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MDAC First Listen (part XXVI)

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Steven Toy said:
Scarily close to how I view things. When you hear live musicians, you don't think, "wow, hark at that detail!"

Have you noticed that I never use the term "detail?"

An example is when snare drums leap out at you instead of forming part of the overall rhythmic pattern.
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i certainly noticed you don't say 'detail' anymore... but i think your knowledge of what you hear or perceive has improved, so you now have a better and more expressive way of telling others what you hear.

which is a good thing.

when i see the word 'detail' i always start to worry.... it's actually starting to manifest in the reviews of pro gear and instruments now which is a shame - it's a lazy and incorrect description.
 
Detail -

On several Pink Floyd records , there are people speaking . As my hifi system as become better the DETAILS of what they say has become easy to decipher . My hifi is presenting me with more detail of whats on the record .
As with the voices as with the musical composition .

It matters not whether such detail is heard in live concert ,it does not invalidate the description that my hifi as resolved more detail .

The paragraph on detail from Audio Hell as set up an imaginary straw man in order to knock him down .

Further more there is an analog in the natural world .I can listen to pink Floyd from the front row or I can listen to them while I'm having a poo in a porta loo . Im sure I could hear more detail from one site than the other .

de·tail
Noun
An individual feature, fact, or item.

This is an argument as to semantics not substance .
 
Gerald said:
Detail -

On several Pink Floyd records , there are people speaking . As my hifi system as become better the DETAILS of what they say has become easy to decipher . My hifi is presenting me with more detail of whats on the record .
As with the voices as with the musical composition .

It matters not whether such detail is heard in live concert ,it does not invalidate the description that my hifi as resolved more detail .

The paragraph on detail from Audio Hell as set up an imaginary straw man in order to knock him down .

Further more there is an analog in the natural world .I can listen to pink Floyd from the front row or I can listen to them while I'm having a poo in a porta loo . Im sure I could hear more detail from one site than the other .

de·tail
Noun
An individual feature, fact, or item.

This is an argument as to semantics not substance .
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not at all that is resolution, the more correct way of describing better ability to hear into the recording.
 
Hi Dominik,

Thanks for the work you’ve put in checking the code. I had hoped it might be something simple, but alas ….

I’ve had two listening sessions necessarily separated by 3 hours for other reasons. I’ve used the CDQ as a source switching the SPDIF inputs between ‘Auto’, ‘Low BW’, ‘Medium BW’ and ‘Wide BW’. Similarly using the SPDIF outputs of the SBTs as a source.

On the SPDIF inputs I can detect no difference between ‘Auto’ and ‘Low BW’ using either CDQ or SBT as sources and they all sound good. To begin with I thought I couldn’t hear a difference between ‘Medium BW’ and ‘Wide BW’ but with further listening I would say ‘Medium’ was slightly better than ‘Wide’.

However to gain the impression of full 3-dimensionality, sound stage depth, lack of smearing (particularly of sibilants) with fine detail, I find this only locks into place on ‘Auto’ or ‘Low’. Then the sound becomes coherent, instruments are heard from within a 3-dimensional space and locked into one place rather than coming from a general direction. All parts of the frequency range seem to benefit. Detail which wasn’t readily noticed on ‘Medium’ or ‘Wide’ becomes apparent again. When going back to ‘Medium’ or ‘Wide’ those details are still there but obscured as if by a haze rendering them less noticeable.

I’m not sure if you suggestion for ‘levelling the playing field’ would be relevant now?
 
In both of my (unmodified) M-DACs the IRs have now died. Swapped batteries, remotes; and also have a Harmony with M-DAC settings (though never positively checked this out, since this was the moment I realised the problem).

Does anybody have experience if this is def. Hardware, or if a Firmware reset etc. could help? AFAIK, there were reports of IR problems somewhere, before.
 
mbaudis said:
In both of my (unmodified) M-DACs the IRs have now died. Swapped batteries, remotes; and also have a Harmony with M-DAC settings (though never positively checked this out, since this was the moment I realised the problem).

Does anybody have experience if this is def. Hardware, or if a Firmware reset etc. could help? AFAIK, there were reports of IR problems somewhere, before.
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My remotes all "died" after installing energy saving light bulbs in my living room, the solution was simple and cheap, turn the lights off.
Seams strange if they both died at the same time, so probably there is something affecting the transmission from remote to reciver.
 
Plutox

I doubt that ‘listening fatigue’ is anything other than a failure to notice a problem because one's short-term test procedure is inadequate. In other words, if the short-term tests are sufficiently good they would reveal what will, eventually, show up as ‘listening fatigue’.
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I agree with what you are saying. The point here was I’d listened for well over 12 months using the Async USB input because I never suspected there could be a problem and it was the theoretically preferred transfer mode.

It was only when someone suggested a direct comparison I became aware of the differences and my subsequent short term tests were revealing enough. Over this 12 months plus it probably accounted for my lessened enthusiasm for listening. I, maybe wrongly, attribute this to listening fatigue on the basis an impaired audio signal cannot be as easy for the brain to listen to/interpret as a clean one.

But I certainly do not profess to having any super-auditory powers - as per my post #208.
 
Sober
The 5V rail is not powering MDAC.
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I never intended to give that impression. I was saying I’d tried battery power for both the SBT and USB hub to ascertain if they helped alleviate the problem - they didn't.

And yes, I’ve used my PC as well as the NAS as a source.
 
mbaudis said:
In both of my (unmodified) M-DACs the IRs have now died. Swapped batteries, remotes; and also have a Harmony with M-DAC settings (though never positively checked this out, since this was the moment I realised the problem).

Does anybody have experience if this is def. Hardware, or if a Firmware reset etc. could help? AFAIK, there were reports of IR problems somewhere, before.
Click to expand...

mbaudis,

I've never heard of Remote contorls dying - on two units in one location suggest an external factor - energy saving lamps is worth checking...

You have not plug in anything into the MDAC's IR bus connectors?
 
mbaudis said:
In both of my (unmodified) M-DACs the IRs have now died. Swapped batteries, remotes; and also have a Harmony with M-DAC settings (though never positively checked this out, since this was the moment I realised the problem).

Does anybody have experience if this is def. Hardware, or if a Firmware reset etc. could help? AFAIK, there were reports of IR problems somewhere, before.
Click to expand...

Logitech remote standard setup is confirmed to work by the way. I use it daily.
 
Following on from rmgalley's contribution, over the last few days I've played around with different MDAC software versions comparing SPDIF with USB. I can't do an ABX test as I only have one SBT but I keep coming back to V 0.9 using USB.

It may be my set-up or my hearing, but using the SBT with EDO sortware via USB still produces the most engaging sound. I believe that I can hear slightly increased sibilance with this versus SPDIF and the treble may be a tad "harsher" but overall this is the most involving rendition which still has lots of detail. Just sounds more "right" if you know what I mean.
I've already had the first upgrade (L2?) and am on the MDAC2 list in the hope that this will remove that last remnant of "digitalness" from the system. I've always been sensitive to what I perceive as harshness in digital playback and was a late adopter of CD for this reason. So fingers crossed!

Historically I've had the DaCapo (VERY nice), some Beresford DAC's (OK), DacMagic (one before the current iteration - which I found rather harsh and "digital") and an SB+ which I still have and like and which is the least digital of all of the aforementioned DACs, but perhaps misses out on some detail retrieval.

Just thought I'd share .......
 
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