CD v Streamed

I received my replacement optical converters today.  It appears the problem may have been in the fiber optic cable.  The old cable does not work at all.  The replacement cable works but one connector is a bit flaky. I had to manipulate the connector going into one converter box to make the connection.  An hour or so later the connection dropped and I had to reinsert the fiber cable.  I need a better solution for the fiber- perhaps I'll try multimode.  Perhaps those connectors are more robust.  Sound is excellent.  I have a CD transport that upsamples to DSD and sends the signal to the DAC via 3 BNC cables.  This Transport/DAC combo works very well with more resolution and a larger 3D soundstage than I ever thought possible with CDs.  So now, I played a CD back to back with streaming 44/1/16k again.  They are very very close.  Next I plan to fire up my analog rig and compare it to streaming.  I almost don't want to know.  Right now, my analog rig has a slight edge over CD with some records.  I guess I will not be able to post my comparison of streaming to vinyl here since this post is titled CD vs Streaming.  What an exciting time for audio.

Right now, my analog rig has a slight edge over CD with some records. I guess I will not be able to post my comparison of streaming to vinyl here since this post is titled CD vs Streaming. What an exciting time for audio.

Of course you can post it up, I’ve done the comparison, and yes while analog is good, it’s maximum of 30db channel separation at 1khz and falls off to almost 10db (mono) in the bass, and around 15db in the highs, it can’t match the 120db channel separation of CD top to bottom.
The sound stage imagining and depth perspective with CD because of that channel separation, is sooo much more precise, wider, and has far better imaging on the outside the speakers too when it’s called for when "anti phase" notes have been deliberately recorded to put them there.

Cheers George

I know all the technical data and comparison between vinyl and analog.  Similar to the SS and Tube amp discussions in the 1980s, SS amps looked great on paper with their great S/N and low distortion but tubes still had the advantage in listening.  With my previous CD player, which was quite good, vinyl still had a clear lead in sound.  With this new DAC/Transport combo and music server I see quite a bit of overlap between Digital songs and records.  Hi res files have the holographic imaging of vinyl w/o the noise so hi res is tops to me now but some records still beat out CD to me with a larger stage and more body to the voices and instruments.  A lot of CDs, and this is not the player's fault since this is not always the case now, make the voices and instruments seem like cardboard cutouts.  I grew up on records, so I can tolerate some background noise in the music.  In fact, for a long time CD was too clean sounding if you get what I mean.  Better turntables and cartridges eliminate a lot of groove noise too.  Speed control of turntable platters is also critical to compete with digital, I think.  Overall, it takes more dollars, more effort and perseverance to get vinyl to a level to compete with good digital.

Part of the fun of vinyl is that it shouldn't work so well.  It's just not possible, it would seem, for vinyl to sound so good.  The stereo 33 1/3 LP concept was sketched out by two engineers on a cocktail napkin.  With those auspicious beginnings, I think it is a testament to the ingenuity of not just manufacturers but also the contributions of hobbyists alike that made the LP what it is.  The same goes for CDs too.