2. digital
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Half the information on CDs is analogue

I would like to argue that one of the reasons that some transports sound significantly better than others is because much of the information on a given CD is actually analogue (analog) information.
An excellent transport does not just read digital information: 1s and 0s (offs and ons); it must be sensitive enough to pick up the other information that has been stored as a physical property of the CD medium. This 'physical' information, like the tiny bumps in the groove of a vinyl record, is analogue information.

Before I say more I'd like to hear what others think.
exlibris
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Exlibris,

May be your system is very resolving and sensitive to changes. I have never heard the slightest difference in one digital cable from another.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Shadorne...Me neither. Perhaps we are lucky. They say that having absolute pitch hearing makes a lot of music, which is off key, sound bad.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,231 posts
 
Sean, I don't question your specific results, but do they really warrant the blanket statements you've posted about in this thread and others about analog to digital conversion?
mlsstl
1,438 posts
 
> TONS of equilization...

Digital music is not alone in the area of needing special equalization when CD's are produced.

Keep in mind that in the production of all standard vinyl LP records, the RIAA equalization curve has a 40 dB range of boost and cut that is applied to the signal. It is not a straight linear drop.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:RIAA-EQ-Curve.svg

In playback of an LP, the phono preamp must apply perfect inverse equalization and also assumes the record production plant equipment perfectly applied the RIAA curve to start with.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Aside from RIAA equalization, lots of tricks are used to make vinyl sound good. The one I like is RCA "Dynagroove". We all know that the contact pressure of the stylus is huge, and vinyl is flexible. RCA figured out that flexure of the vinyl is predictable from the modulation being cut, and developed some kind of secret algorithm to compensate. Of course the cartridge compliance would affect the flexure, so their compensation would only be right for some "average" cartridge.
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