Martin-Logan Owners

roberto

Well-Known Member

I do not you, but I have this with all my turntables, Linn LP-12, Goldmound Studio and the Oracle Delphy...No matter the damp material base, I get it. Also, look the quality fo the signal. Thats a 1KHz tone there...you think it is stable, steady?

I am playing most of my music in DSD format. If the file is not DSD, I can upsample it. Yes, I do now that upsampling is not the same thing than to have the DSD format. My dac is an Exasound E-32. The founder of Exasound is a Russian person with tremendous knowledge on Digital . He wrote a special USB input drivers that the jitter is non existent. O jitter! Also, I have some files at a 11MHZ of upsampling and 32 bits. This is very impressive. The dynamics and low distortion on my speakers along with the Conrad-Johnson gear, my sound had change for good.

Also, I have a special power supply for the dac. It is the Up Tone Audio JS-2 linear power supply. When a I was a kid, I used to sing with a comb and a piece of silk-paper, producing a strings-bow alike sound, or blowing though an empty Adams-gum box. This kind of bzzz sound is characteristic when you are close to a violin or any string-bow musical instrument. Well, I can tell you that with this JS-2 power supply, I have this in most of all my strings recordings. At the double bass and cello, that harmonic texture sound is more evident, and with Salvatore Accardo playing all the Paganini Violin Concertos, I have it. This is an analogue recording converted to digital...and believe me, it is breath taking!

Happy listening!
 

roberto

Well-Known Member
Then, as long as the cable is, you will loose high frequency and must be more sensitive with hum possibility. It's a double side knife. I do ask this too, how many audiophiles do that? With phono cables, you must use a very low capacitance cable too. Usually the maximum length of the RCA cable must not exceed 5m.

Again, I am not saying that analogue is bad. What I am saying is that on these days, both media are great! Some of you claim that the audio digital format was born dead. These days you have on your hand a big computers capability for your audio files. Not 16 bit, but 24 or 32 bit on your hands. And the difference in size is 16 to power of 8 times for 24 bit of 16 power of 16 for 32 bit. In other words 16x16x16x16x16x16x16x16 bigger for the same job. So the digital bonds are imperceptible for our ears...

These are my DAC specs:


PCM Sampling Rates - Asynchronous USB
44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz
DSD Sampling Rates - Asynchronous USB
(Windows ASIO;
Mac Core Audio DoP256;
Mac ASIO)
2.8224MHz (64Fs) 3.072MHz (64Fs)

5.6448MHz (128 Fs) 6.144MHz (128 Fs)

11.2896MHz (256Fs) 12.288MHz (256Fs)
MQA Sampling Rates - Asynchronous USB MQA full ‘unfold’ for delivering Hi-Res music data up to 24-bit 384kHz PCM Sampling Rates - Coaxial SP/DIF
44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz PCM Sampling Rates - Optical (TOSLINK)
44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise,1kHz, 0dBFS
0.00021%
Total Harmonic Distortion1kHz, 0dBFS
0.000125%
Intermodulation Distortion
19kHz + 20kHz
0 dBFS 2nd order IMD
-144dB 0.000006%
Signal-to-Noise Ratio
A-weighted, 2 Vrms
128dB
DAC Master Clock Jitter
0,082ps (82fs) rms
Frequency Response
0Hz - 20kHz (-0.15dB) @ 44.1kHz / 48kHz sampling rates;
0Hz - 30kHz (-0.15dB) @ sampling rates >= 88.2kHz;Phase:
Non-inverting
Channel Separation
130dB @ 1kHz
Digital Inputs
USB 2.0, SP/DIF Coaxial, SP/DIF TOSLINK (optical)
Number of channels USB
2 channels PCM, DSD
Number of channels SP/DIF2 channels PCM
Operating System Requirements: Windows
Windows 10 x64, Windows 8 x86, Windows 8 x64, Windows 7, Windows XP
ASIO compatible player required for all Windows platforms
Operating System Requirements: Mac
Mac OS Mavericks, Yosemite, El Captain, Sierra
Digital Volume Control Steps
0.5dB
Volume Matching between Channels
Better than 0.1dB

Happy listening!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gregadd

roberto

Well-Known Member
I do...it is one of my endless nostalgia. The covers of the LPs, is what I missed most. The CD information is very limited, if you do a comparison between both, and when you download the HI RES DSD files, they just offer a little comment and the songs. The musician(s) playing and very limited info. This is one of the things that I really miss.

