...it appears to me that the general „problem“ ultimately is n o t about “what is better?”, this source or that, but to get the „information“ which is very “individually” and “specifically” stored within the specific media to get most accurately reproduced out of any source, and no matter what source, may it be vinyl, CD, SACD, tape, cassette or whatever…. all these different kinds of storage have a character of their “own”, and as they are not “identical” their individual results can not be compared… but that’s exactly what we heavily tend to do…
when I take different buildings I cannot say: this is better than that, I cannot say the Eiffel Tower is “better” than Cologne Cathedral, that is highestly subjective… but I can say: this building for example is some 15 meters higher than that or something like that…
…and the same is valid for the different measurement results of these different sources/storages… these are comparable, because in the scientific sense they generate a “common” thing, waves and intensity and velocity and stability and impact and… and that’s why the technicians/physians/electro-acousticians measure and public the results not only to be able to see the results but to compare them and experience how they differ…
well, we ultimately all trust our ears, of course, no doubt, but physical measurements are a reliable indicator of what’s going on and where …
I can't help myself but one of the most impressive “results” of measurments (yes, I know, it does not say anything about the sound quality – but take a car, if you hear this one has 200 horse powers, then you have at least an imagination/impression, not knowing of course how the car feels when you drive…) to me was a publication of that what for me is the quintessence of all in HiFi, it is the squares and their behaviour…
yes, I know there are much more educated DIYers and electronic-engineers out there than me who fight against it, but I have no other explanation for the obviously measurable and listenable results, and therefore I’m glad that at least some official magazines report about exactly that phenomenon… (if memory serves me well than I have shown this already elsewhere… nevertheless, I cannot emphasize this enough from my point of view), the squares are precisely measurable and they show the typicity of the storage of the media h o w it is being reproduced, so please, have a look here:
and here the squares of Doede's DDDAC1794:
so, with 1.000 cycles everything in the world, no matter what amplifification, tube, SS or whatever, is totally fine, no problem for them all...
but to bring that HiFi to the point that we are looking for, we have to go down in the cellar to the extremes, down to 20 cycles and up in the sky to 40.000- 50.000 cycles and even more... and here it is where superiority in music reproduction shows with preciseness and stableness and velocity and naturality (lesser and lesser boring)...
Quote from Doede's site: “Squarewave 20Hz
A very special case. The top of the square wave is a straight line. When it would be 100% flat it would be DC, or 0Hz. Of course that is impossible, but if it comes close, it shows the output can go very low. As described before the low frequency cut off is indeed very low, so therefore you see the top almost flat and hence an almost perfect square at 20Hz...”
For more have a look here:
http://www.dddac.com/dddac1794_test_specs.htmlperhaps Stefan has expressed himself a little awkwardly, but I understand what he means and what he wanted to say… I am deeply convinced that he thought in this sense when he “judged” about the different reproduction “styles”…
…and I had the same impression when about a year ago we had a listen to André Klein’s WE-system, which is a joint venture development with Jean Hiraga, where the latter at the moment has integrated his latest developments of power amps Kaneda-style… you might want to have a look here:
http://twogoodears.blogspot.de/2013/10/a-very-musical-weekend-hopkinsons-smith.htmlWell, it is clear, that from point of measurement CD and DAC are obviously far superior to vinyl, and that the measured pick-up does not belong to the worst, but the different pick-ups are so different in sound and behavior as they have ever been, that way, that there seems no common sense, i.e. ultimately “equal” result reachable… already at the end of the 1950ies the flood and diversity of pick-ups was immense and confusing and overwhelming… have a look here…
…and it seems that nothing has changed ever since… just the contrary… if I read for example Stefano’s comments on his site, then vinyl with the “right” pick-up is the most…. o.k… but with what pick-up does one get “the most” ? I don’t know
…even the other day when we had our last meeting at André with his armada of own TT and pick-ups and Thomas Schick with his TT and tonearm and his additional army of different pick-ups the reproduction of vinyl remained “very poor” - to quote someone (no I do not name, but you really would be very surprised who it was) - although some claimed it might have had to do with the connection - in comparison to the DDDAC1794 with the “right” controlled power supply…
...you might want to have a look for yourself at the Western Electric system of André and some of his other stuff like amps and different TT and pickups up to 78 rpm machines and and and…
or the one from Tim Gurney which I will listen to coming summer
during the 1970ies and 80ies for more than 15 years I myaelf was a very proud user of EMT 927 and 930 St versions with TD15 pick-ups, ultimately even modified with van den Hul finishing… and I was content, I even had the feel that this was “the” combination to get the most out of vinyl…
yes, till digital entered… no, not the initial entering, I mean that what we have now… to me it appears like in television with Pal, HD and UltraHD… vinyl, CD and DDDAC… interestingly in video nobody complains about the progresses with higher resolution, and nobody is tweaking anything in that area, and I hear nobody scream: analogue is better than digital, if you only tweak the right way…
well, to get my personal doubts regarding TT and digital finally eliminated it came out now that our journey to Japan will happen in May this year, with Jean Hiraga as our guide, with André Klein and the owner of Lencoheaven, Jean Veys
who regularly celebrates superb HiFi-sessions at his barn near Brussels…
for pixes from last year you might want to go here:
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=14878.0all highest end, all WE and EMT and pickups and and and..
we will visit and listen to a dozen and more absolutely highest end of the last century, Siemens, Klangfilm, Western Electric of all kind, Goto, Ale and from what André told me yesterday perhaps even an original Euronor !
Slowly but steadily I’m getting more and more nervous about how this will all turn out…