Does good technology guarantees musicality?

Ideally, we probably all strive for good technology and musicality with our own systems and particular tastes. Totally subjective. Every once in a while, we get lucky and they coincide.

This just happened to me with a recently-rebuilt 3910 Denon where 32-bit AKM DACs, a digital input and Class A tube output stage are yielding the most detailed, involving, transparent and musical presentation I have ever heard out of my system.

Newbee, that's an interesting point. Some manufacturers are trying to get the best out of their D/A converters by optimizing the digital circuitry, but they pay less attention to the... D/A converter's analog part. I think it has to do with costs. A good discrete analog section add a significant amount to the total costs of a unit. So these manufacturers use OPamps because they are cheaper. But I think these OPamps are still inferior to well executed discrete analog amplifiers. Why are many so called reference "oldskool" DAC's (Wadia 9, Goldmund 10C, Accuphase DC-91, Krell Ref 64) still sound so good after nearly 20 years? Well I think mainly because of the high quality design of their (discrete) analog sections.

Chris

This just happened to me with a recently-rebuilt 3910 Denon where 32-bit AKM DACs, a digital input and Class A tube output stage are yielding the most detailed, involving, transparent and musical presentation I have ever heard out of my system.
Fplanner2000 (System | Threads | Answers)

It sounds to me like you may have come to the same conclusion as I did. Specifically, that the APL Denon 3910 with digital input sounds better with an outboard transport than it does with the Denon's own transport.

I'm using mine with a relatively inexpensive Music Hall CD25.2 modded as a transport by Parts Connexion. To my ears, the sound is fuller, richer and more meaty with the Music Hall transport than with the Denon alone.

Chris, Yep! IMHO, most anything sounds better than op amps in the DAC/CDP's I've heard.
BTW, I also prefer tubes. Nothing is perfect and they give me a lot of flexibility that SS doesn't. More fun...........

consider the word "musical". it refers to the attributes of music, namely, pitch, timbre and harmonics.

a recording does accurately represent the timbre and harmonics of instruments., just as any reproduction is not a on-to-one representation of that which is being reproduced.

given an imperfect recording and components which are themselves imperfect, what can one expect ?

the answer is obviously imperfection . some forms of imperfection are acceptable to some people, while other versions of imperfection are acceptable to other people.

thus, the best one can attain is an imperfect representation of music which is acceptable and pleasing to a listener.

perhaps, one could ask another question:

"does good technology guarantee satisfaction with the sound produced by that technology ?"

there is no definitive answer to this question. it is unique to each owner of a stereo system.

accept the premise that whatever one owns will be inaccurate and strive to configure a stereo system that enables one to enjoy the music. the listening is more important than the technology.

in my own case i establish subjective criteria, independent of technology.