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DSD vs. PCM vs. MQA - Group listening experiment

Hi everyone,

So I just re-discovered the 2L website which has free samples of high resolution music.

I thought it would be worthwhile to ask the fans about the tracks here, specifically if there are any you feel are really good exemplars of why encoding scheme X is better or different than Y.

I just downloaded a bunch of Vivaldi and will share my own observations (and lack thereof) here.

As for me, file size matters so I'm going to try to stick to relatively similar file sizes when possible.

Best,


Erik
erik_squires
ejr1953
917 posts
 
I have both a PS Audio DirectStream DAC and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC as well, both fed with the identical brand/model Wireworld USB cable.

When I compare the exact same PCM file on both DACs, the Brooklyn sounds very good, but I'd say it sounds somewhat "dry" compared with the DirectStream DAC.

I've done this comparison on quite a few of my 44.1/16-192/24 AIFF files, using Roon on a nice Windows 10 Pro laptop.
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
We need to be careful when criticising hi-fi gear. Sometimes suppirier component build to reproduce the most neutral/natural sound can be mistakenly consider to be 'dry', while a component that design to make a manipulation on the sound might mistakenly consider to be more 'warm' and 'interesting'. 
phillyb's avatar
phillyb
402 posts
 
Remastered anything will sound better than a poorly mastered CD or vinyl. 

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
phillyb169 posts05-20-2017 6:12amRemastered anything will sound better than a poorly mastered CD or vinyl.
Sorry Phill, this is 180’ out, but also half right with the "poorly" statement.
The original first issue non remastered cd's and lp’s are the best, and most important least compressed.

Do your homework here on this site and compare.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/

Cheers George

dragon_vibe
430 posts
 
I like both DSD and PCM. It all comes down to how well its Recorded. I must say DSD is very impressive specially on my Playback Merlot DAC.
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