Shawn Wright wrote:
>>
I too prefer the sound of my Dad's Rega Planar table over most CDs of the
same
album. Unfortunately, he's not letting it go... However, I must admit that
the
new Nakamichi CD player I bought to replace my 10 year old Sony unit is a
*vast* improvement. It is quite amazing how much extra low level detail and
"flavour" a decent CD player can extract from the CD. But I still feel even
the
best CD players are still struggling to match a high end table/cartridge
system.
So when did you say those 90Khz CDs are coming out... ? ;-)
<<
DVD will offer extended range audio capabilities for those record companies
choosing to support it.
A good quality CD player does make a big difference in how a CD sounds.
Lost data because of poor laser alignment and other mechanical reasons are
the primary cause of audio problems. There are also many "software" reasons
why one player sounds different than another too. Unfortunately, we've
really come to the end of CD player development. It is doubtful that any
more real improvements will ever happen to players--however, major
improvements are always being made in the mastering realm, with
noise-shaping and other things.
"Spiky, harsh, and less 'musical'" are terms that are often applied to CDs
vs LPs. I would suggest that these differences are not identifiable in a
good non-slammed analog tape vs CD. (Slamming is where you record the audio
on analog tape at least +5dB over. The tape acts as a natural dynamic
compressor and is often used as part of the mastering process--even for
marked DDD recordings). LPs have characteristics not found in any other
storage medium--most importantly is the unlimited time resolution. Another
interesting characteristic of LP is the ability to RECREATE the harmonics
lost as part of recording as everything is essentially band pass limited to
around the top of the human hearing. But when the needle is vibrated going
down the groove, harmonics are generated as part of this mechanical
recreation of the audio. It becomes very important at this point for your
preamp, amplifier and speaker to beable to pass on audio in excess of 30kHz
in order to capture the entire "air" of the original performance.
Bit depth in digital recording is akin to bit depth in images. 8 bit image
files result in hmm... 256 colors? wheras 24bit images result in millions
of colors. However, your basic colors are in both formats. With audio, the
16bit (2-byte per sample), depth results in 65536 possible voltage points in
the waveform and a 24bit (3-byte per sample) depth results in 16,777,216
possible voltage points. Now some of those points are used to extend the
dynamic range, but mostly they are used to provide narrower steps in the
A-D, D-A processes.
Totally board yet?
Ken N.
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