PC Rules

Redbook CD is a single digital format and should not be used to judge the capabilities of digital recording. Unless someone starts engineering new vinyl mastering lathes or tape recorders, and that ain't happening, then the future of digital is virtually unlimited when compared to analog. Will digital's potential ever be commercially realized? That's another issue.

Imagine if you will, a square wave, as opposed to music on the record. My rig will slightly round off the corners, while a much more expensive rig would do a better job. This square goes to the 1st stage of the interface where it is reproduced as a better square due to the upgraded capacitors. That stage gives the signal to a 2nd stage before it enters the computer and is transformed into digits. The 2nd stage makes a larger improved square as a result of the capacitors.

After the signal is changed to digits it goes to the hardrive. Square, triangle, or circle are all the same to the computer and it's digits. Those digits are stored on the hardrive where I can select them for my "playlist". On playback, the digits go to a Music Streamer II where they are transformed back into analog and sent to the preamp.

All of this enables me to hear my 40 year old LP's in a fashion that I never heard them before I posted on the "hum" problem. What I hear now, is a quality of sound that reviewer's describe when relating their first listen to a very expensive analog rig. "My old music sounds brand new, it was almost like hearing it for the first time". Of course, if you can afford that type of analog rig; why not skip the digits.

Enjoy the music.

Orpheus10, I think you're on the wrong track about what's going on. In analog every stage loses some fidelity, whereas in digital that doesn't have to be the case. In your example the square wave single isn't getting improved as it passes through your upgraded device. The best that can happen is that it doesn't get degraded as much as previously done with your non-upgraded device.

Onhwy61, what are the purposes of stage 1 and stage 2 ?

Think of this as you would a DTI; a digital transmission interface which functions between the transport and the DAC. Almost any transport DAC combination will sound better with a good DTI.

This is a phono computer interface. The better the TT rig, the better the end result. While there are high quality DTI's, there seem to be no high quality "phono computer interfaces". The best results in downloading vinyl to hardrive are impossible without one, which is why I purchased what was available and replaced parts.