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Burwen Bobcat Operating System.

No, but there are some realy daft names of companies, including one or two on here! This is another one, id click next on seeing one such as this.

Martin
 
Hi Barry

I have been using it since 2008. I clearly remember that day I bought it. From the moment I put it in my system I found my listening fatigue completely went away and I could turn the volume up loud again and enjoy music. But most importantly it played back all those songs I had heard on LP and tape with the familiar analog sound and all the emotion of those recordings. The music was so addictive I took my laptop to work and was listening to music with the software on the train to London, something I have never done before.

It is the single best thing I have ever purchased and makes all recordings sound completely analog and musical. Little details hidden away are suddenly audible and enjoyable.

It's not expensive at all.

It basically adds high frequency (almost inaudible) reverbation to digital files, and the end result is a file that sounds completely analog. By that I mean that old familiar (if you are old enough to remember) "FAT" analog sound. No listening fatigue, and all the emotion of a live performance. According to Dick the complex calculations also end up improving the signal to noise ratio and everything is just so much clearer to hear and the smearing of notes especially in the high frequencies are gone.

While I do love the Chord Hugo, I love the Burwen bobcat much, much more and has given me countless hours of listening joy.

You can take away all of my Naim amps and Chord Hugo but I simply will never listen to music without the Burwen Bobcat.

you can read a review of this here also.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue28/burwen.htm

I agree with every single word of the review.

Mark Levinson (the founder of the company named after him) has also come out with a similar software for OS X called Masterclass. You can find it on his Daniel Hertz website here http://www.danielhertz.com/index.php/master-class

Hope this helps



Has anyone on here tried or using it ?
What do you think?
 
Barry,

It sounds to me like this is applying some sort of digital filtering to fix dodgy recordings. This is difficult, but not impossible, although it is a combination of science and art as there will always be impossible decisions to be made (e.g is that click in a vinyl replay dust on the record, or was it a click in the vinyl sampled to make the recording).

I'd suggest you tread carefully and try and hear such a system with many different recordings. I'd guess that earlier recordings will typically gain more, whilst recent recordings would be hurt, unless the system is very adaptive and 'switches off' when it realises it has nothing to add.
 
the software is not expensive at all and I have tried it with all recordings.

There is not a single recording it has not improved, old or new.

A recent recording Ghost stories (coldplay) was made much more emotional by the software.

It is not about digital filtering at all.

I see people spending thousands on cable and expensive box upgrades but won't try the 100 GBP software. Anyway to each their own.
 
I admit I have not tried this software but all my instincts at the moment tell me it looks like it is a load of old baloney, at best it looks like it could be an expensive graphic equaliser thingy, no way of testing before purchase either which is a bit strange.
Different sound is not necessarily better sound, I do accept I could be wrong obviously as I haven't tried it, but I would urge anyone interested to tread carefully.

Coldplay - more emotional - you must have the controls set to enhance that awful bleating noise he makes, it would make me emotional for sure.
 
you can read a review of this here also.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue28/burwen.htm

I agree with every single word of the review.

The DSOTM SACD mastering is apparently not consistent between the Red Book and SACD layers. There has been much discussion on this over on the the Steve Hoffman forum where the consensus seems to be the SACD layer is very good indeed, but the Red Book far from the best of that format and not well liked. As such not the ideal title for an A B between the two formats IMO.

PS The core topic is interesting and rather hinges on whether one accepts the premise of deliberately altering an audio signal to taste or is simply trying to reproduce it as intact as possible. There is no right or wrong answer here and we all manipulate things to some degree, e.g. I tube-roll certain kit to taste, fiddle with crossovers etc in other kit. I've stopped short of source manipulation aside from being exceptionally picky when it comes to selecting specific masterings for a given title. I'm actually rather surprised some studio outboard kit hasn't taken off in audio circles, I bet a hi-hi show dem would sell a lot of Aphex Type C Aural Exciters, BBE Sonic Maximisers etc! I've tried both in my system as I used to have a little studio and they can sound amazing on a low setting, I'm just too much of a (maybe brainwashed) purist to want to actually keep such things in the system though.
 
let's not focus on coldplay. The lead guitar post processing through the burwen software sounded pretty much like a real instrument live.
 
