New decade, end of the CD?

Catcher10 wrote: The T wrote: Padraic wrote: On-topic:  I ordered a couple of CDs yesterday. On-topic: My collection is (and will always be) still 99.5% cds, 0.5% mp3s or similar...   ......I purchased 4 LP's last Friday, no CD's.

Oh yeah, well I preordered 5 CDs and no LPs even though LPs were an option for some of them.

The T wrote: oliverstoned wrote: The T wrote: One might like subwoofers or not but they do add something that other drivers can't reproduce and that the human ear can hear (or the body can feel). Super tweeters on the other hand can't be neither felt nor heard, so what's the purpose? False, you underestimate human perception, that's what made engineers choose only a 16 bits resolution. if we can hear only up to 20khz, what's the point of a device going well above that?

What does this frequency limit have to do with quantization/dynamic range?

oliverstoned wrote: The T wrote: One might like subwoofers or not but they do add something that other drivers can't reproduce and that the human ear can hear (or the body can feel). Super tweeters on the other hand can't be neither felt nor heard, so what's the purpose? False, you underestimate human perception, that's what made engineers choose only a 16 bits resolution.

if we can hear only up to 20khz, what's the point of a device going well above that?

Dean wrote: Meh, I'm not a fan of hybrid amps - they're okay in guitar amps (the Marshal Valvestate for example), but there the valve is designed to be overdriven to produce soft clipping - not a feature you really want in a hi-fi amp.

What is to avoid is CD decks with tube outputs.

Meh, I'm not a fan of hybrid amps - they're okay in guitar amps (the Marshal Valvestate for example), but there the valve is designed to be overdriven to produce soft clipping - not a feature you really want in a hi-fi amp.

Clarity involves instrument separation, soundstage precision (qualities that Jean marie pointed out when he came) and transparency evoke details and micro details to me. My system has both qualities.

(good) Valves add nothing more to the signal than solidstate, it just subjectively reproduces low medium, mids, highs and extreme highs (the parts of the spectrum the ear is most sensitive to) much more naturally than solidstate.

Solidstate adds its own sound signature to the signal which can be described mainly as stiff and electronic.

Of course some solidstate sound more or less tube-like, but there's no comparison and it's often at the price of recessed highs.

BTW i can recommend these french hybrid integrated amps (only 2 entry tubes, a good compromise, even if doesn't sound as magic as a full-tube amp and not as punchy as a bi amp setup with good solidstate power amp).

Kora Explorer

http://www.kora.net/

And the power amps are much better




If you want good sound and have to have only one amp, it must be tube or hybrid in order to have great highs...and then you can add a sub for deep and powerful lows.


The subwoofer adds nothing, it just reproduces extreme lows freq that are not reproduced on other systems. It would mean as well that to add a super-tweeter to a system "adds" something to the signal and it's not
the case.

oliverstoned wrote: Catcher10 wrote: ref-Subs: Its why I will not use one, everytime I audition one my ears get the sense that something is "off kilter", I feel like I am walking and leaning to one-side.....Plus I really don't care to shake the plaster off my walls. I have always been a 2-channel system person, to me that gives me the best audio reproduction on any source I am listening to. Now for DVD viewing of movies I agree a sub is pretty cool to have available in a 5.1 setup.......But I guess to me a 2.1 audio system does not reproduce the source in the most natural state possible. A real sub must be at least 38 cm diameter to do real extreme low When a sub is well setted (and you have to re-set it everytime you change something in the system) you don't hear it, it's perfectly integrated into the whole by playing on two parameters: volume and freq cut. A good well setted is not intended to shake the walls (even if it may, at times) but to provide the matter, the soundstage and even the extreme highs and the smoothness as well. It's an alternative to bi amplification but it can added to bi amp as well. You can even use several identical subwoofers, each sub you add, the better it is as it divide the work by the numer of subs. Crazy installation but crazy result.

Padraic wrote: On-topic:  I ordered a couple of CDs yesterday.

On-topic: My collection is (and will always be) still 99.5% cds, 0.5% mp3s or similar...

Negoba wrote: That is not transparency.   Furthermore, the human ear has frequency response issues at those extremes. Some system improvements ADD in order to compensate.

I think what Oliver is calling 'Transparency' (transparence) we would call 'Clarity' (clarté) - a transparent soundstage would be empty of all sound after all whereas clarity in a soundstage would allow individual sounds and instruments to be identified ( ie 'details'). similarly I think his meaning of "Neutral" and "Coloured" isn't the same as we would use, though I haven't worked out what they are yet, because whatever it is that valves and subwoofers add to a system I personally would not call "neutrality" and whatever the unmeasurable and undetectable difference between cables is, I would not call it "colouration".


Edited by Dean - September 13 2011 at 12:43

^ Exaclty....now you get it.....I was begining to loose faith.....Glad ur back on board!