High resolution digital is dead. The best DAC's killed it.

I would only get the Mytek if you want MQA.

I have a Mytek. It sounds fantastic, and I never use the MQA feature. I don't feel it changes my cost/benefit equation. It's still a fabulous DAC for the feature set.

I think both stories are true. There are a lot of remasters people don't realize as well as better DACs.

The frequency response, compression, and channel separation of vinyl, CD's and SACD have been shown to be explicitly different.

SOME SACD transfers were shown to actually be remasters. CD's when they first came out were compressed in amplitude and L to R separation.

HOWEVER!! It is also very true that this generation of DAC's plays 44/16 MUCH better than before, and I can't tell you why.

I had an ARC DAC 8, and it was a prime example of this. It played high resolution files beautifully, as well as upsampled files, but 44/16 was pretty mediocre.

I upgraded to the Mytek I use now, and that difference vanished. It played all formats better than the DAC 8, but also, it no longer depended on the resolution. I've heard this same effect with a couple of other DACs so I have to believe it is now more wide spread.

If I was forced to use older DACs today, I'd be pretty stuck on getting high resolution files or SACD. That's gone now. I'm happy with high res, but I'm also much happier with 44/16

BTW, I own a few CD's but I never spin them. All my listening now is via USB and either internet radio or my flash drive.
A perfect example of how good 44/16 is, listen to KCSM on line via your DAC if you can. It can be pretty amazing.

my NAD D1050 still sounds awesome

I have the D3020, and it's a pretty sweet and small integrated! I used to use it on my desktop. Certainly better than DAC's and Class D from 20 years ago.

I am a big big fan of BB DAC's, having really loved the Theta Casanova I sold too soon.

At high rez it was a really glorious thing.

I'd still rather have a modern DAC, especially for redbook.

Best,
E

Hyperbole, newer better DACS help high res sound better as well.

From what I have heard, the delta between 44/16 and higher is a lot smaller. The value of high resolution audio files is therefore diminished.


Best,
E

Actually let me look for old threads on this, and then if not, let's have a group listening test.

See who cares, or thinks this is at all an earth moving issue.

Best,
E

@audiolouis

You make a lot of very verbose claims about audio polarity. Can you point out a specific track or better yet, CD which you feel should make this perfectly obvious to anyone?

Preferably something on Tidal.

Next, are you stating that that you have solved the Vinyl sounds better issue, and that with proper polarity, digital will sound as good or better than Vinyl?


Thanks so much,

Erik

Great, let's pick two and reverse our speakers and see who cares.

Switches are nice.

Having a L to R phase mismatch is not what we are talking about. 
I'm just saying that if the perceived quality of audio reproduction could be improved so dramatically by inverting the polarity of playback it would be a common feature.

I have to believe that the lack of sensitivity to this means most of us don't have a lot of value for it.

Even if polarity mattered, and I'm on camp no, then what type of gear we need gets complicated.
Most multi-way speakers have 1 or more inverted drivers. A typical 2-way box speaker inverts the tweeter relative to the woofer (but not always).

Things get even more random with 3 or more way crossovers.
So really the only way to have a kind of decent view is to use headphones, single driver speakers, or polarity coincident multi-way speakers, such as the old Thiels, Vandersteens, etc. which have not captured an overwhelming mind share.

So, this brings us full circle. Who really can tell a difference in their system's polarity?

How much money would you pay for a switch to invert?

For me, that is $0.

@cleeds

Hahahaha, sorry, I meant of music. :) I meant what music did you find it useful to use the switch with.
Also, what speakers are you using??

Best,

E

I have pro gear that has a phase inversion button. Kind of useful to quickly check things. I am surprised that nobody has this. Amazing that this hobby values fancy cables and the effort that goes into swapping that fancy stuff out but a simple polarity switch seems too complex!

Um, no one has it because almost no one finds any value in it.

But rather than swap cables you can always swap your speaker connections. This is something everyone can do.

For those of a digital mindset, you can use the public utility SOX to invert absolute polarity on most common formats. Makes it easy to experiment at home.



Best,E

Every Audio Research preamp I've ever seen has a phase inversion function. It can be very useful!

@cleeds

Please give specific example. :)

Best,
E

Next time some one agrees with me I'm deleting this thread!

:D :D


E

@jetter

Or maybe to say it in another way, the woofer and tweeter + and - are attached opposite to the signal from each other?

With 2-way speakers, this is usually the case. The reason has to do with time and crossover phase. It is considered far more important to have them work well through the crossover slope. Stereophile's speaker measurements do a great job of showing this. Look at figure 7 here, and the discussion right above it:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-8-loudspeaker-measurements

The measurements are typical for a good quality multi-way speaker, like the Monitor Audio line.

You can test any driver you can touch / see with a 1.5 to 9V battery. The + terminal should make the driver move towards the listener when the + of the battery is connected to it, with the negative pole attached to the - battery. 
This may be very difficult with an AMT or ribbon however.

From what I have seen, most speaker makers like to keep the bass in positive polarity, and then invert the other drivers to suit.

Vandersteen and Thiel go through extraordinary efforts to avoid doing this, so they are among the rare exceptions.

Best,

E

One was the giving-up of R2R DACs. This decoding scheme, despite it’s (potential) errors in switching, is still the best way to convert D to A. High-end makers have been returning to this since 2011 and the results are very welcome.

I won't debate the relative merits of R2R DACs, everything else being equal, but I will say that I've heard a number of non-R2R DACs which show the improvements I'm talking about.

I don't think my central thesis, can be explained this way alone.

Best,

E

First, had a Theta Casanova. WONDERFUL DAC and HT processor.
But .... It sounded a lot better on hi rez than CD.

Modern DACs make it hard to hear the difference I could before. Musically, at 96/24 I might still want the Casanova sound, but at Redbook ......

Best,

E