Blackness - how quiet does it need to be?

Well, there goes that theory.

I hear an ever so slight hiss or veil (for lack of a better word) on my Kind of Blue CD as well. It's a Columbia/Legacy SBM (Super Bit Mapping) recording.

I've read where Steve Hoffman said that older masters from tape and tube (if they were done that way) don't make the transition to a newly remastered state if done with SS equipment unless certain software is used, correctly. He said it will not sound quite right. Maybe that's it.

All the best,
Nonoise

But tape hiss from an older recording is not really about the 'noise floor' of the system.

Vance (Vhiner), thanks for your comment. This has indeed been an excellent discussion.

08-09-12: Nick_sr
Is the noise floor system dependent? or is it directly the sum of the noise floor of the individual components?

Nick, yes, there is a good deal of system dependency involved.

With respect to the analog parts of the signal path, the audible significance that ultimately results from noise that is generated, introduced, or picked up at any point in the signal path will vary depending on the relation between the signal as it exists at that point and that noise, especially the ratio of their amplitudes. Which in turn will depend on the gains, sensitivities, and output levels of other components in the signal path.

With respect to digital parts of the signal path, many variables and interactions that are relevant to noise sensitivity and its ultimate effects on jitter come into play between the transport or other source component, the component in which D/A conversion is performed, and the cable connecting them. Obviously the jitter rejection characteristics of the DAC are one. Also, the risetime and falltime of the output signal from the transport, which are parameters that are usually unspecified, will significantly affect the consequences resulting from noise that is present at the interface between the transport and DAC. Impedance mismatches between the two components and the interconnect cable will inevitably be present to at least some small degree, and might affect the consequences of noise at that interface, if the mismatches result in distortion of critical parts of the waveform. Also, noise that may be introduced by ground loop effects will be affected by the interaction of various technical characteristics of both components.

Best regards,
-- Al

I don't think Steve Hoffman was referring to the tape hiss from the original recording. That could be somewhat masked, but not entirely eliminated. What he referred to was the difficulty of taking an original master and getting it sound right on modern equipment.

Here is his view:http://www.tapeop.com/articles/85/steve-hoffman/.

I guess the only alternative is to try the DCC CD version that he made of the Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue' CD.

All the best,
Nonoise

Many recordings were made with pre-emphasis to greatly reduce tape noise in playback. CDP or DAC has processor for it (de-emphasis) and every CD has bit switching it on or off in CDP or DAC. Today almost all recordings are digital and pre-emphasis is never used. Because of that many CDPs or DACs don't even have de-emphasis. None of Lavry DACs, for instance, has de-empasis but my Benchmark DAC1 does. If your CDP or DAC doesn't have de-emphasis and you listen to one of few recordings with pre-emphasis it will sound noisy. I'm not sure if tapes were recorded with pre-empasis (10db increase between 3kHz-10kHz) before invention of CD. Some people tested rippers and found that EAC does not correct for pre-emphasis (leaves recording intact) while Itunes does apply correction. Also some MP3 compressors like for instance LAME have de-emphasis option.