[Abuhannibal]

I have a Rega Apollo which I usually use as a transport into my modified MSB DAC. Discovered that when I try to play Eric Clapton's "One More Car, One More Rider" it goes thru the motions of playing, the timer counts, but no sound. So after cleaning the disc, cursing, muttering a few incantations, etc. I tried the Rega's analog outputs - aha, works fine that way. It _seems_ that it is not sending a digital signal to the SP/DIF output for this CD. Or alternately there is something about the signal from this CD that prevents the MSB from getting a lock, but when I play the same disc thru my old CAL Delta to the MSB it works fine. Weird, no? It is not a disaster, as I am not so sure that the MSB is any better then the Rega's own DAC, but it bugs me a little. Wife sez the same thing has happened with at least one other disc.

Anyone have the same disc and want to give it a shot and let me know what happens? Any thoughts on wassup? It is an enhanced CD, if that potentially matters, and is also a 2-CD set. Same issue with both discs.

 

[Duggeh]

Sounds like theres some sort of digital copy protection on it.

 

[Abuhannibal]

Agreed, but my CAL Delta outputs a digital signal from it with no problem.

 

[Binaural Fusion]

Well, I'm not sure if this helps in diagnosing the problem, but I took the same CD out of the library and it wouldn't play, so I chalked it up to poor condition (though usually the Apollo is amazing at error correction). As a reference I was playing it out of my Apollo into a Stello da220mk2 via coax, though I never tried analog outs.

 

[Abuhannibal]

Binaural,

Thanks, that is very helpful to know... I would like to try it with a different DAC here but that is likely to be hard. If you happen to get a chance to get the disk from the library again and try it thru the Apollo's analogue outs, I;d sure like to know the result! I agree with Duggeh that there seems to be some kind of copy protection thing going on, it just bugs me that my ten-year old CAL Delta passes the digital signal with no problem... maybe the newer chips in the Apollo support whatever form of protection is being used and the old ones in the CAL don't, in which case it wouldn't be Rega's fault, but it is still kind of annoying.

Anyway, how does the Apollo sound thru the Stello? I bet it's great!

 

[Binaural Fusion]

Oh, it is amazing! And that's with the signal bottlenecked through my Hornet, I have to wait a few days before my HR-2 arrives, but I'm sure it will be yet another revelation. I wish I had more money saved up to try the Stello out balanced, but balanced is such an expensive pathway to pursue.

 

[newguru]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Binaural Fusion /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wish I had more money saved up to try the Stello out balanced, but balanced is such an expensive pathway to pursue.

I'm with you there. It pretty pricey to find out if its worth it on an individual basis.

 

[Abuhannibal]

Possibly relevant info - see

http://www.newsgroups-index.com/grou...udio_l191.html

This is about a different Clapton disc from the same record company, Reprise, but as soon as my neck stops hurting (old diving injury

I will pop the "One More Car" disc into my PC and see if the same thing is true. If so, then Reprise is guilty of selling me a CD that is pretty damned non-standard. If that's so then I'll follow the instructions to make a copy that will hopefully fix the problem and will let everyone know what happens.

In short, it looks like this is really not a glitch with the Rega's OS, though again, I am a bit bummered that it plays fine thru the digital out of my CAL transport. Does anyone else have this disc that they can try with a different transport?

 

[Abuhannibal]

Binaural and others,

I have found the cure, albeit at some inconvenience. Download Isobuster (http://www.isobuster.com) extract the individual song files from the disk to your hd, burn a new CD, and then you will get digital output from the Apollo (and presumably other players that also do not output a digital stream for these disks.) The Clapton CD is now playing thru my DAC just fine. I feel a little better now.

 

[chesebert]

Why are you using a DAC with Apollo? Your MSB DAC sounds like a side-way move and IMO a waste of money.

 

[Abuhannibal]

Chesebert,

Firstly, it is not a stock MSB DAC. it has been substantially modified, has a discrete output stage, and I run it with the CIAudio power supply. How it compares to an unmodified MSB I can't say, having never heard one. I have not yet had time to really compare it extensively to the Apollo's DAC, but so far my ears tell me that neither is leaps and bounds ahead of the other, and each may have its advantages. My system is quite resolving so I am pretty confident that I am hearing whatever is there to hear. After extended listening perhaps I will decide that here is no point in running the Apollo thru the MSB, but even in that case there are still plenty of reasons why I'd keep the MSB around.

Of course, the Apollo is getting raves all over, and nobody has been talking up or reviewing MSB in ages, but that wouldn't affect our opinions, right?