So I just helped a friend of mine move house, he handed me what was a $6000 CD player. Nothing more, just played standard audio discs. Granted it did have balanced audio out along with the standard RCA analog outputs.
It got me thinking... WHY!?! His response was "Oh it has an awesome DAC in it, you'd be amazed". What makes this DAC any better than whats in a regular CD player or a PC sound card? Why would that CD player be any better than playing a disc through my computer or playing a wave file through decent speakers and an amp?
$6000 CD player.
What makes this DAC any better
Depends on when it was made.
For $6k with balanced outputs it sounds like a professional grade unit that was originally designed for studio use. Not built down to a price, and not all about the DAC.
You want a unit that is guaranteed to go the distance in a 24/7 professional environment for years, you need to pay for it.
"I think therefore I am"
What makes this DAC any better than whats in a regular CD player or a PC sound card? Why would that CD player be any better than playing a disc through my computer or playing a wave file through decent speakers and an amp?
If said PC has a decent PSU and you're not using the cheapest leads between the PC and the amp almost certainly nothing, and in any kind of objective measure probably worse. My main test of a sound source is how well it recreates the recorded sound, not how subjectively 'better' it sounds, and the well overpriced stuff tends to do terribly at this. To make it sound 'better' they're almost always too bassy compared to the real world source. Now if your personal preference is lots of bass I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But that's what tone control and/or equalisers are for*.
Except most PC sound has a very high noise floor, despite however many million dB dynamic range is stamped on the box. My PC hooks into my receiver/amp with a toslink cable. No additional noise
I'm with you on sound subjectivity. I like my EQ flat. My wife hates the sound in my car, which has been tuned to be as flat as is practical across the board. She calls it "lifeless and tinny". If I wind the treble down to nothing and wind up the bass and sub, she thinks it sounds great.
I'm with you on sound subjectivity. I like my EQ flat. My wife hates the sound in my car, which has been tuned to be as flat as is practical across the board. She calls it "lifeless and tinny". If I wind the treble down to nothing and wind up the bass and sub, she thinks it sounds great.
Except, of course, it isn't "flat". The space into which the drivers project contributes significantly to the response of the drivers. You will find horrible LF peaks and troughs (maybe your wife is sitting where the LF null is) and HF flutter echoes in most listening environments that have not been appropriately treated. Perform a response plot for the room at the listening position and you will see what I mean. The dips and troughs of an untreated space can easily be +/-20dB. Only acoustic treatment can fix this, eq is useless for fixing room acoustic problems.
It always amazed me when audiophools would spend huge amounts of money on ridiculously specified audio components and ignore the single most significant factor in the audio reporoduction environment.
Sorry, when I said flat I meant by actually using an Audessy EQ DSP that compensates for quite a bit of that using multi-point EQ and time correction. I have 2 curves. One is just for me and compensates pretty closely for my head position and the second is a compromise between my head position and the passengers head position. It's actually pretty good, and far better than just a multi-point EQ. I spent a great deal of time with a reference mic setting it up to make the best job of it both I and the software would allow.
Coupled with material changes in the vehicle, and extra treatment behind the door skins, it's not perfect, but it's a crap load better than an average vehicle sound environment.
You sound like you have gone to a lot of trouble. Stock vehicle environments have always been too boomy for me, but make a great check for translation of material after mastering. You can certainly tell when the HPF is not enabled!
The problem with EQ compensation is that it only requires head movement of a few centimeters to be out of the sweet spot for which the compensation was performed. Probably the best you can hope for in a car, but definitely not much use for room compensation.
Unfortunately, with the advent of compressed audio (in both senses of the word) any pretence in accuracy has gone out the window and most people are no longer interested in what the recording engineer intended it to sound like, because the mastering engineer has ruined the dynamics anyway.
And when it comes to the mixing recording and mastering engineers, or any sort of sound tech when live, have never and will never listen to what the performers want if they can avoid it.
"I think therefore I am"
how would that fit here? full quote is dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum ...