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Deja Vu all over again

The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young remastered album is available on Qobuz for streaming at 192kHz 24bit.  It sounds great.  I have the original vinyl that I bought in the late 70s.  This remastered version has a very crisp clean sound with good soundstage depth and width.  I especially like the song, "Almost Cut my Hair". The song seems almost comical to me at the beginning but the mood changes for me as the song continues into a serious and good discussion.
I believe this digital version has little to no compression since I have my preamp volume set at 50 for my normal listening level.  Compare that to some pop albums on Qobuz at 44kHz 16bit that I play at a volume level of 27-33.
I believe the compression level is proportional to the volume level I use for my normal listening level.  For example, ROON shows the dynamic range of each of my CDs that I have ripped as FLAC files into my Library.  I see dynamic range as low as 8 and as high as 18.  The 18 is for a Telarc CD and is exceptional.  I notice my volume level for normal listening level is correlating to this Dynamic Range value.  Of course the higher dynamic range recordings have some nice loud peaks.

128x128tonywinga
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
Yes but pity the stereo channel separation is 70% better on CD than vinyl.
For vinyl just 30db at 1khz and almost mono in the bass and around 20db in the highs. CD 120db all through the range. And then there’s the noise difference🤦‍♂️

Cheers George
Yes, George, that’s nice. one problem though.

the ear hears via micro and macro peaks or transients. and the major error component of a digital signal system or a class d amplifier, is the micro and macro transient peaks are all out of place in time and level.

the part of an analog signal that a slab of vinyl and cartridge do indeed get right, is that transient.

that’s the one thing they do well, and surprise surprise, it is exactly what the ear needs to hear to able to decode a complex music signal.

so the slab of wax --- actually wins. There is a reason people think it is superior to CD. because in the fundamental way that is important, it actually is.

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 


There is a reason people think it is superior to CD.

I think it’s mainly those with nostalgia reasons and massive record collections and big rigs, I could have stayed with it also.
I had Stax CPX electrostatic cartridge and power supply (best ever) on mega $ TT and arm.
http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=23803&sid=314038a158e97a8f87...

But to me CD using good R2R ladder conversion has it all over that vinyl rig, especially in sound stage image and depth focus, and the ability to give imagining outside the speakers, which gives the feeling you get up and and can walk into that image, and that’s bought mainly because of the 120db channel separation.
Cheers George

gerryah930's avatar
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gerryah930
144 posts
 
I agree with georgehifi. I do not know about the R2R ladder DACs - I use the new Esoteric K-01XD player for SACD, CD and MQA-CDs. Even the expensive (>$50) vinyl records do not compare to the sound from these CDs, and streaming is worse as well.
midareff1
182 posts
 
I recently compared 4 versions of the same recording.  It's Larry Young's "Zoltan" on his Unity album.....  Qobuzz 24 bit  192 khz,  vs  Tidal's 24 bit remast which plays in 44 khz 16 bit FLAC and their standard version  which plays at the same resolution but lower volume...  against the 1991 Mosaic CD set of the Complete Blue Note Larry Young  (cut 7 disc 3).  The Mosaic master from 30 years ago is by far the superior one, followed by both Tidal versions..  the Qobuzz was by far the worst.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

It’s all about compression, either because of the vintage of the release of the album used when streamed or because it get compressed because of the streaming process itself.
Which ever it is, playing the original retail stamped release CD on a transport or "copied to a hard drive", always sounds the better to me in most cases than anything streamed.


Cheers George
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