I am absolutely happy with my Redbook CD's. In fact, you don't need anything else. High definition audio is a gimmick, nobody can hear the difference in a blind test.
Who listens primarily to Redbook CD?
My primary (only, actually) source is a CEC TL5 Transport feeding an Audio Note Kit 1.1 NOS DAC through a Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme AES/EBU digital cable. They are both decked out with CT GE power cords, Synergistic Research Quantum Black fuses, Herbie's Audio Lab Tenderfeet isolation footers, plus other misc. tweaks.
Sounds great, and I have very little desire to add another source. Pretty much all the music I want is available on CD, and is usually quite cheap. I hope to upgrade to an AN factory DAC (3.1x/II, or better, would be nice), and a Teo Audio liquid metal digital cable (I have their Game Changer ICs, and absolutely love them!) in the future.
Who else is happy with Redbook CD as their primary source?
Sounds great, and I have very little desire to add another source. Pretty much all the music I want is available on CD, and is usually quite cheap. I hope to upgrade to an AN factory DAC (3.1x/II, or better, would be nice), and a Teo Audio liquid metal digital cable (I have their Game Changer ICs, and absolutely love them!) in the future.
Who else is happy with Redbook CD as their primary source?
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- 95 posts total
Echoing what has been said, the best digital I've heard was at an audio show. It was a few years ago in the MSB room. What I thought was computer audio turned out to "just" a CD. I only hope I've enough years left in me to see that level of tech trickle down to a decently priced CDP. All the best, Nonoise |
What is the alternative? Vinyl or or tape? If you're primarily listening to digital, you're also primarily listening to Redbook CD resolution source material...discs, files, or streams. Kind-of the only option for now. MQA streaming is coming along...we can argue if there's any sonic benefit to the format vs. CD. SACD is legacy and mostly dead. HDtracks is mostly a waste of money given no provenance information. |
One issue with cds relative to a copy perhaps sounding better may have to do with the computer drive reading the disc while it's being ripped having better error correction and/or simply reading the disc more accurately than the cd player the user normally played their cds on. I found that DVD players, even the inexpensive ones, often sounded better than some dedicated cd players did due to their (often) superior error correction, etc as needed to read DVDs. |
I like what Audio Note did. They listened to the available DAC chips and chose the Analog Devices AD1865 based purely on sound. When it was discontinued, they bought up all the remaining stock, so they wouldn’t be forced to change over to a sonically inferior one. They are are currently working on an R2R DAC using discrete resistors, which, reportedly, sounds much better than the AD1865. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/TomBerry/0728b2915ce0892e44fe42934e521cd9_zpsmqay4v8m.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/TomBerry/b53e6cb9d8ac3cdf036c3da279a3b8d8_zpshk0zdrci.jpg |
- 95 posts total