CD v Streamed

Hi George, this review is for you.  I found an album that rocks on Qobuz. KD Lang's Makeover track 3, Keep on Moving.  It is in 44.1/16 format on Qobuz.  I bought the record.  It came as a 33 1/3 two record set (14 tracks) in an unusual turquoise vinyl.  Keep in mind that my stereo system consists of a digital side with two sources and an analog side- CD transport, RS9 Music Server with ROCK running Roon and a Sota Star/SME/Soundsmith.  For reference only, the investment into the analog side is a few thousand more than the digital side.  So close to even.  I have listened to other records and their digital counterparts but I will focus on this album, Makeover because it has accentuated bass and highs with vocals and also, Keep on Moving really jams.  
In summary, vinyl is king.  The sound is close between both formats but when I played the vinyl I got goosebumps.  That seals the deal right there.
The digital:  Bass is just ever so slightly crisper.  The vinyl:  The highs are sweeter.  Soundstage- I could tell no difference.  Dynamic Range- Seemed the same.
Cool factor:  Goes to the vinyl because watching the grooves spin on that semitransparent vinyl is mind blowing.  Playing music with an iPad is cool too.
Please feel free to come audition my stereo when you are in the mood to come to sunny, hot, sticky, plenty of gnats middle Georgia.  Don't worry the listening room is air conditioned although when the whole system is powered up with 1400 Watts of heat dissipation and 95 degrees outside the A/C is a bit taxed.

If you get sweeter highs from vinyl, more likely than not your digital replay is affected by RFI/EMI or imperfect clocking. Absent those two, distortion levels on vinyl will always be higher and dynamic range lower. Fixes include ethernet filters, USB isolators, better cables or better clocks.

If ones wants to almost mimic vinyl using cd, just put a 1kohm resistor across left and right channels of the cd/dac output.
This ruins the channel separation from 120db, down to about 30db right across the board (should be worse in the highs and especially the bass) but it’s a one resistor exercise.

What you’ll find is now playing a CD especially the old nasty left/right ping pong ones (early Beatles etc) suddenly they sound more fleshed out because you are "monoizing" them for want of a better word The voice instead of just in one channel are now in both which gives it extra body. 

It would be even closer to vinyl if you were to really develop a proper passive network on the output of the cd, to follow a vinyl cartridge’s channel separation from 20hz to 20khz .

Cheers George

Wow tough crowd.  Suum cuique.  

Suum cuique.

No not really, it’s a measured fact.


Cheers George