fewtch
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2003
- Posts
- 9,559
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- 37
When I say dead, I mean dead as in having nowhere left to go in terms of improvements. Redbook CD in particular.
It amuses me a bit how digital has thrown audiophilia for a loop. You can upgrade and tweak a turntable forever, but at some point digital becomes bit-perfect and jitter-free to the point of inaudibility. The analog domain is subject to infinite improvement, but the digital domain is not. Bit perfect is bit perfect, apologies to upgraders.
I rarely hear "digititis" from even cheap devices anymore, nor do I believe there are any audible transport issues remaining with typical modern transports. The difference between a cheap DAC (chip) and expensive DAC (chip) is probably 1 to 2% at most. It all comes down to quality of the other parts -- resistors, caps, pots etc. Good circuit design too, of course. Clean power, yes. But how about the core components -- DACs and transports?
So are we going to admit at some point that upgrading has become side-grading, and there's no such thing as objective SQ improvements anymore? I contend that there is nowhere left to go with the redbook CD format in particular, and to a great extent digital in general. I see people raving about cheap plastic (never mind that plastic is an ideal material for a transport... light and sturdy as hell) and stuff like that. Should we pay a premium for an older, problematic balky transport designs so we can get a good feeling that there's an upgrade path somewhere? Big, heavy decorative metal boxes that make us feel better, but do nothing to improve sound quality...?
Just some reflections and current opinions... I could be really wrong and misguided, of course.
It amuses me a bit how digital has thrown audiophilia for a loop. You can upgrade and tweak a turntable forever, but at some point digital becomes bit-perfect and jitter-free to the point of inaudibility. The analog domain is subject to infinite improvement, but the digital domain is not. Bit perfect is bit perfect, apologies to upgraders.
I rarely hear "digititis" from even cheap devices anymore, nor do I believe there are any audible transport issues remaining with typical modern transports. The difference between a cheap DAC (chip) and expensive DAC (chip) is probably 1 to 2% at most. It all comes down to quality of the other parts -- resistors, caps, pots etc. Good circuit design too, of course. Clean power, yes. But how about the core components -- DACs and transports?
So are we going to admit at some point that upgrading has become side-grading, and there's no such thing as objective SQ improvements anymore? I contend that there is nowhere left to go with the redbook CD format in particular, and to a great extent digital in general. I see people raving about cheap plastic (never mind that plastic is an ideal material for a transport... light and sturdy as hell) and stuff like that. Should we pay a premium for an older, problematic balky transport designs so we can get a good feeling that there's an upgrade path somewhere? Big, heavy decorative metal boxes that make us feel better, but do nothing to improve sound quality...?
Just some reflections and current opinions... I could be really wrong and misguided, of course.