Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

MY trying out the Marantz gave me the impression that the black dead background is more a feature of the recording than the DSD itself.
So I can see how some SACD could be better and not have this odd feature.
My (pure wild guessing) notion of what happened with the black void on the SACDs I have heard is very low level info being stripped away by the technician/producer making the master. Thinking it is hiss or ?? they strip off the very low level ’noise’ to make it sound ’pure’ not realizing that it also has information about the room etc.
I know a few people who LOVE the sound. So it may have been what the folks doing the mastering thought was ’better’.?

mitch21,597 posts04-15-2018 6:29pm

One of my complaints about SACD is they all seem to have no ’room’ played in. The music all seems to ’magically’ float out of a black hole. Stripped of any ambience.

Interestingly, this is in the ballpark of describing my issue with the Class D amplification I have owned.  

Not all Class D should be described in this way, in fact quite the opposite in some cases.

elizabeth
One of my complaints about SACD is they all seem to have no ’room’ played in. The music all seems to ’magically’ float out of a black hole.

mitch2
Interestingly, this is in the ballpark of describing my issue with the Class D amplification I have owned.

charles1dad
This goes against the grain but it is what I consistently hear. Interesting that you’ve had similar findings. The "inky black" (black hole as you put it) background devoid of any sense of ambience (room) presence always struck me as artificial and un-natural.

These to me are the results of stripping of the harmonic structure of the music and leaving nothing but a dead black hole/silence, "there is not much decay left to see or hear back into".

This is what Delta Sigma/Mash did when it was first released back in 1990 and still does now to Redbook PCM conversion, it gives a facsimile of the real thing, where R2R Multibit is bit perfect.

And it’s also what Class-D does to amplification. This maybe helped with future technology, with 3, 4 or 5 times higher switching frequency, so the output filters can do their job properly and get rid of all the switching noise completely without coming near the upper harmonics of the audio band.

Cheers George

since we are all at it, what are your observations on MQA ?
any good? or just some more marketing hype?

With all due respect to George I’m inclined more toward Elizabeth’s explanation in attributing the void or black hole effect to the recording method or process. . I don’t believe that delta sigma can be the blamed in a broad brush fashion as the culprit.
I’ve done direct comparisons of delta sigma (D’S) DACs vs R2R
Yamamoto YDA 01a (DS) vs Holo Spring level 3 DAC (R2R) and
Bricasti M1 DAC(DS) vs Total DAC 1 six (R2R) and LampiZator level 5 DAC.

In terms of note substain, decay, venue ambience, sense of presence etc. The two DS DACs were every bit the equal if not out right superior to the very good R2R DACs regarding these parametersas well as others. Based on my listening I don’t believe that sweeping generalizations between DS and R2R hold up under scrutiny.

I can appreciate the idea based on theory but I’m referring to actual listening experiences in the same audio systems.
Respectfully,
Charles