What does intact mean? I feel once music has been through Analog to Digital Conversion it's already been damaged.


PS The core topic is interesting and rather hinges on whether one accepts the premise of deliberately altering an audio signal to taste or is simply trying to reproduce it as intact as possible.
 
What does intact mean? I feel once music has been through Analog to Digital Conversion it's already been damaged.

One can make that argument about any recording or replay stage from the recording mic right through to the speaker drivers that energise the air in your room. The question here is to you want to deliberately manipulate it further? As I understand it from your definition upthread the Bobcat product adds digital reverb to the signal, and as such can probably be defined as an FX unit, hence my mentioning products such as the Aphex, BBE etc, which similarly alter/modify a signal to make it sound 'nicer'.
 
let's not focus on coldplay. The lead guitar post processing through the burwen software sounded pretty much like a real instrument live.

Have you tried this test with The Edge ?, you may be able to make his guitar sound like a real instrument as well. :)
 
I see your point, but the bobcat benefits for me are more about the improvement in signal to noise ratio which cleans up all the digital smearing.


One can make that argument about any recording or replay stage from the recording mic right through to the speaker drivers that energise the air in your room. The question here is to you want to deliberately manipulate it further? As I understand it from your definition upthread the Bobcat product adds digital reverb to the signal, and as such can probably be defined as an FX unit, hence my mentioning products such as the Aphex, BBE etc, which similarly alter/modify a signal to make it sound 'nicer'.
 
Hi Barry

I have been using it since 2008. I clearly remember that day I bought it. From the moment I put it in my system I found my listening fatigue completely went away and I could turn the volume up loud again and enjoy music. But most importantly it played back all those songs I had heard on LP and tape with the familiar analog sound and all the emotion of those recordings. The music was so addictive I took my laptop to work and was listening to music with the software on the train to London, something I have never done before.

It is the single best thing I have ever purchased and makes all recordings sound completely analog and musical. Little details hidden away are suddenly audible and enjoyable.

It's not expensive at all.

It basically adds high frequency (almost inaudible) reverbation to digital files, and the end result is a file that sounds completely analog. By that I mean that old familiar (if you are old enough to remember) "FAT" analog sound. No listening fatigue, and all the emotion of a live performance. According to Dick the complex calculations also end up improving the signal to noise ratio and everything is just so much clearer to hear and the smearing of notes especially in the high frequencies are gone.

While I do love the Chord Hugo, I love the Burwen bobcat much, much more and has given me countless hours of listening joy.

You can take away all of my Naim amps and Chord Hugo but I simply will never listen to music without the Burwen Bobcat.

you can read a review of this here also.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue28/burwen.htm

I agree with every single word of the review.

Mark Levinson (the founder of the company named after him) has also come out with a similar software for OS X called Masterclass. You can find it on his Daniel Hertz website here http://www.danielhertz.com/index.php/master-class

Hope this helps

am, so you are using the entry level version of Bobbcat...correct?

M
 
Yes that is what I purchased in 2008. Ask Dick to send you the analog 14 preset without the 5 db bass boost if you decide to buy it. All the magic is there in the basic version of the software.
 
At the time I bought it I was desperate for a solution to my listening fatigue.

I also auditioned some very expensive digital sources that cost as much as a brand new 5 series BMW.

I just did not want to spend that kind of money.

This software solved my problem.

You can joke about it all you want, and I can see why, but, if you read the reviews carefully, all you will lose is a few minutes and maybe gain a lifetime of musical enjoyment if you decide to look into it.


I thought it was a 50 calibre machine gun designed for use in extreme low temperatures.
 
It is just remastering by equalisation and, perhaps, ambience extraction. This way one can make any turd sound 'better'. Skilled hands can even make it sound better.
 


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