Happy listening!
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
"Some of you claim digital was born dead." ROFL.
Silly rabbit specs are for kids
 
  • Like
Reactions: WLVCA

roberto

Well-Known Member
Yes Gregadd, I always claimed that specs are meaningless. But I just wanted to show that these specs are very good. I do hear good things that I never thought I was going to have it at digital sound. The natural resonances of the string instruments is what I do like more. With LPs, what I hear, does not belong to the instruments. Yes, there is an intoxicating sweetness at the LPs that is what I do miss sometimes. Usually the G musical note at the fourth string at the double bass resonates very strong, and sometimes listening my turntables, the most prominent is an E, which does not resonate at the musical instrument...being a musician, I love to understand what the musician is doing.

At the piano, I can understand very easy what the left hand is doing vs the right hand. And the overall musicality is very good. Again, I just love the convenient of digital. How easy is to change the music. And the quality on these days and the dac possibilities, sounding OK is earning more people. Quality has no regret! And doing comparisons, both medias are very likeable.

Happy listening!
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
"Quality is no regret."
"Both media are likable,"

Digitall has never irritated me as much as its propnents. Forgive me for having a little fun at your expense. You do turn a colorful phrase.
We play music in analog. We listen to music in analog. Converting the analog signal distorts! Yes even analog conversion also distorts. In my mind and ears the less conversions, the less distortion. Vinyl distortions are simpler, better known, and easier to deal with. IMO digital is an unnecessary conversion with complex distortions, yet to be identified or compensated for.
You are a gentleman.

. I appreciate your argument in favor of digital.
 
Last edited:

roberto

Well-Known Member
Thanks Gregadd for your kind words,

And you are right with one thing: what I do like, not necessary must be your liking. The most important sentence is, you have your prerogative to have your liking! And your statement is that...wrong or right!

I only wanted to share what happened to my ears, being a non digital lover in the past years, I have changed because digital it is not that bad, as it is not analogue that bad. When I was studying classical guitar (a long time ago) my dad owned a reel to reel Revox and a Teac A-6010. I did recorder myself, and I can tell you how bad my guitar sounded. 50 years later the guitar now at the recordings, its sound is more relaxing and more precise. I can call the brand of the strings or the type of the guitar. Basically there are three models, the Ramirez, the Thomas Humphrey and the rest. Better mics, and better mics, at the recording studio or live music position, is giving, to my ears, a pleasant sound. Being the recordings analogue or digital, I can call usually, with jazz, the name of the musicians. Then I realized that the problem was not exactly at the moment of the recordings. The problem is when we reproduce the recordings in our own media, our system.

The CLXs are bringing to my ears another way for good, to listen to the music. These speakers are a jewel to have and use. And before, I had many known audio brands to drive them, and now just I got these magnificent Conrad Johnson gear. I do not know if the combination of these two brands are the wonderful magic that I have, but I can stand both media with excellent results. I don't find any ear's fatigue with the digital or analogue. And the easy use of digital and the easy care is fabulous. No harsh, no sibilant, not stress, great wide stage with a truly sense of 3D, harmonic texture as never before, right size of the musical instruments and voices, no glare, no more throat soreness, no more nasal voices sound, cymbals are project in the air with a silky sound, the strident violins are in the past. The soul of the musician(s) are playing here. This is what my ears are telling me.

Again, I am not saying that you must be on the digital sound, or any side. What I am saying is just give it a try. There is nothing to lose with this. Believe me, its musicality is not producing any ear fatigue. And that horrible distortion is gone. Great dynamics and great nuances are shown now and I am re-discovering all my music again.

Happy listening!
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
1,591
210
1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
Almas Hi-Fi in metro Detroit has carried CJ and ML product lines together, not sure if they still do.

They look good together, but I do not recall hearing them together before.

