[Griploc]

agreed danne
 

 

[Griploc]

as for the usb not making a difference i will be doing a dbt with multiple usb's very soon and will give my upmost honest opinion on the subject as well as my findings on if there is truly any change in sound quality. I really do hope there is because the usb i ordered costs around 350 dollars and itf it doesnt make any changes to my sound quality set up i will be sending it back for an upgraded ac cable.
 

 

[Lorspeaker]

Quote:

Here's a facebook post I made just now:
 

"Nerdiest thing in the world. Testing the difference in sound of usb cables through a semi-high end audio system. With digital cables, the signal either passes to the next component or it doesn't; there's no in between or "better" transmission. It's one or the other, therefore it should sound the same.

BUT IT DOESN'T"

 
I am being serious, no intent to troll or stir up trouble/ be a sower of discord. I can't really accept it either, I was 95% expecting no difference and 5% expecting the slightest lifting of a veil across the audio spectrum... but what did I get? More than that. Well, an hour of A/B'ing between 4 songs and each time I could tell the same differences. I have great ears, but I still believe anyone would be able to hear it.
 
My mind is not playing tricks, I HEAR IT. I am mad, because the audioquest cable is inferior compared to the tellerium cable I loaned from a dealer. I can't believe the difference because 1. it's a digital cable and 2. it's being processed by the dac and then the amp; after the dac, it should sound the same.
 
I will elaborate on each track I tried and what exactly sounded different later on. I'm startled by my testing and don't feel like typing now. (I already feel it's a waste of time to write about this but I will do it).
 
Two things I need to consider though. The audioquest carbon cable uses copper, the tellerium is pure silver. Also, the tellerium is about 1 meter, whereas the audioquest is 1.5 meters.
 
I also used SoX resampler to upsample to 192 even though CD rips are at 44.1 bitrate. All songs are in wav format. I noticed songs clipping more often, while being upsampled, when using the audioquest.
 
I would actually consider paying the 350$ for the tellerium if I can sell the audioquest for what it cost me. And my coworkers and I at the Hi-Fi boutique were laughing about the ludicrous price of this cable just earlier today.
 
I don't want to create any hype, but I think I'm a believer now

 
Daniel
 
(more to come)
 

 
bro...is this the cable u bought??   and it killed the audioquest...kool. u must be in sonic shangrila
 
if u have money to spare, can u get a wireworld usb too...and give it a go..
 
============
 
hifiguy....cheers..u are the man !

 

[ultrabike]

Quote:

as for the usb not making a difference i will be doing a dbt with multiple usb's very soon and will give my upmost honest opinion on the subject as well as my findings on if there is truly any change in sound quality. I really do hope there is because the usb i ordered costs around 350 dollars and itf it doesnt make any changes to my sound quality set up i will be sending it back for an upgraded ac cable.
 

 
Hope they are not charging 20% re-stocking fee. But don't worry mang,  for < $350 you could still get:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-FBQ2496-Suppressor-Parametric-Equalizer/dp/B000KIPT26/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1345185896&sr=1-1&keywords=FBQ-2496
 
http://www.leckertonaudio.com/products/uha-6s-mkii/
 
http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-CD5004-CD-Player/dp/B003R7KMTW/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1345182430&sr=8-12&keywords=marantz
 
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Apple-iPod-touch-8GB-with-FaceTime-Camera-and-Retina-Display/15075124?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=15075124&sourceid=1500000000000003142050&veh=dat
 
http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-R-S500BL-Natural-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B0044779GI/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345182625&sr=1-10&keywords=yamaha+receiver
 
and of course... usb cables that dramatically improve sound.

 

[paradoxper]

Didn't really mean to make the guy feel ganged up on.

 

[bigshot]

i dont think i agree with your statement. i am also a protools user and i notice improved sound quality on a pro tools session rather than being bounced down to iTunes or downs-ampled from 24 to a 16 bit on a cd to a cd player and a/bing it with my apogee symphony io through my imac or even through my earlier apogee ensemble. huge differences. i am sorry but i do not agree.

So you've done an A/B comparison between a 24 bit ProTools session and a redbook CD played in a CD player? You didn't mention that before.

 

[bigshot]

I really do think you should source out your local dealer and ask them to demo some sources for you, couse unlike USB cables, DAC's and CDplayers are well known for making a big diffrence in sound (more or less anyone could tell you this).

All CD players that are operating to specs sound pretty much the same. I've done the comparisons myself with CD players, SACD players and iPods. Put the same exact audio file in them, line up the levels and you'll have a great deal of trouble ever telling them apart without peeking.

Not everyone could tell you that, but not everyone goes to the trouble to test their gear like I do.

 

[Griploc]

i dont have one. but i think a 24 bit audio wav file will sound better than a 16 bit wav file. my DAC converters verses my imac converters will always end up with the DAC winning. it cant compete with the symphony io sound quality alone. i pesonally havent used a cd since 2010. i would rather upload to a usb stick and plug and play
 

 

[drez]

Quote:

 
Hope they are not charging 20% re-stocking fee. But don't worry mang,  for < $350 you could still get:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-FBQ2496-Suppressor-Parametric-Equalizer/dp/B000KIPT26/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1345185896&sr=1-1&keywords=FBQ-2496
 
http://www.leckertonaudio.com/products/uha-6s-mkii/
 
http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-CD5004-CD-Player/dp/B003R7KMTW/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1345182430&sr=8-12&keywords=marantz
 
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Apple-iPod-touch-8GB-with-FaceTime-Camera-and-Retina-Display/15075124?ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=15075124&sourceid=1500000000000003142050&veh=dat
 
http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-R-S500BL-Natural-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B0044779GI/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345182625&sr=1-10&keywords=yamaha+receiver
 
and of course... usb cables that dramatically improve sound.

