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Upgrade debate: source vs. cans - Page 4

post #46 of 49
7/16/07 at 9:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duggeh View Post
The headphone makes the biggest difference to the sound, absolutely no question about it. The whole garbage in garbage out philosophy was acutely relevent when it first appeared, in the days of analogue systems and turntables which would cut a disc right through.

Youve never been able to get as much source for your money digital or analogue, as today, and DACs and CDps are evolving on a much faster basis than amps and transducers.

Headphones, amplification, source, power&cabling etc.

The DT880 may be a good headphone, but you could easily and readily plug in something even better with that existing rig and gain a step up. Get the character, then the quality.
Ding Ding Ding!
We have a winner...

QFT
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post #47 of 49
7/16/07 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mercbuggy View Post
When I am listening to Eno's "Soundtracks and Atmospheres" on my CD5i, I too feel like I am flying to the moon . If you want the best from your CD format, go dedicated if you intend to listen at home. Why choose to spend money on passive power supplies, heatsinks, water cooling etc? Some of the best sounding digital recordings I have ever heard are almost direct recordings from Naim's own label, using the shortest possible path from recording to your ears. The computer is a useful tool and at this point nothing more for me in audiophile terms, however many plugins and however much processing is used to justify it's existence. I always like to kid myself that the 24 bit grand piano samples I use in my home studio sound like the real thing...if only.
What you say about heatsinks, cooling etc is a good point, however these days most good motherboards are passively cooled. Also, aftermarket silent video card/cpu coolers are pretty much mandatory to get the most out of your hardware anyway (particularly with the ridiculous overclocking potential of todays CPUs - 50% +). The only extra part related to audio is the passive power supply, but near-silent, quality, PSUs can be had for $100. So, to someone with a well built PC, a CDP adds nothing the PC can't do as well or better, with bit-perfect CD rips, a DAC that's as good as you're willing to pay for, your music at your fingertips, mastering quality software EQs etc. Essentially the seperate CDP just gets the CD-reading process done very well in real-time, but that's an issue the PC doesn't have to deal with because it can rip a CD as slowly as it needs to get all the data off it, then store it on the hard drive. This process adds precisely nothing to the signal path, since it's in the digital domain. And, as a bonus, your music player doubles as an awesome computer Oh - and it doesn't hurt to be able to watch movies in audiophile quality too.
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post #48 of 49
7/17/07 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by b0dhi View Post
What you say about heatsinks, cooling etc is a good point, however these days most good motherboards are passively cooled. Also, aftermarket silent video card/cpu coolers are pretty much mandatory to get the most out of your hardware anyway (particularly with the ridiculous overclocking potential of todays CPUs - 50% +). The only extra part related to audio is the passive power supply, but near-silent, quality, PSUs can be had for $100. So, to someone with a well built PC, a CDP adds nothing the PC can't do as well or better, with bit-perfect CD rips, a DAC that's as good as you're willing to pay for, your music at your fingertips, mastering quality software EQs etc. Essentially the separate CDP just gets the CD-reading process done very well in real-time, but that's an issue the PC doesn't have to deal with because it can rip a CD as slowly as it needs to get all the data off it, then store it on the hard drive. This process adds precisely nothing to the signal path, since it's in the digital domain. And, as a bonus, your music player doubles as an awesome computer Oh - and it doesn't hurt to be able to watch movies in audiophile quality too.
Ahh the old convergent device scenario . In the time it takes to build, rebuild, shake-down, debug, configure, resolve conflicts (either hardware or software), optimise cooling (whether overclocking or not), find out where the pops and clicks are coming from, download the latest drivers & patches (installing several times in the process) etc ad infinitum, 'Mindless' & I will be chilling out to tunes. Furthermore, thats after taking a huge leap of faith in buying a set of disparate hardware in the first place.

I know the feeling, I have been there and sometimes burnt the T'shirt in frustration. I also know the 'just one more tweak' addiction. In terms of music (and enjoyment of) I realised quite quickly from my PC building days that is was a PC hobby that every now and again involved some music, movies & gaming. I was actually spending less time listening to music. I realised that where I started in Hifi was for me the best route. I went back to a dealer, used my ears to select the best CDP for my amp & speaker combo and made a 10 year investment, for use in the comfort of my living room. The system simply sounds great whether through phones or through speakers and it just works, every day, without system updates, security updates, patches, drivers, viruses, spam, spyware or pop-ups.

Once a more accessible hi-res format appears (that does not need a ripping stage), 16 to 20 bit minimum, 48-96khz in a lossless compressed format that I can then transfer to a dedicated (solely designed for Audio) hard-drive based server (note I do not mean PC), then I will reconsider the value of my CDP.

Hope this isn't too much of a thread hijack, still think dedicated source upgrade or external dac/amp upgrade is the way to go!
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post #49 of 49
7/18/07 at 6:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rwest1389 View Post
Well he does really like his 880s, but also loves my sr225s for rock. So I guess thats just going to be a personal decision on his part, but it sounds like the consensus is (what hes thinking about now) getting a meier audio opera analog, using it with his 0202 would be a bad idea? It seems like 0202 is not nearly high enough grade to make such an expensive amp worth the money.
Hi,

Vote: Source +1
Choosing CDP/DAC set or DAC/Amp with computer depends on one's hearing habbit. I used to have a set of mini CDP/DAC/Amp system with some cd, but spending time to find out the album I want to hear takes some time. Computer lossless files seems to be a great solution for lazy people like me. so I use corda opera right now. gee, changing a DAC/Amp significantly improved my hearing experience with the same old cans.

also, I would recommend the original opera (version with DAC) tho it's more expensive. I have a 0404 PCI on my computer and tried to use the digital output. In the A-B test (against USB 2 opera directly), usb/opera wins. Plus that I heard the digital output are similar between 0202 and 0404. FYI

there seems to be an opera(original ver) in FS/FT forum now at $900?
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