From what I've read they should be very agreeable in marriage.
 

roberto

Well-Known Member
A friend of mine has his turntable and other equipment in an adjacent room, only the speakers are in the listening room.

I'm wondering if he's avoided the problem demonstrated in the video.


I just do not want to be reiterative, I just want you to take a look at the scope signal. Do you think this signal is a steady signal? You can see the wow and flutter there too. This is a normal signal from our beloved turntables. Yes, the media is not perfect, the question is: which media is it? All have problems...the good thing is that even the imperfections, we can enjoy the music through them and have a wonderful musical nirvana.

Happy listening!
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
Roberto
I am jealous of your CLX. Long ago I had mll/cls.
There are a lot of misconceptions concerning Redbook cd.
Redbook is sampled twice per cycle. Thus 1hz would be sampled twice. 200hz would be sampled 400 times per second. 20,000 hzwould be 40,000 times per second.
There is no frequency wave contained in the digital file. Only 0's and 1's describe the cycle. The entire wave is discarded to be recretard at playback. There is nothing in the digital file that remotely resembles music. On vinyl the entire music waveform is preserved.
Imagine if you took a trip in a car. One person filmed the entire trip with a video camera. The other took snapshots along the way. The two will never be the same.

Yes we are entitled to our preference
The fact that we prefer it does not change the nature of the beast
 
Last edited:

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
I just do not want to be reiterative, I just want you to take a look at the scope signal. Do you think this signal is a steady signal? You can see the wow and flutter there too. This is a normal signal from our beloved turntables. Yes, the media is not perfect, the question is: which media is it? All have problems...the good thing is that even the imperfections, we can enjoy the music through them and have a wonderful musical nirvana.

Happy listening!
Have you checked a quartz lock direct drive?
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
Technics sp 10 rumble÷78db. Wow and flutter .0r25%
Again because vi yl is good does not make digital bad
Vice versa.
Each has stand on its own merit.
 

roberto

Well-Known Member
Have you checked a quartz lock direct drive?
Of course I did, I had the Sony PS-8750 with carbon fiber tonearm, also the Pioneer PL-L1000A if my mind does not fulls me, having this LPs collection...here is a pic of part of my LPs.

Happy listening!
IMG-2672 (1).jpg
 

roberto

Well-Known Member
As you can see, my dear friend, I have spent some time to listen to analogue...and yes, I do believe that both media are doing a great job on these days. Now my collection at the hard drives, are about 12 Teras...all still growing hopefully.

warm regards to all from this small piece of land, Costa Rica!

I wish to you a very happy new year 2020 and Merry Christmas!

Happy listening!
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
 

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
http://www.centerpointaudio.com/Analog-VS-Digital.aspx
As you can see from the diagram, the analog sound wave replicates the original sound wave, whereas the digital sound wave only replicates the sampled sections of the original sound wave. The potential fidelity of an analog recording depends on the sensitivity of the equipment and medium used to record and playback the recording. Among other factors, digital audio fidelity heavily depends on the rate at which the recording equipment sampled the original sound wave over a specified increment of time. Even with the newest technologies and techniques, digital audio still cannot create exact replications of an original sound wave. Many times, digital audio companies try to hide this fact with fancy words like “Uncompressed” and “Lossless”. These words are very misleading as all digital audio features some compression and loss of the original signal. However, even the best trained human ear may not be able to tell the difference between a high quality digital signal and an analog audio signal.

An easy way to visualize digital audio is to consider the difference between a regular light bulb and a strobe light (Those lights designed to flash on and off very quickly. Commonly found at concerts or Halloween displays). In this example, an analog audio signal is comparable to a regular light bulb, whereas a digital audio signal would be similar to a strobe light. A strobe light can flash so fast that you hardly notice the moments when it is off.
Analog-Digital%20frequency%20examples.png
 

roberto

Well-Known Member
Have you listen the E-32 DAC or similar on these days? As you said before, these are for kids...that's the way of how the waveform is plotted digitaly: Here is the conversion of that waveform after the dac's conversion.


Here is a Marantz cd player playing 1000Hz sinosoidal waveform.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Gregadd

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
E32 dac? I am not familiar.
That is an analog waveform approximated from a digotal file
 
Last edited:

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing