Not wasting my time on new Digital


Well guys, I have disappointing news:

Getting all hyped being a tech guy, tried out a new $9000 top flying Integrated CD player, with the apparently best design and parts including Anagram algorithms and ……..

I don’t know boys, this is my second disappointing experience with new digital gear.
I am not going to mention any manufactures that I have been disappointed with.
I have a very nice system to my ears to name a few products including Sonus Faber (Electa Amator mk1 to be exact) Apogee’s, Audio research and more…….

Decided to try some new sources of course and I was told all sort of things and parts and man oh man, the reviews and well to my ears other than my original Oracle turntable and my newer VPI table, my older DAC’s sound much more musical. WHY? WHY? WHY?

New technology, new ideas, new designs, new engineering and we see to be going behind rather that forward. I still like my original Theta Gen V and even my Bel Canto DAC for a fraction of the cost, even my Micromega DAC hands down.

Anyway are there any other people experience the same thing, by the way I have tried some very serious stuff and out of the pricy gear…meridian and Spectral (Spectral SDR-2000 with no upgrades and still sounds amazing) stays on top of my listing.

Appreciate any input.

Cheers - rapogee
rapogee
No, snipes, I just assumed you hadn't heard it that is all.

And my writing meant to imply that you're welcome to come see/ hear anytime and ask more questions. It was to be a friendly invitation, not a desuasion or persuasion.

Just bad writing :(

Ask away,

Referring to the system you can link too.

My setup is very linear +/- 1.5dB 200-20khz, all 6 speaker are exactly the same, 2 subs with eq, +/- 3db 20hz to 200hz all satellites are setup at the same height except the center, this is for demo purposes only. As people new to the surround format always say they can here the sound directly out of the center channel, even when I'm (tricking them) only playing two channels. :)

You want this kind of flat accurate speaker for surround, because the surround algorithms do diffuse the sense of detail slightly and having a speaker that might be "bright" or "too exact" for normal listening will be great for surround.

The best music format for our purposes is Trifield, Dolby Prologic II is a godsend for many manufacturers giving them access to a very coloration free surround mode.

The rest are to colored to be options.

note on my center channel;

By lowering the speaker a few inches it fully seperates the center sound from the center channel as the voices image above the speaker, disconnecting two strong visual cues. Normally all speakers at the same height.

Cambridge Audio Receiver is very good, the introduction of two ex-TAG McLaren engineers is paying big dividends. When it comes to buying the right equipment for surround, there is a great deal of info to consider. So to keep my posts from being outrageously long, email me because when you say the wrong thing about the right product the noise online gets to be problematic and distracting.

I leave you with one last thought.

A Home Theater will not necessarily make a great music surround system

But a music surround system makes for a great Home Theater.
D edwards

I played around with a SS music system... Sony XA-777es sacd player...Krell amps, Apogee speakers. Good SS software was fairly limited at the time (a couple years ago).

Another SS system (I still have this one)...Pioneer 563A sacd/Dvd-Audio player...Omkyo amps, VMPS speakers. This system has been used strictly for hometheater...I guess I should order some disc's and give this system a listen playing music?...It's been a while.

Dave
D Edwards,thanks for the details thats the type of info I was looking for. Like quite a few people on this forum, I have a combo 2 ch. / HT setup. If I could pare down the equipment to one set AND improve the music experience that would be great. I'm in Atlanta, I believe you said you were in the north east someplace. If I know ahead of time I'm coming up that way I'll get a hold of you. What genre of music do you primarily listen to? Also, I'm very surprised more people haven't jumped in on the thread, I get a feeling quite a few are lurking around. Normally this would have turned into a pissing contest by now. Thanks for the inspiration. The ATC's look interesting as well, I bet the really do Rock and HT well.
Hey Snipes,

Sorry for the lag time, let me answer your questions first;

"What genre of music do you primarily listen to?" It easier to describe what I don't listen too, I don't listen to Brubeck, Davis, DeMeola (GRP) type jazz, Very little country, No gangsta rap, and bagpipes.

But everything else is fair game,

"I believe you said you were in the north east someplace"
Baltimore/ Reading PA

"I'm very surprised more people haven't jumped in on the thread."

Everything I've written in this thread I have been writing on various boards for the last 7-8 years, I am not surprised.

Normally this would have turned into a pissing contest by now.

Most people have so little quality experience with surround it is dismissed not something to fight about.

"The ATC's look interesting as well, I bet the really do Rock and HT well."

The ATC's do everything well, large classical being where they can really seperate themselves with that midrange from most audiophile speakers. But there are few speakers that I can think of that can play Megadeth to Norah Jones with the same veracity and quality of two very different types of "rock/pop" music.

DAVE,

no special discs required, just setup your surround as it is now. I'm looking for someone with a system that I can help over the phone get their system correct. (snipes same for you) No takers yet. What center channel do you have?
And to top all of this off, now we have Blue Ray technology coming to the forefront from the same wonderful people that gave us SACD and DVD A. I absolutely refuse to invest in this, till it is totally proven. We all know the current fiasco regarding SACD and DVD-A. Please Sony, enough is enough.

And to D-edwards, yep I am an aging baby boomer. Been in this hobby/business since 1957, owned and sold more gear that you can possibly fathom. I do take offense as being dismissed as nothing more than a relic.

Got into digital the day it hit the streets. In fact when I purchased the first CD Player, there was only 25 CD titles in the Schwanns Catalog. Digital has its place as does analog. Also have had a very expensive Lexicon HT system. Great for movies, total dreck for music.

For all the prowess that Digital provides, when it comes to accurate musical reproduction, it is only of late, that the promise of digital is coming to light, but the jury is still out for me. It takes a damn expensive digital player to get music,not movies, to sound correct.