[jincuteguy]

The reality is, use 24bit whenver u can, therefore 24bit is better. No need to argue here.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

The reality is, use 24bit whenver u can, therefore 24bit is better. No need to argue here.

No, 24 bits are utter crap compared to 32 bits.

 
[  ] You understood what this thread is about.
[X] You did not.

 

[ab initio]

Quote:

No, 24 bits are utter crap compared to 32 bits.

 
[  ] You understood what this thread is about.
[X] You did not.

 
But but but.... the 24/96 is really necessary to open up the sound stage, whereas the 16/44 really sounds veiled. Perhaps you can't hear the difference because your interconnects have too much resistance and capacitance, which are filtering out the details above 18kHz that are necessary to gain the full benefit of hiRez files?
 
:trollface:

 

[xnor]

Hmm, I was told before that I should shorten my 20 meter interconnects. Maybe there is something to it after all.

 

[jaddie]

I took my 20m interconnects and kept knotting them up until they were short enough, but now they sound...uh...knotty.  I know I was only getting like 23/95 out of them.  
 
So I un-knotted them and took a big cutter and chopped off the extra wire.  But now they don't work, because I cut off one of the connectors,  so I'm pretty sure I'm down to 0/0.  
 
But boy!  Talk about deep black!  You guys gotta hear this!

 

[silverharbinger]

Quote:

I took my 20m interconnects and kept knotting them up until they were short enough, but now they sound...uh...knotty.  I know I was only getting like 23/95 out of them.  
 
So I un-knotted them and took a big cutter and chopped off the extra wire.  But now they don't work, because I cut off one of the connectors,  so I'm pretty sure I'm down to 0/0.  
 
But boy!  Talk about deep black!  You guys gotta hear this!

I tried this "ultimate black" mod on my interconnects. I still picked up very a slight hiss that I couldn't detect on the 128/8000 version. This might have been due to the tubes I was using though. They pick up even the slightest variance in musicality. I'll try again after 400 hours of burn-in and see of this has improved any.

 

[jaddie]

Quote:

I tried this "ultimate black" mod on my interconnects. I still picked up very a slight hiss that I couldn't detect on the 128/8000 version. This might have been due to the tubes I was using though. They pick up even the slightest variance in musicality. I'll try again after 400 hours of burn-in and see of this has improved any.

Ah, well you have one more mod to try then.  It's well known that over time tubes accumulate more hiss.  It's expensive, but if you can find a #70 diamond tipped drill bit and a Mototool, you can drill a tiny hole in the base of the tube and let the excess hiss out.  Just do it over something that you don't mind damaging though.  Free flowing hiss is quite caustic. 

 

[silverharbinger]

Quote:

Ah, well you have one more mod to try then.  It's well known that over time tubes accumulate more hiss.  It's expensive, but if you can find a #70 diamond tipped drill bit and a Mototool, you can drill a tiny hole in the base of the tube and let the excess hiss out.  Just do it over something that you don't mind damaging though.  Free flowing hiss is quite caustic. 

 
All I have is a #71.

Fortunately, fleece audio is selling one for a princely sum, which is cheap at twice the price. I've already donated a kidney and an eye I rarely used, so when the bit arrives I'll try that. Thanks for your help!
 

 

[jaddie]

OMG, I forgot to say...you need the left-handed bit!  Hope you ordered that one, if not, cancel it right away and get the left-hand bit.  It's like night and day.  And, I fear, a bit more costly due to the rarity of left-hand polarized diamonds.  Most diamonds come from the southern hemisphere, and you need northern hemisphere diamonds for the correct polarization.  Resist the urge to get the lab-polarized southern hemisphere diamonds, or even the man-made ones.  Just not the same.  Your #71 might have worked if you didn't mind doing a smidge of careful reaming...sorry to tell you so late. 
 
One more thing, most of us that do this keep the work surface in a helium atmosphere because it's inert, and there is a slight danger of explosion if there's enough latent hiss buid-up.  But if you're a "live dangerously" guy, just go for it.  Spontaneous hiss explosions are very rare.  Well, they hardly ever happen. Well, at least none so far this week.  Well, ok, today.  At least the really big ones.  You know, the crater where your city block used to be level.  Well, anyway, they are usually much smaller.  When they happen.  I mean if.  Oh, just get the helium, ok?  I don't want to read about you on the news. 

 

[silverharbinger]

Quote:

OMG, I forgot to say...you need the left-handed bit!  Hope you ordered that one, if not, cancel it right away and get the left-hand bit.  It's like night and day.  And, I fear, a bit more costly due to the rarity of left-hand polarized diamonds.  Most diamonds come from the southern hemisphere, and you need northern hemisphere diamonds for the correct polarization.  Resist the urge to get the lab-polarized southern hemisphere diamonds, or even the man-made ones.  Just not the same.  Your #71 might have worked if you didn't mind doing a smidge of careful reaming...sorry to tell you so late. 
 
