DAC+amp: Mac (USB) >> DAC-amp >> Grado 325i -- around $500? - Page 5

Hmm ... no LOG file from Max.

Aside from that - you have made me envious of your HF-1s

What you're missing is, imho, the LOG file to tell you that your CD simply can't produce the bits it should anymore, and that you should perhaps borrow a better copy from a friend to rip, or something.

Totally agree, though of course the best way to get digital music is to buy it online, at places like HDtracks, or even better, Linn Records, who offer better bitrates than CD bitrate.

I have 100+ GBs of Pink Floyd bootlegs in lossless. But I must admit I recorded noe of it myself.

I saw that W5000 sells for less than the W2000 on amazon.com.

It all depends on the music, and also the gear you use. MP3 is essentially a Fourier transform of the sound wave. That is, instead of representing the pressure in the sound wave at successive points in time, it breaks that sound apart into frequencies. If the music had been recorded that way, you should in principle get better sound per byte that way. Unfortunately, that is not precisely what MP3 is. It's coded over from the recorded sound wave function (which means it can't get better than that), AND (very importantly) many frequencies have been removed or lumped together for the sake of compression.

So back to the music:

I like old German electronica, like Tangerine Dream. Their music is to a large extent synthesized from just a few sine waves or simple waveforms that are reducible to a superposition of not overly many sine waves. MP3 handles that kind of music extremely well, since even the lowest rate MP3 can handle sine waves to perfection - lossless! I often can't tell 128kbit MP3 and FLAC apart for such music.

At the other end of the scale is music with lots of complexity in the higher frequencies. Cymbals are particularly revealing and sound "jingly" with MP3, and I frankly think even CDs lack for this kind of music; the Shannon sampling theorem does as far as I know only apply to pure sine waves.

But whether I can tell depends on the particular piece of music. But don't listen with just your "ears". Listen with your space sense. The highest frequencies are not really audible per se, in the sense of being felt like sound, but are more present in the form of a feeling of "space". That's part of why Dolby NR on the old cassette tapes felt like you were being choked by a pillow. Not because it didn't do its job, but because it did it too well: Some of that white noise it filtered out translated to a feeling of that space.

A test: Can you hear the difference? Bitrate test! - abi>>forums (I failed on one of them; the reason might simply be that I disliked the music, though. Or it might be that the white noise on Ghosts helped me identify the least compressed version.)

But I keep all my music in FLAC, ragardless. It would be a shame if I woke up one day and recognized the difference --either due to better equipment, because of getting to know that particular music better, or because of the "listening fatigue" you get from music of lesser reproduced quality even if you don't hear it directly-- and what is the cost of making sure? 20 cents! (OK, so I know people with 2TB "collections" of music on MP3. But really! It doesn't matter what format that music is in, because 2TB is enough for several years of non-stop listening without repeat. Good music is music you play over and over again to the exclusion of all other music for days on end. Just say no to MP3: It leads you into useless collecting habits and leads you away from good music.)

I'm torn between the desire to explore new and expensiver HPs and a tube amp (Glow1? Woo3+ or 6?). My wife thinks I should buy new shirts ...

Both of those amps look good. I am considering Woo6 for now. As for complimentary pairs of cans, the more I look at the two high-end Grados, the more I covet them. RS-1. GS-1000. But some reviews indicate that PS-1 is the ultimate in the Grado department. But why make only a limited edition of your best if there's a market?

I went to the local hi-fi yesterday to compare my 325i with Denon's 2000s. Maybe it was the set-up, but the 325i won hands down for all music I tried. Not hands down in a super-superior way, but hands-down in the sense that the Denons were very good, but the 325i were none the less better sounding by a margin. The owner said he had compared the Denons to Senn HD650, and that he found the Denons superior; they brought the music more to life. I had listened to the HD650 in that shop before, and though the sound was fine, they clamped. But from how he described how Denons >> HD650, and how I found 325i >> Denons in much the same way, I think that if I compared 325i with HD650 for my ears, the outcome would probably be 325i >> HD650 for all kinds of music. I like detail and rawness.

So what might remain (aside from those Grados higher up the chain to drool at)? I had Beyerdynamics before, and their wearing comfort was just awesome! BT880 or 990 might be a good choice for complimentary cans? Or the touted AKG k701. But k701 supposedly needs a good amplifier (as do the beyers), so an extra pair of cans presuppose that I buy an amplifier. Frequency-wise, those two would at least be alternatives:



So ... and I am not too sure my wife can be convinced of this ... this summer might see the following new members of the family:

Duet >> Woo6 >> K701 ... and Cowon D2

If anything must go, I will probably drop the Cowon first, the K701 next, and if I must cut to the bones I will still insist on getting the Duet. Alternative options ...

Duet >> RS-1

or

Duet >> GS-1000

but I am not sure how that would sound, since I hear the GS1k are very demanding of good amplification. It's hard to be an audiophile! I just want to listen to the music, really, and forget the links between me and the musicians ...

PS: I am really curious about those Audio Technica cans. The W5000 looks stunningly beautiful!

Good strategy. I must admit much of the charm of tube amps is simply that I've never owned one before!

I have a slight window problem you might not have: I live in Europe, where Grados and some other equipment costs more than twice what it does in the US. This summer, I will visit the US, but it will probably be 5 years before I do so again. So I have a very narrow time window in which to get what to a European are bargains. I must of course focus where the bargain elements is largest, since I could always get things via mail order (and add postage plus 25% VAT) from those who sell to Europe. Unfortunately, much headgear is marked "not sold outside of the US". (Amps seem easier.) As for DACs, the Duet is precisely twice as expensive in Europe, so that's the first component I'll buy.

As for lossless, may I taunt you: CDs are 16bit, and sampling frequency is 44.1. Some places like Linn and TDtracks sell FLAC (lossless) with 24bit/96kHz, and when you have the Duet you can rip your own LPs to 24bit/96kHz as well.