Get real!Live music?
Get real!Live music?
That’s one of the things that sold digital to me, The thing that I really liked about digital was that it better captured that frisson, that aliveness that I was hearing at London’s classical music halls. Apart from lack of surface noise, sides shorter than the music I was listening to, end of side distortion etc.Live music?
I bought my RME from Keith and spoke on the phone. I tire of the drab, patronising monotony of his posts here, that’s all. I don’t even mind the roundabout salesmanship, that ball is in Tony’s court.Again to be fair, when I spoke to him some years ago he sounded a charming, decent sort of chap
Kind of expensive when you’re chucking tens of thousands of pounds on a new black box.Think of anything digital like your mobile phone and in a few years you will need to change it.
Unfortunately there will never be an end game where digital is concerned because the technology is constantly changing. Chips become obsolete almost after the first batch of chips have been made. Think of anything digital like your mobile phone and in a few years you will need to change it.
Unfortunately there will never be an end game where digital is concerned because the technology is constantly changing. Chips become obsolete almost after the first batch of chips have been made. Think of anything digital like your mobile phone and in a few years you will need to change it.
That’s not really true though. If a DAC works & you like how it sounds then you only need to change it if it stops working. Streamers are slightly different but most reputable manufacturers update the software continuously.Unfortunately there will never be an end game where digital is concerned because the technology is constantly changing. Chips become obsolete almost after the first batch of chips have been made. Think of anything digital like your mobile phone and in a few years you will need to change it.
The PS section isn’t really true. Good quality streamers like Linn DSM, Innuos, Melco are supported & can last decades. You can argue whether they are worth it but even more budget offerings like the Node are still happily working many years down the line.The problem to my mind is bespoke displays and FPGA stuff that is so tightly tied to one manufacturer. Digital audio is actually very simple and a genuinely good high-end DAC from 20-30 years ago, actually even longer, is still a very good DAC and should still be serviceable. There are many happy users of vintage Sony, Naim, Accuphase, DPA, Meridian etc digital kit, even the very first Sonys and Philips out the gate can be still serviced by those with the skills. It’s just computer technology, and in the case of most digital audio really quite ancient 16 bit stuff at its core if one just wants to play CDs. Digital tech needn’t be scary at all. It is nowhere near as ‘cutting edge’ as much marketing copy suggests. High-res has been standard studio tech for decades now. It is a mature technology.
PS The area I’d avoid at all costs is hardware streamers. That stuff really is very near-future landfill. Far better to buy a great DAC that should last pretty much indefinitely and a Raspberry Pi or equivalent for the streaming bit!
Kind of expensive when you’re chucking tens of thousands of pounds on a new black box.
When you see the incredible technology packed in such low price contraptions, those DAC thingies don’t look like good value at all.
The PS section isn’t really true. Good quality streamers like Linn DSM, Innuos, Melco are supported & can last decades. You can argue whether they are worth it but even more budget offerings like the Node are still happily working many years down the line.
That’s not really true though. If a DAC works & you like how it sounds then you only need to change it if it stops working. Streamers are slightly different but most reputable manufacturers update the software continuously.
The problem to my mind is bespoke displays and FPGA stuff that is so tightly tied to one manufacturer. Digital audio is actually very simple and a genuinely good high-end DAC from 20-30 years ago, actually even longer, is still a very good DAC and should still be serviceable. There are many happy users of vintage Sony, Naim, Accuphase, DPA, Meridian etc digital kit, even the very first Sonys and Philips out the gate can be still serviced by those with the skills. It’s just computer technology, and in the case of most digital audio really quite ancient 16 bit stuff at its core if one just wants to play CDs. Digital tech needn’t be scary at all. It is nowhere near as ‘cutting edge’ as much marketing copy suggests. High-res has been standard studio tech for decades now. It is a mature technology.
PS The area I’d avoid at all costs is hardware streamers. That stuff really is very near-future landfill. Far better to buy a great DAC that should last pretty much indefinitely and a Raspberry Pi or equivalent for the streaming bit!
The ‘no-oversampling’ bit worries me though. It is incompatible with the ‘high-resolution’ part. Unless ‘hi-res’ means ‘high distortion’.It depends whether any of the latest tech actually matters. Something like Graham’s above or this: https://www.audialonline.com/s5/ will doubtless give years of listening pleasure, especially if you stop reading the internet.