Digital Music sounds too bright?

Nothing even remotely like that here.

Full, entirely fleshed out, lots of inner warmth, smoothness with detail, flat response, clean, clear, extended, organic, full of life, airy, not a single too-bright CD in the house (a complete audio myth IME, BTW), excellent hi’s, mids and lows, palpable, real, natural, tonal and in-the-room presence, 3D, dynamic, harmonic ebb and flow, relaxed, involving, musical and with a distinct lack of the usual feeling of listening to a "recording". I’m listening to the living, breathing musical performance every single time out - right in front of me, regardless of CD format, disc, track, passage, genre, material, volume or time of day.

It IS, OTOH, very common to experience this level of pervasive "digititis" or "harshness" with all digital. Truth is, you could redesign digital circuits ’til doomsday and never do anything in this particular regard but make yourself poorer.

As I’ve said at Agon before, the real problem is where most people would not think to look - noise - electrical noise, that is. EMI/RFI and quantum or shot noise. Digital is more affected by this than the rest because of a double whammy - it happens to be more susceptible to the very kinds of noise it radiates. And it radiates more than most other gear. Again, there’s really no circuitry redesign or magic bullet that will resolve it...make some inroads here or there maybe, but not ever cure the problem.

Quantum or shot noise is particularly problematic. All electrical voltage vibrates...the more the voltage the more the physical vibration - whether the circuit or component is loose or whether it is tightened down. Ever hear that one, particular power pole transformer humming from like a hundred feet away?? They all vibrate like that under voltage. They don’t all hum that noticeably because power crews are responsible for the periodic maintenance of tightening them back down as the vibration over time will loosen the (captive) mounting bolts. But, even the tiniest, weakest voltage in a circuit will vibrate at the quantum level - just not at an amount strong enough for us to detect, even by direct touch. That vibration is the radiation of electrical noise - both through the wiring (upstream and down) and through the air in all directions. We can hear it as hum and we can feel it as heat - EMI.

The odd thing about this noise is that, assuming that you have a physical device to reduce or eliminate it, that one you’ve done so, quantum noise (because of its nature) will immediately begin to regenerate as you move anywhere downstream (or up) in the circuit. It regenerates and it does so in in rather random and unpredictable ways.

There are devices that will work to kill quantum noise. AFAIK, Jack Bybee was the first to introduce the idea to audiophile world a while back now. But, the random regeneration of noise meant that his devices would, ideally, have to be located at as many strategic locations throughout the AV system as possible in order to achieve maximum effect. However, many people who have tried Bybee devices have had very positive things to say.

I came across a different company in 2010 called Alan Maher Designs. Mr. Maher used the same basic idea, but found new ways to expand the noise coverage over a much larger portion of the noise spectrum which increased the AV performance and was doing so at lower costs. I have already raved about my own experiences with this company in other threads here.

I started slowly with AMD products at around $25. That began to open my eyes and ears to the possibility of electrical noise reduction, so I continued on with it...up to and including the present - to the tune now of a bit over $10k, after well more than 50 different purchases from them. That’s probably the only way I could’ve ever afforded such a hifi-oriented expense - one financial step (and one evaluation) at a time. I can’t just write a check for 10 large ones to anybody. His devices, for the same reason as above, must also be distributed at various, but key, points throughout the system and even the home. There is no real shortcut for that (although Mr. Maher says he is working on a single-box solution that is still 5-6 years away that will treat an entire home).

But, AMD transformed my system, without sonic fault of any kind, not only from the standpoint of digital noise, but with noise from all my components...and noise from my home. So I’m finding that all of the usual myriad sorts of audiophile problems that everyone else constantly deals with on an ongoing basis are now in the rear-view mirror for me.

But, I would say that my main conclusion from my experiences so far is that the notion that digital itself is somehow Inherently inferior sound quality-wise is actually a complete myth. It just needs some serious help.

Regards,
John

Ivan_nosnibor
"But I would say the main conclusion from my experiences so far is that the notion that digital itself is somehow Inherently inferior sound quality-wise is actually a complete myth. It just needs some serious help."

Hmmmm, sounds like you actually agree with me. I never said digital couldn’t be improved. Thus the inherently inferior sound quality of untreated digital is pretty much as I described.

Cheers

Got it. Agreed.

If I understand ivan's points correctly, they perhaps explain why upgrading the power cord and the power supply which replaced the flimsy wall wart, had the most noticeable affect on the SQ coming out of my modest streamer and DAC, respectively.