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What does it take to get rid of the digital haze?!

Precisely. I'm still wondering what digital haze might be. Perhaps it's a poor quality source and/or low bitrates.
Something that could be described as "digital haze" is an effect of inexpert digital mastering. The OP might like to see, for example, @Jim Audiomisc 's Good Resolutions pages. And the OP might like to read Keith Howard's Contingent Dither article from Stereophile to see if this might describe what is meant.

Some time ago I wrote some software to experiment with various ways of mastering very low-level digital audio (120 dB or more below full scale). The aim was to understand the resolution capability of my complete audio system. With careful mastering I was able to take this "haze" down so far I couldn't hear it (with due care taken) behind a just audible wanted signal with my system's volume control turned all the way up. And yes there's a Raspberry Pi 3A+ in the path feeding my DAC via USB.

So the first answer to the OP is "buy better mastered digital source material".

I can see ways that digital audio reproduction equipment at home could add something like "digital haze" but ISTM that my tests above showed it doesn't have to (for not too great a cost).

However the "analogue haze" of even a well-pressed piece of vinyl is almost inevitably numerically worse. See page 2 of Good Resolutions above. Perhaps the OP either isn't addressing this, or finds it less annoying, or perhaps it masks underlying "digital haze" from the modern pre-cutting digital process. Maybe there is hope of some clarification?
 
I clearly remember my Linn dealer (Cleartone in Bolton) recommending leaving a dirty looking record that way and letting the stylus dig the dust out of the groove. Subsequently the stylus would be cleaned (with green abrasive paper, naturally). The carbon fibre-type record cleaners or cloths were shunned because they were thought to merely press the dirt further into the groove.

These days I use a exstatic brush on my records. I can't say I am troubled any more or less by surface noise than I ever was.

Yes I was given one inch of the green stuff by a dealer. I used it very sparingly, a stiff small brush sweeping from back to front was less destructive. The surface noise issue was dismissed.
 
As I heard someone rise put it, it sounds like a dentist's drill!

I'm wondering how much I need to spend before I stop hearing it!

Is it still the case that a digital setup that gets close to analogue costs thousands?

The good thing is that you know you have a problem so in the event of trying to cure it you have a baseline problem to go by.

You could try the snake oil from Russ Andrews - at least he lets you try before you buy - in your case there will be an obvious improvement because currently you have 'haze'. This is when you might find the snake oil works after all before changing any part of your kit.
 
So you didn't detect any hyperbole in the post then? A dentist's drill? I can't imagine a modern digital source that would be that bad. The wording of the OP seems (to me) like it was intended to get a rise out of those who enjoy digital sources.

Perhaps. I was not disagreeing with you just pointing out a possible alternative explanation given the OPs other posts and his possibly not fancying taking on the whole of the forum without any support.
 
Whole thing seems reasonable to me. Vinyl playback can emphasise image depth and instrument separation: take that out and one way of thinking about what’s left is that it’s flatter and more diffuse - that is, there’s a kind of haze. There’s nothing actually there: it’s the result of removing something rather than adding it and it’s only discernible in relation to vinyl playback. But that’s how it might reasonably be described. My theory anyway. Also, a lot of early CD players really did sound a bit flat and hard, to my ears. I only really started enjoying digital when I replaced my ‘90s CDP with a Rega DAC. Other, recent, cheaper DACs also sound good to me. But I still get a bit more from the records.
 
It’s a nonsense term, vinyl has a certain euphonic character, a certain warmth but this is probably more akin the ‘haze’ than what comes from a digital source.

I am not going to get into a subjective/objective debate but it is perfectly possible to enjoy music across all formats.
 
I don’t know why people are being so aggressive about it. There are all sorts of weird idiosyncrasies in the way people hear things, and no one who isn’t unusually preoccupied with small differences would be a member of a hifi forum. So why all this spluttering?
 
Agreed. I’ve no idea why the aggression to what I see as a legitimate question.

FWIW my answer is, as ever, that mastering is the most important aspect. A lot of rock and pop CDs, remasters etc are genuinely horrible and will sound hard and edgy on any decent system as they have had any dynamic range and reality squashed out of them to make them sound loud and “punchy” on terrible mass market audio systems. Any decent system should sound great with any genuinely well mastered CD.
 
Dude asks a perfectly reasonable question, gets the usual responses, goes away to think how they recover from there. Nothing to see here. I have been, naturally, part of the problem. For which, my sincere apologies, just couldn't resist the Hendrix quote, I should probably seek help.
 
Well I for one still think it could be tinnitus. The OP compares digital to a dentist’s drill. I just went to one today and the sound of the ultrasonic scraper will be ringing in my ears for a while.

But seriously, I don’t know how to answer a question like that when I am perfectly happy with an RPi and modest DAC hat as my main source on my main system.

The way the OP describes his experience with digital makes me think of the sound when you'd pick up the phone while someone a-hole was faxing you a take out menu. That used to happen a lot BTW.
 
Hello.

Thanks for all the responses. Unfortunately, later that day after I posted, I went on a bike ride and had a fall, from which I’m recovering from with a broken collar bone and mild concussion. I’ll be back to further converge once I’m a bit more compus mentus.

Dave
 
Hello.

Thanks for all the responses. Unfortunately, later that day after I posted, I went on a bike ride and had a fall, from which I’m recovering from with a broken collar bone and mild concussion. I’ll be back to further converge once I’m a bit more compus mentus.

Dave
Sorry to hear that. Must be sore.
 


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