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Did Redbook get it right?

I've always felt a tension between the narrative that a) the Redbook spec murdered music, probably in cahoots with greedy plastic vendors, and b) the great respect I've had for engineers I have worked with. I would think they knew what they were doing, considering the stakes and the state of their art at the time.

I leaned towards the murder/greed scenario, especially as my original Sony 520-ES CD player presented a fleshless corpse of Joni's Blue album, and the few high-end players of the time I tried, like the Enlightened Audio, seemed to fail at resurrection.

I've reconsidered. If I rip my CD's to FLAC, feed a Benchmark DAC over USB, and into my tube amplification, I am stunned by how good and satisfying many CD's sound. I have no desire to fire the Linn Sondek back up. I have no sense of things missing. Sure, there are many crap CD's, but is any of that stink coming from Redbook spec? Some newer CD's simply stun. I not into country, but something like the Mavericks' In Time CD is acoustically complete and fully fleshed.

I've been over to HDTracks and Acoustic Sounds to download hi-rez versions, and I can feel the pull to feed my rig the best I can buy. It's such a good story, easily embraced by the audiophile mind, but I'm increasingly wondering if it is all marketing razzle-dazzle...more, denser, higher...and in the end, Redbook got it right, and the new DACs finally do it justice.

Always with an open mind, and there's much better gear than mine, but I'm newly impressed by the original Spec.
electroslacker
clio09
3,366 posts
 
George, what DACs that you know of use multibit chips and no negative feedback, old or new. I have two digital sources right now that use PCM 1704 but not sure whether or not they use negative feedback.

I too like the TDA 1541 and also the PCM-63PK.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Hi Clio, I use a Cary 303/200 which has the 24bit R2R Ladder PCM1704K chips, and it also has the PMD-200 HDCD filter as well as (switchable) copy of the DF1704 in DSP form.

It also used OPA627 I/V which had feedback, but I completely gutted the I/V, filtering, buffer and XLR opamps.
And now I use the I/V stage that I started a thread for over here (linked). It was also used earlier but I believe not fully exploited and slightly differently by Peja Rojic of Audial and Charles Hansen of Ayre. I also implemented a golden oldie for the output buffer, a BUF03 pure class A zero feedback unity gain stage.
The whole setup is now dc coupled and feedback free from the PCM1704 dac's outputs to the output rca's of the cdp.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-source/227677-using-ad844-i-v.html

Cheers George
chayro
3,023 posts
 
It's right if you get a good recording. I don't listen to much digital anymore, but this morning I was listening to MA Recordings Bach Cello Suites on my EAR Acute CD player and I was shaking my head on how good it sounded.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Listen to a CD. Then listen to the same piece on cassette. Case closed.
jon2020's avatar
jon2020
992 posts
 
I agree now with my current set-up that Redbook got it right from the outset. That said, it took me about 20 years to get the hardware right! How did I realise this? - let's consider some nirvana points.

1. When the glass ceiling that seems to stop musical notes from soaring to as high as they should simply disappears
2. A magic coupling of a holographic soundstage plus airy/sparkling highs, with solid instrumental body/colour/tone - before nirvana, you can't seem to have too much of one without too little of the other
3. A very natural organic cut-from-the-same-cloth continuousness to the music
4. Utterly musical - you 'get' the artistry and message of the musician by being able to feel the ebb and flow of the music that constitutes the core of "musicalness"; your head bobs or sways, your feet tap reflexively, uncontrollably - the PRAT thing.

When all the above 4 elements conjoin - it's nirvana! And you will know it when that happens simply because you have been in this hobby long enough to tell. The good news is you do not need hi-res to achieve this.

Yes, the best of Redbook can indeed equal the best of hi-res.
Cheers! J.
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