darrenyeats
pfm Member
The layers would need to be mastered exactly the same, at exactly the same levels, for a fair comparison of the formats. On the occasions I've checked, this hasn't been the case.
Yes, that was the big surprise for me with SACD- not that it delivered more information- but that it sounded more analogue as you say. It just sounded ( and still does) more relaxed and natural to me. Tonal colours and timbre come through better too. Recordings are also a hell of a lot better than they were back in the 80s, with a lot of red book recordings a mile ahead of what used to be the norm. I put on a DG recording of Karajan from the early 80s last week and it was monstrous. A good system just showed it up even more. When you think about the time and money we’ve spent listening to that awful “perfect sound for ever” stuff...Having recently learned to rip SACDs, and previously ripped my modest DVD-A collection, it does seem that the former rips do have a nicer, dare I say more analogue, sound. Doing a comparison between rips of the CD and SACD layers of the same disks I was quite taken aback by how much better the latter sounded.
Agreed, making a completely accurate comparison's always extremely difficult. But after playing a fair number of albums you do tend to notice certain common trends in the sound.The layers would need to be mastered exactly the same, at exactly the same levels, for a fair comparison of the formats. On the occasions I've checked, this hasn't been the case.
What does an external clock actually do? I see them mentioned more frequently lately with Auralic unveiling the Leo.
.sjb
I understand that the M-Scaler coverts DSD to PCM. Anyone experienced that? How does it affect SQ? Tbh - this would potentially turn me away from the M-Scaler which is a shame as I really think this would be a logical addition to the Hugo TT2.
I think that the TT2 also converts DSD to PCM.
No. The TT2 does DSD over DoP with MAC’s & Native DSD with Windows
Hi Tuga, I was just going by the spec of the TT2 as shown on the Chord website.
From your posts this now seems a bit disingenuous as DSD is converted within the DAC to PCM?
I am reasonably sure it does convert DSD to PCM. The only way I know to do the signal processing Rob Watts writes about (WTA-windowed sinc interpolation) is to operate on PCM. However my knowledge of DSD is light, so if I am wrong I would be very interested to understand how to do that processing directly on DSD.I understand that the M-Scaler coverts DSD to PCM. Anyone experienced that? How does it affect SQ? Tbh - this would potentially turn me away from the M-Scaler which is a shame as I really think this would be a logical addition to the Hugo TT2.
Yes DSD playback sounds fine. I would never have known it was being converted to PCM without following this thread! That begs another question though - Would it be better to convert the DSD files to PCM before sending the data to the DAC? Less processing for the DAC could result in better sound?Hi Mike,
I realised that and was only saying that the TT2 also converts DSD to PCM just like the M-Scaler.
If you are happy with the TT2 then there's nothing about the M-Scaler that would make DSD sound worse.
Based on the information that I posted above I wouldn't buy a Chord DAC for playing DSD, though to be fair there are other aspects that impact performance just as much so a dedicated DSD DAC (as opposed to a Chord which only supports DSD) may not perform better than the TT2 overall.
Does DSD playback sound good to you?
R
Little spatial cues appeared
Just when I thought I had the lingo sorted, understanding my noise floor lowering from veils being lifted, along comes this chestnut.......
.sjb