did say IMHO. as you've gathered already, I'm a digital fan but certainly recognise analogue can sound very fine too. As to which is best sounding: I don't know because I've not been able to compare in the same state of the art system what each is capable of. one problem is that the front end of such a system can cost £100k (digital or analogue) and I'm certainly not in the market to spend that to give me a duplicate source. one comment I will make is that I've found as systems get better, the sound converges for example people talk about solid state v valve but in recent years as my own system has improved, I think that difference has disappeared. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2015 16:29:14 GMT
One thing that puts me off pumping money into digital is the reliabilty & the fact that i cannot fix anything like that myself, where as a turntable is easy peasy.. However i just do not like Digital, regardless of what people say i can tell a digital signal from an analogue signal playback regardless of how much it cost. I question people that say they cannot tell them apart..
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ynwan
Rank: Trio
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Post by ynwan on Jun 2, 2015 17:26:19 GMT
That is a meaningless term outside of each persons own definition. Whilst true to a point the same could be said of any adjective - so hardly worth writing. |
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ynwan
Rank: Trio
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Post by ynwan on Jun 2, 2015 17:31:59 GMT
That's really why I asked which definition of best was being used. have you made a comparison of both to make that judgement? If so, then fine but if not, how do you know? Which systems did you use for the comparison? I'd certainly like to compare the best analogue has to offer against a top end digital front end. I've tried a reasonably good current analogue front end in my system which was not as good for me as the digital system I use. I've not had a state of the art turntable in my system to compare. I was merely suggesting that the previous post that referred to 'best' meant it in the context of best sounding as opposed to most convenient, greatest choice etc. I'm not sure if you are referring to myself when you ask if one has compared source types but assuming you do then yes, I have directly compared digital and analogue (of all types) many, many times over the years - far too many times to list all the systems and equipment. |
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Post by aurender on Jun 2, 2015 18:33:20 GMT
Sorry, I didn't really explain myself very well. In my recent posts on clocking in digital systems, the point I have been trying to make is that, at a certain level, digital generally sounds different from analogue.
Once the digital front end reaches a certain standard, particularly in clocking accuracy, suddenly that difference between analogue and digital disappears (at least in the way most people think of). Sadly for digital, the leap to reach that point is both expensive and not a little complex.
In the normal (sane?) market I might still choose digital for two reasons. Obviously convenience and secondly as someone who listen to a lot of solo instrumental classical music, surface noise can be an intrusive problem on many vinyl pressings.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 2, 2015 20:27:06 GMT
instrumental classical music, surface noise can be an intrusive problem on many vinyl pressings I do agree, which is why I prefer the CD/SACD medium for classical. I still marginally prefer vinyl for modern/rock. |
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Post by gazjam on Jun 3, 2015 8:21:47 GMT
Fantastic system David, congrats.  I'm a bit of a digital guy at heart, though recently been enjoying my vinyl journey too. I think of them as two seperate ways to enjoy music, both bringing lots to the table. Looking forward to hear you talk of your digital source journey, espercially RE: your Transporter? I'm blown away by this thing and how good it sounds, and having decided that 24/96 is "good enough" so I've been looking at other ways to improve the digital setup. Transporter specific stuff like best digital hookup method to Dac, what improvements can be had from adding an external clock etc, are all things I'm looking into...Though not anywhere NEAR your kinda budget! Being honest I'm kinda chuffed to see the Transporter sitting in such "high falutin" company! Thanks for taking the time to do this very informative thread, its a great read. |
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Post by aurender on Jun 3, 2015 21:18:50 GMT
Gazjam, thank you for your kind comments. I'm quite enjoying going back and trying to remember how my Hifi evolved. I've not even started on system and the other 2 systems in the U.S. House!
The Squeezebox transporter is a really excellent device. It's not quite as simple as Sonos to set up, but the performance is much better. The built in DAC is pretty good so a Transporter could be the backbone of a very nice digital system
The clock input is well worth exploring in that it is capable of removing a layer of digital grunge from the music. Of course you are going to need a DAC or Masterclock to lock everything to.
I use the Aes/EBU balanced digital connection although honestly I haven't really done a proper comparison between that and the spdif sockets. It's worth comparing if you have the appropriate matchin sockets on your DAC.
As I've mentioned earlier in the thread, I use iPenq to control the Squeezebox. It handles Qobus, Tidal and Spotify seamlessly and the gui is good.
The Aurender is substantially better but at 10x the price, it should be. However Aurender will only stream Tidal so Squeezebox gets quite a lot of use.
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Post by gazjam on Jun 4, 2015 12:25:58 GMT
Thanks David. Your experience of improving digital by looking at an external master clock for the TP is the next area I'm looking at. Can't play at DcS level, but I think M2Tech do one, the Evo? www.m2tech.biz/it/evo_clock.htmlNo idea if it will work with the Transporter, be a good "budget" option if it did. Has seperate Word Clock and master clock bnc outputs, need to check compatibility. Possible? Thanks. |
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Post by aurender on Jun 4, 2015 12:56:32 GMT
Gazjam, that M2tech product range looks very interesting. Hopefully it's got a decent quality OCXO oscillator and being able to lock your DAC and transporter to it should be worthwhile. Let us know how it works.
If clock results worthwhile, then talk to me about building a low cost rubidium master clock which could elevate performance still further.
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Post by gazjam on Jun 4, 2015 13:30:07 GMT
David,
I'll look into it and let you know.
Appreciate your interest in my setup.
Atb and many thanks for your time my friend.
Gary.
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