knowhatimean
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
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For some time now I've had a preference for listening to the carefully ripped & burned copy of my Cds. I always detect some amount of improvement in the sound (some quite a bit more than you would guess). A simple explanation would be that burned discs have less jitter as the "pits" are more distinct thus your players' error correction comes into play less often.
I decided to cut the CDs out of the equation as I have a Cambridge Audio Network Music Player, that I had gotten to play internet radio from. One of it's features is that it has USB inputs that you can connect thumb or hard drives & it becomes a player for these. The internal dac is'nt horrible(it uses a lesser Wolfson chip) but it can be improved upon by hooking up a DAC of your choice. via optical or coaxial cable. I'm an "audio guy" so I chose to use which one ?.... You took too long... a coaxial (Cardas) cable to an Arcam rDAC (the Bifrost had a very long waiting list when I was putting this "alternate playback system" together. Listening to CDs ripped to a drive (using dbPoweramp CD ripper) is not like listening to them being played back on an optical drive(CD player). The presence of the music is more immediate sounding & fuller sounding, but I still thought the sound had some slight "ruff edges" that I could'nt put my finger on. I then remebered that the Arcam DAC also uses a Wolfson dac chip (a better one than what's inside the Cambridge, but a Wolfson bit nevertheless).
So, (Here's where I get to the Bifrost part, took me long enough, huh ?) I decided to give the Bifrost a try! I've been listening to the 22gigs of CDs I've ripped to a 500 g Western Digital HD (hooked up w/ an Audioquest Forest USB cable) to the Cambridge for a few hours now, color me very impressed. So now I'll listen to my SACDs on my Oppo 95(which I've tweeked a bit, so it's still "Top Dog" on my music playback list) & my CD listening really won't be listening to the physical CDs after they've been ripped. I've been listening to some Debussy piano music for a little while & I remember saying to myself " Boy, that sure does'nt sound like a modern Steinway ! ) That would be because it was an 1897 Bechstein (You know what ? I think a Hamburg Steinway would have been my choice). Given the price of the Bifrost it is a slamdunk bargain. I will definitely be keeping my eye open for any plug in upgrades should they become available
I decided to cut the CDs out of the equation as I have a Cambridge Audio Network Music Player, that I had gotten to play internet radio from. One of it's features is that it has USB inputs that you can connect thumb or hard drives & it becomes a player for these. The internal dac is'nt horrible(it uses a lesser Wolfson chip) but it can be improved upon by hooking up a DAC of your choice. via optical or coaxial cable. I'm an "audio guy" so I chose to use which one ?.... You took too long... a coaxial (Cardas) cable to an Arcam rDAC (the Bifrost had a very long waiting list when I was putting this "alternate playback system" together. Listening to CDs ripped to a drive (using dbPoweramp CD ripper) is not like listening to them being played back on an optical drive(CD player). The presence of the music is more immediate sounding & fuller sounding, but I still thought the sound had some slight "ruff edges" that I could'nt put my finger on. I then remebered that the Arcam DAC also uses a Wolfson dac chip (a better one than what's inside the Cambridge, but a Wolfson bit nevertheless).
So, (Here's where I get to the Bifrost part, took me long enough, huh ?) I decided to give the Bifrost a try! I've been listening to the 22gigs of CDs I've ripped to a 500 g Western Digital HD (hooked up w/ an Audioquest Forest USB cable) to the Cambridge for a few hours now, color me very impressed. So now I'll listen to my SACDs on my Oppo 95(which I've tweeked a bit, so it's still "Top Dog" on my music playback list) & my CD listening really won't be listening to the physical CDs after they've been ripped. I've been listening to some Debussy piano music for a little while & I remember saying to myself " Boy, that sure does'nt sound like a modern Steinway ! ) That would be because it was an 1897 Bechstein (You know what ? I think a Hamburg Steinway would have been my choice). Given the price of the Bifrost it is a slamdunk bargain. I will definitely be keeping my eye open for any plug in upgrades should they become available