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What stereo(s) do you listen to? What do you want? - Page 126

post #1876 of 2240
11/2/11 at 8:37am
Thread Starter 
Or the Keith Johnson who records at 24/176khz hirez and puts the master file out on hirez wave files under the HRX moniker?
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post #1877 of 2240
11/2/11 at 8:40am
Sounds awesome.
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post #1878 of 2240
11/2/11 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Artisan Fan View Post

You mean the Keith Johnson who is putting his recordings out on SACD?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Artisan Fan View Post

Or the Keith Johnson who records at 24/176khz hirez and puts the master file out on hirez wave files under the HRX moniker?

The same one. And he also said this, in case you missed it from two pages ago:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/spectral-unveils-sdr-4000sl-master-cd-processor
Quote:
"If 44.1 is implemented well, it is high-resolution."
...
Johnson and Fryer say that Spectral will "someday" develop a high-resolution file player. Meanwhile, they're convinced that the SDR-4000SL Master CD Processor functions at such a high level that there is little difference between the sound of well-recorded CDs through their player and the best current playback devices for higher-resolution files.
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post #1879 of 2240
11/3/11 at 5:43am
AY and Artisan Fan, what is your opinion of classic recordings that are "Re-mastered". Doesn't that just mean they are further compressed, thus making them louder, however less fidelity?
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post #1880 of 2240
11/3/11 at 11:37am
I think it's a case-by-case thing. Most of my experience has been with remastered classical music, and those have almost always been improved by the remastering, and never made worse at the least. Sometimes it's very obvious, like fixing overloads and other obvious distortions (eg. the Bernstein/VPO Das Lied von der Erde on Decca or the Mravinsky/Leningrad Tchaikovsky symphonies on DG), and other times, it's a matter of a mastering engineer with different tastes, so it sounds different, but not necessarily better (the various Glenn Gould reissues, some of which have been reissued 3 or 4 times).

Doing a remastering is pretty expensive, so I think companies who do that tend to want a very good result.
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post #1881 of 2240
11/3/11 at 11:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH View Post

AY and Artisan Fan, what is your opinion of classic recordings that are "Re-mastered". Doesn't that just mean they are further compressed, thus making them louder, however less fidelity?

Most remastering doesnt do that. Generally they boost the bass, thats the biggest change since bass recording in the past was dead awful.
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post #1882 of 2240
11/4/11 at 4:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by idfnl View Post

Most remastering doesnt do that. Generally they boost the bass, thats the biggest change since bass recording in the past was dead awful.

Remastering does all sorts of things - better converters can mean more resolution, better tape sources can mean more clarity and better high frequencies, better care can mean more judicious use of EQ so one hears the album as intended.
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post #1883 of 2240
11/4/11 at 4:38pm
What do you guys recommend for a good way to noticeably increase the sound quality of a Sonos system? Which specific DAC, for example... thanks.
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post #1884 of 2240
11/4/11 at 4:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amerikajinda View Post

What do you guys recommend for a good way to noticeably increase the sound quality of a Sonos system? Which specific DAC, for example... thanks.

What is in your current system?
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post #1885 of 2240
11/5/11 at 5:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post

What is in your current system?

I have a Marantz AV Surround Receiver SR-7200... speakers are floor-standing polks which have served me well for many years but which I would like to replace - was thinking about a pair of PSB Synchrony Ones, but am open to others (SF, Thiel, Focal, etc.) Depending on the replacement speakers, will have to upgrade the amplification too... so it's a very fluid system that needs a complete overhaul.

So I'm thinking of getting a Sonos Bridge, attaching that to my wireless router (which already has a NAS chock full of lossless FLACS attached to it), then attaching a Sonos ZonePlayer 90 to some sort of DAC or all-in-one, and then connecting that to my Marantz. When I heard the Sonos at BestBuy, it didn't sound that great... so I just want help it reach its full potential.
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post #1886 of 2240
11/6/11 at 7:55am
It's not clear that the Sonos's DAC is limiting it. If it is, hook it up to one of your Marantz's digital inputs, and then see what you think about it. I think you are on the right track with getting new speakers: they are the limiting factors in your system, along perhaps with the amps in the receiver should you get an especially difficult speaker to drive.
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post #1887 of 2240
11/6/11 at 8:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by amerikajinda View Post

I have a Marantz AV Surround Receiver SR-7200... speakers are floor-standing polks which have served me well for many years but which I would like to replace - was thinking about a pair of PSB Synchrony Ones, but am open to others (SF, Thiel, Focal, etc.) Depending on the replacement speakers, will have to upgrade the amplification too... so it's a very fluid system that needs a complete overhaul.
So I'm thinking of getting a Sonos Bridge, attaching that to my wireless router (which already has a NAS chock full of lossless FLACS attached to it), then attaching a Sonos ZonePlayer 90 to some sort of DAC or all-in-one, and then connecting that to my Marantz. When I heard the Sonos at BestBuy, it didn't sound that great... so I just want help it reach its full potential.

A DAC wont significantly improve the sound quality right now with your current equipment. Your amp and speakers are very limited in their potential for improvement, and a new DAC, while it will improve the sonos alot, wont help in general.

Better to spend your $ upgrading the speakers first, then an amp/preamp, THEN a DAC.

You can get a DAC, but your money is better invested in speakers at the moment.
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post #1888 of 2240
11/6/11 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by amerikajinda View Post

What do you guys recommend for a good way to noticeably increase the sound quality of a Sonos system? Which specific DAC, for example... thanks.

At around $1K

Benchmark DAC1 (I have one)
Grace m903
Musical Fidelity M1, possibly the new V-DAC mk 2.

Below $1k it gets dicey although the V-DAC and DacMagic are worth a shot.

But I agree with the above post that better speakers would help.
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post #1889 of 2240
11/6/11 at 8:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post

Ahhh ... validation.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/spectral-unveils-sdr-4000sl-master-cd-processor
Quote:
After almost an hour of explication, Johnson played excerpts from a few 16/44.1, HDCD-encoded tracks from the Reference Recordings catalog. I was so blown away by the extremely long decay time of the triangle in Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony, RR-120 CD) that I asked Johnson for an explanation. He replied that while "Red Book" CDs lack enough bits to reproduce such die-offs in their entireties, HDCD's code adds a bit or two that sustains them to their natural ends.

.. what?
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post #1890 of 2240
11/6/11 at 11:52pm
HDCD can do two special things with the lowest two bits of a 16-bit signal that can extend resolution:

1. Implement a subtractive dither signal so the noise can be subtracted during playback.
2. The dither itself carries a code to the HDCD decoder in the CD player that can tell it to use different reconstruction filters as well as doing expansion operations (ie. reversing compansion). This is also how the HDCD light on the front of CD players and DACs gets turned on.

The dither itself extends resolution for non-HDCD playback in the usual way: by decorrelating the signal from its quantization error.
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