 
That is a pretty sweet list, esp the Marantz CD player.  I am dying to compare my computer setup to a decent quality CD transport - I have put a lot of work into my music server...
 
USB cables IMO are hit and miss - some $1500 cables sound worse than $300 ones, other $150 cables worse than $10 cables.  I think the problem is the 90 Ohms - you can't really cheat it and lots of manufacturers have come up with a myriad of other aspects they can try to "improve" upon but never tend to mention the magnitudes of the differences they make.  At least with money back thing there is less of a risk.  Also worth noting is I have found that the solder seems to need burn in for some strange reason (sounds warm and smooth at first but this goes away) - that or some sort of brain burn in occurs...  Took my latest cable about a week of playing maybe 4-6 hours a day to settle down (or for my brain to adjust to).

 

[danne]

Quote:

All CD players that are operating to specs sound pretty much the same. I've done the comparisons myself with CD players, SACD players and iPods. Put the same exact audio file in them, line up the levels and you'll have a great deal of trouble ever telling them apart without peeking.
Not everyone could tell you that, but not everyone goes to the trouble to test their gear like I do.

If that is your conclusion you should be happy, or atleast your wallet.

Personally I think there is a huge diffrence in sources and would not go back to getting the audio straight out of the mac mini.
I do  think quite alot of people on this forums takes their time and testing gear, it's after all quite a big part of the forum to share your experience of your finds on the "audio-journey".

 

[ultrabike]

Quote:

 
That is a pretty sweet list, esp the Marantz CD player.  I am dying to compare my computer setup to a decent quality CD transport - I have put a lot of work into my music server...

 
I think so. I also would not dismiss something like this (depending on your requirements & needs):
http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Dv610av-s-Upconverting-DVD-Audio-Playback/dp/B001CF6B32/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345221163&sr=1-4&keywords=sacd

 

[bigshot]

Danne... You would be surprised how many people judge sound quality by file size and never bother to actually set up a line level matched A/B comparison. They go with what they think seems to make sense.

You're in the Sound Science forum right now though, and you're mixing with people who have a desire to know, and not just think. My personal experience is that 24 bit is identical to redbook for normal music playback and that all CD players that are performing to spec sound the same... I'm not alone in this. My conclusions have been confirmed by other people here who have taken the time to find out for themselves.

It's easy to think 24 bit sounds "night and day" better than redbook if you haven't played a CD in three years. It's easy to think that lossless sounds better than a high bitrate LAME MP3 if you've always just ripped to lossless and only have a few low bitrate files friends gave you. And it's easy to think every CD player sounds different if you've only ever owned one CD player at a time. But none of these things are true.

I'm really not arguing here. I'm sharing facts that I have done the legwork to find out. Feel free to set up your own test and check my results if you'd like. I'd be happy to share tips to help you set up a really clear test. I know what you'll find out. I've had thirty years in this hobby, and I've produced sound for release on CD and television. It's not like I don't know what I'm talking about.

If you want to learn, you do that by finding people who know more about a subject than you do and pick their brain for info you can use. You don't gain anything by just contradicting them without any basis. Personally, I like to learn, and I've found a few really good sources of information in this forum. That's why I'm here.

 

[bigshot]

I had an inexpensive Pioneer DVD/Bluray player like that and it was fine for audio, but for some reason, it was incapable of passing 1080 progressive to my Epson video projector through HDMI. We tried everything and it always interlaced. I ended up just buying a cheap Sony to replace it and it not only delivered 1080p, it was less prone to errors in playing disks and it had a much better remote.

 

[ultrabike]

Quote:

I had an inexpensive Pioneer DVD/Bluray player like that and it was fine for audio, but for some reason, it was incapable of passing 1080 progressive to my Epson video projector through HDMI. We tried everything and it always interlaced. I ended up just buying a cheap Sony to replace it and it not only delivered 1080p, it was less prone to errors in playing disks and it had a much better remote.o

Possibly a handshake issue on an early model. FWIW that one is a multi-region up-converting DVD/DVD-Audio/SACD player (no Blu-Ray) with a 192kHz/24-bit DAC (to support the SACD format.) If no SACD playback requirement, and Blu-Ray playback required, may be better to get something else 

 
Personally I got this for parents:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BDT210-Integrated-Wi-Fi-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B004G8HXXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345226607&sr=1-1&keywords=bdt210
since they had no SACD requirements and it did most of what they needed. It loaded fairly fast and picture quality was great IMO. I don't think we paid more than $150 for it.
 
Which Sony player (model) did you end up getting?

 

[bigshot]

They aren't making my Sony any more (natch!) it cost $120 though. That's easier to sort out than model numbers.

The new Sony bluray players also play SACDs, so they make a good all in one solution.