What is new with the Memory Player?

Rx8man, right you are. I seek experiences with the Memory Player in an analog system using its internal dac. I have never heard it any way other than as the frontend of the digital Behold system.

The bit-perfect copying can not be the reason this thing sounds as it does. As many have pointed out, it is nothing new. As others have pointed out, even a low error rate in the copying is unlikely to affect the sound. The reason there is controversy about this player is that Nova Physics makes claims that are nonsense to people who know about this stuff. They would do better if they just said they are doing something proprietary in software and leave it at that.

I don't have it handy, but one of the first red flags raised about this product was by Robert Harley, who went out of his way to cry foul regarding the claims of the MP. His point was that it may be doing something great, but not for the reasons claimed. When it comes to digital, Harley is both credible and not inclined to bash anyone unfairly.

I heard the MP at RMAF last year and thought it sounded exceptional and possibly like a real breakthrough in digital. Rational, curious minds just want to know why.

This is to Bigamp and to MTKHL,

I have used the player by playing back tracks from Memory vs the Hard Drive, and there is no comparison between the two.

I think that you said all computers play back tracks from memory used as a buffer, so therefore if that is the case there would be no sonic difference.

Also Mr. Perry and his staff have tested EAC copies vs the Memory Player and again there is no contest.

What you fail to realize is that the Memory Player is doing processing that EAC does not do, there are tricks that they are applying to work with the data in an entirely different way then EAC is doing.

I have talked with David Chesky of Chesky records about the Memory Player and he is in agreement with the merits of the Memory Player.

As per Clements system and the Behold amplifiers I am hearing the same thing in my system and I am using Plinius, Edge and Nuforce amps in my showroom and the Memory Player has brought my system up to an entirely new level of sound quality.

The Memory Player has great potential if given the right direction, although the trickle-down theory will begin to take effect for lesser cost.

Agreed. As I mentioned, if you already have a PC, you can add bit-perfect ripping and a ramdisk for ~$40-80. Add an Empirical Audio Pace-Car reclocker for ~$1000 and you're down to negligible jitter between PC and DAC. My guess is the MP includes a more accurate clock and better grounding and shielding than a typical PC, but who knows perhaps it doesn't.

I would be curious to hear the MP (used as a transport $10K) head-to-head against another PC-based transport (say PC with JRiver and ramdisk + Empirical Audio Pace-Car reclocker ~$2700 total) into the same DAC.

The Behold power amplifiers of Mr Perry each have 8 pairs of Analogue Devices DA converters (the AD1853 to be precise). I don't know if these are of-the-shelve or made to order specially for Behold. But, there you have it. Wonder how much it contributes to the experience of the MP...

And they cost around $50k. My point exactly. If I told you to buy a car cuz I drove it along Hwy 1 in Big Sur country, or along the New England woods during a beautiful fall day...and proclaimed it "a beautiful ride, best I've ever had"...it doesn't tell you much about the car. Could it be a great car? Sure. Could be because of the scenery, or the gorgeous blonde in the passenger seat too.

I have to assume that Clement's comments about the MP are in relation to other transports he's hooked to his ultra-expensive ultra-sophisticated Behold gear, but he's never said so in so may words. He's never even said what he hooks it up to, or with (balanced digtial, coax, etc.), or whether other users are experiencing synergy with this or that DAC.

I guess time will tell. I'm excited for any new development that gives us a better, more real interpretation of the bits encoded on the millions of redbook cd's we have in our combined inventories. And any new discovery will undeniably spawn trickle-down technology, or competitive pressure that improves/expands the discovery and makes it more affordable at the same time. Hell, I can afford $10k now, but this early adopter value prop is still quite shaky IMO.