One more thing, most of us that do this keep the work surface in a helium atmosphere because it's inert, and there is a slight danger of explosion if there's enough latent hiss buid-up.  But if you're a "live dangerously" guy, just go for it.  Spontaneous hiss explosions are very rare.  Well, they hardly ever happen. Well, at least none so far this week.  Well, ok, today.  At least the really big ones.  You know, the crater where your city block used to be level.  Well, anyway, they are usually much smaller.  When they happen.  I mean if.  Oh, just get the helium, ok?  I don't want to read about you on the news. 

 
Will do! You sir are a life-saver!!
 
I failed to mention that I "donated" my hands in order to purchase the tubes for my rig, but I happen to have the helium for the job and I have strong teeth with adequate bite pressure. I've read that only freshly harvested helium from a class B type 2 star (either core or surface helium per Jason @ fleece) is appropriate for this type of hissterectomy procedure. I will have to make due with a leftover tank of hybrid class B type 4 He that I occasionally use in my casual listening environment. Also, it tends to be a tad more neutral from my experience.
 
I know I'm fooling myself not to go into this without the right gasses, but after I dropped my life savings to have the samo-flange coupler rebalanced on my mototool xlr+ (rev. 6) I just have to take my chances somewhere.

 

[jaddie]

I believe there would be some significant scientific value in documenting this procedure.  If you would, perhaps, jaw a camera into position before attempting the hissterectomy (wow, autocorrect had a field day with that one!), and perhaps make some aural notes, at least if you haven't harvested your own larynx to fund the project, I feel that the eventual trickle-down to the unwashed masses would have world-changing impact.  

 

[AudioBro]

what is the best place to buy high quality audio racks?
 
is itunes pretty good?
 

 

[silverharbinger]

Quote:

what is the best place to buy high quality audio racks?
 
is itunes pretty good?
 

 
Personally I get varying results from itunes. Sometimes I have to check other places to find a version that sounds a little better on my system. You can almost never go wrong with searching for other versions to import if it's a song you really like and you want to go to the effort.
 
 
Quote:

I believe there would be some significant scientific value in documenting this procedure.  If you would, perhaps, jaw a camera into position before attempting the hissterectomy (wow, autocorrect had a field day with that one!), and perhaps make some aural notes, at least if you haven't harvested your own larynx to fund the project, I feel that the eventual trickle-down to the unwashed masses would have world-changing impact.  

I totally agree, and time shouldn't be wasted when there is so much enrichment to provide, so on to the results:
 
 

 
 
Turned out a smidge brighter than I thought initially, but PERFECT blacks!
 
 
Just as an aside to all this, I really enjoy all the premium cables and the like. They're often nice to look at if nothing else, and that's actually useful in this hobby. If you can't make fun of yourself, you probably need to start.

 

[jaddie]

There's apparently a band wagon to be jumped on...(a tiny bit off topic, but what's so unusual about that in this thread?)
 
Another DSD download producer:
http://www.twice.com/articletype/news/acoustic-sounds-launches-major-label-dsd-music-downloads/108153
 
A good part of their offerings come from analog masters. 
 
And so the obvious question would be, "Where does I gets me a DSD-native DAC and software"?  
 
Oh, you had to ask:
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgVhKcl_3lHfdFVyenBBNjNpQ2lieG81WGpqQTNfVUE#gid=0
 
Looks like if you wants to hear your raw, native, un-rendered, unadulterated DSD, and who wouldn't, you pretty much gotta pay up.  
 
Hope it's worth it, 'cuz we can do 24/96 and 24/192 without much trouble and cost, and the audible improvements seem to be under a little dispute.

  So if we have trouble paying $500 for a good 24/192 DAC, show of hands, who whats to pay $3000 for a DSD- native DAC?  C'mon, there must be somebody...ok, there's one. 
 
So, if I get this right, we have analog masters with built in THD, IMD, guidance errors (recorded in), flutter (recorded in), scrape flutter (recorded in), noise, modulation noise, all that good stuff, and we're capturing it in all its glory with DSD, selling it at $25/pop, and selling $3000 DACs to reproduce all of that.  By the way, tape guidance errors result in interchannel phase misalignment that is the equivalent of someone moving your speakers toward and away from you, each in opposite directions, about at least half inch at a time, perhaps more.  So much for "time alignment" and "phase alignment".  That, as well as flutter, is correctable in the digital domain, so long as you stay in PCM.  Sorry DSD, you're stuck with that faithful reproduction of the master.  
 
Yeah, I'm cranky this morning.

 

[Baxide]

I put async USB and DSD in the same league. Someone invented the illness, told you the symptoms to expect and then sold you the medication. In the old days such people were called quacks.