Have you listened to and played with the original version of the PS Audio Memory Player? It caches the entire disc to RAM before playback. I have one of these original PS Audio Memory Player, which I use as a transport. Any type of “Memory Retention” should be easy to address by simply clearing all stored data each time playback commences. Keep in mind that the biggest “Memory Retention” effect takes place in our brain, and I’m not sure how you overcome that or why anyone would risk experimenting with clearing that memory bank.
i'm not referring to memory of the data stream.
i'm talking about playback memory, something that nobody has thought of addressing yet.
but, over the years, some people writing for UK magazines (What Hifi and Hifi Choice) have noted audible improvements when shutting down/refreshing the player prior to play a CD. some people in the USA (like Jim Smith of Get Better Sound) have noted audible differences when shutting down the DAC prior to playing the next CD (but Jim Smith was only getting half the problem diagnosed and resolved)
because JIM Smith hasn't realised it yet, but the memory retention problem happens mainly at the optical transport (the same thing also with software/media players and streamers).
the issue with DACs is that they often react adversely when, after it was already been sync'd to a data stream, it then got disrupted temporarily and then got presented with a second data stream. this always happen when the disc has stopped playing and then got started to play again without any power shutdown (refreshing). or, it can also happen when the digital input got switched to something else while the music was playing and then the original input was switched back again. listeners with a neutral, and well balanced system can often hear some changes in soundstaging when this happens. i think Jim Smith must have noticed this and thus have been recommending people to shut down and re-power up their dacs just prior to playing the disc again. but again, as i've said, this is only solving half the problem.
if the user have an integrated player (with an onboard DAC) both components within that one single chassis get to be refreshed at the same time and the playback memory cleared from the transport as well.
if the user have a transport and dac combo, after shutting down, the transport need to be powered up first, loaded with a disc so that it output a stream into the DAC that herald it's arrival and tells the DAC what format/bit resolution/sampling rate it is. then only after that should the DAC be powered up. this way the DAC will "see" the stream freshly for the first time. the whole system will sound better this way.
but the problem is - playback memory accumulate with every single track that has just been played.
we aren't ever going to be powering down after every single track.
there's also the issue of how to directly access to that desired track that is higher than the numerical one and playing it without leaving a memory imprint.
so there's got to be some ways to get around this problem.
or otherwise, digital playback will never reach the same quality level that vinyl playback can achieve.
sony's bluray and dvd players traditionally have a drop down menu of the track-list that users can use the cursor to select and play the desired track without leaving a playback memory imprint. the problem is users will need a TV screen to navigate the menu.
i see that the shanling new SACD player has a touch screen control on its front panel.
i'm going to try experiment with it to see if it can allow users to call up the track list and directly play the desired track without first leaving a playback memory imprint....
Oh, BTW, I did try the vaunted memory player years ago. Alfred Bay, the very person who introduced me to vinyl, was the same person trying to get me buying into digital playback from buffer rams. It was a no-go. Because we could hear visceral sonic differences each times we shut down the player prior to playing any tracks vs not doing so. An optical player was much easier when we had to do the memory erase/power refresh procedure.
