Yes, huge improvement( however, call it what you will, you are manipulating the original signal in a way that can’t be compared with othe systems. So, either the recording leaves something to be desired or your digital source does but you have brought sounds up out of the mix, made the bass have more texture and less boom and selectively boosted dynamics to make the recording sound more alive.
As you made no (I am assuming) changes to the physical system other than adding some mastering boxes to the chain, I think we need to say that you effectively remastered the recording but in a non-transferable manner.
i will add that without the remastering this does not sound very good. Veiled and boomy.
Thank you Brad. Glad that you noticed the improvements brought about by my “system” Remastering process on my WAAR system. I agree with your assessment that the result sound sounds more “live”. It sounds exactly like I want my WAAR system to sound because I dialed in the sound that I want. Few things to cover:
1) The remastering techniques and settings that I used to remastered the WAAR system are not appropriate to master any recording as the recording itself would sound terrible. These changes were made to address the system’s overall presentation.
2) The “Remastering” has not been changed since implemented and every recording played goes through the exact process. Please keep in my that the process is “dynamic” in nature so every recording is treated differently by the process depending on its spectral content.
3) If my aim was to remaster each track in the traditional way of remastering music, I would have proceeded in a different way and implemented different tools. The analog hardware tools selected for implementation in the WAAR systems were selected based on the changes that I wanted to bring about in my WAAR system’s overall sound; think of this as doing a critical evaluation of one’s own reference system and asking yourself if I could change or improve anything what would it be? And then gathering the tools to make those specific changes without compromising anything else in the process. That is what I have been able to achieve with the Remastering of my WAAR reference system.
4) If I were to design, develop and implement a Remastering process for another system, I would select the appropriate tools based on the system’s/owner’s needs. In other words the Remastering process could be unique for each system, but the tools allow for an ample range of adjustment.
I cannot take all the credit for the final sound unless I also implement the digital portion, which I have done in my mastering setups, but with the WAAR system I ldid the digital in HQPLAYER.
What I have developed is a very powerful concept and a way to short circuit the upgrade merry-go-round and trial and error approach of the traditional audiophile method. With my solution, you just simply dial in the sound that you want or that you are after; should that sound target change in the future, you just simply change the settings.
Glad that you noticed the differences.