oldson
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Post by oldson on Jan 5, 2015 18:42:17 GMT
i dont really mind either way now, regarding the player. but being outbid!!! well......................................
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oldson
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Post by oldson on Jan 5, 2015 18:42:59 GMT
feel free if you want it mate. my top bid is 134
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oldson
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Post by oldson on Jan 5, 2015 19:45:02 GMT
well i did not win it. went for £135 in the end.
have just bought a new x1 instead. should be here thursday.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 5, 2015 19:55:50 GMT
Great. That was a lucky break!!
One big difference is that the x3 doubles as a dac. However, the x1 is a great sounding machine. I really like it a lot. Well worth the price.
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Post by hifidez on Jan 6, 2015 20:45:22 GMT
I am totally down the hi-res file route (along with all my 16/44s too). I'm not a 'best system it can possibly be' person; I'm more of a 'as good as it needs to be' with a little 'overhead' for luck and comfort.
Squeezebox Touch > V-90 DAC... hard to improve on this to any useful and audible extent IMO. Just relax and enjoy.
Derek :-)
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 6, 2015 21:17:56 GMT
I don't mind too much about file size tbh, the music is more important to me, butI have been thinking more and more that this is a good way to go. It's just so convenient and on top of that, very portable too
I think that UK DAB needs to be really looked at although we're too far in now to make drastic changes. The bit rates used and quality of broadcasts are appalling and for some reason, the UK has stuck with a really old outdated system.
At least FM was saved which is better than any DAB broadcast we get in this country.
I'd like a nice home digital player, but they aren't cheap really.
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oldson
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Post by oldson on Jan 7, 2015 19:10:59 GMT
I am totally down the hi-res file route (along with all my 16/44s too). I'm not a 'best system it can possibly be' person; I'm more of a 'as good as it needs to be' with a little 'overhead' for luck and comfort. Squeezebox Touch > V-90 DAC... hard to improve on this to any useful and audible extent IMO. Just relax and enjoy. Derek :-) that sounds like you speak from experience? i am sure i have wasted loads of money in the past on "upgrades". i am on my 3rd dac, and each time i changed i convinced myself i heard an improvement. i wonder now if i had my old original v-dac back, would i still hear a difference? who knows!! i have been guilty in the past of getting drawn in by the hype surrounding some gear, especially on one of the well known forums. i find this forum brings me back to reality. mainly because i trust the opinions of the staff on here. i am sure that although this place has cost me some cash, its almost certainly saved me a load too!!!!
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juke
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Post by juke on Jan 16, 2015 23:24:53 GMT
Back to Hi Res Files again<G>
A big favourite track of mine is Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles, I just really like the lyrics but any CDs I have that have that track on have always been very poor recording quality.
Strangely, I have never seen reference to the awful sibilance at several points in the track. I did come across a thread discussing the merits or otherwise
of the latest HD tracks 'straight from the master tapes' offering. The chat was all about whether there was much difference over the normal CD, no mention of any actual problems.
So I lashed out £24! for the highest res version. Total rubbish yet again.
Just thought I'd mention it here in case anyone has ever come across a better copy of it and to advise against buying the HD Tracks version.
Syd
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2015 2:21:40 GMT
Hi Syd. I've got that album too and you're absolutely right. I guess you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear after all. The original recording is very poor imo and in certain respects the hi-res file makes it even more obvious. I'm not convinced by hi-res at all anyway. I have a copy of Green Day's American idiot ehich is actually a 24-bit vinyl rip and that's the only time I've thought I've heard a real improvement over standard. Don't ask me why though and I could be wrong because the recording level is so different to the CD that volume matching is difficult. I almost have to switch to 3x gain for the rip, whereas unity is fine for the CD. Go figure.
Goggs.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 17, 2015 8:33:30 GMT
Sorry to hear that Syd. Pity I didn't have it here for you. You've made me feel guilty now!!
I'm not absolutely sure about how far we need to go really. I suspect that it also depends on the 'density' of the recording. The hi res files that I have are extremely good though, with one exception. It's not poor, but I hear not a lot of difference and it's one where you'd expect to hear it ... Peter Gabriel's, 'So'. A brilliant album and what with him being so focused on quality of production, I thought differences would be huge. They're not really, which makes me think even more that hi res might not always be necessary.
Gabriel would manipulate files less than many others perhaps, since a minimalistic approach might give more 'pure' results. Therefore my CD compared to the hi res shows not a lot of difference.
Having said that, other stuff I have shows this massive depth of bass and fullness in the recording. Now I'm beginning to think that the biggest differences are in the remastering. That might account for high prices given the time spent on them plus the fact that they will be low volume sales.
It's difficult to say. I don't like the prices of the albums one bit. There's a Zep recording I would have liked to have heard, but do I really want to pay out £24 for a hi res version of an old album? Is it really that much better given how it was originally recorded?
You see so much venom flying about concerning hi res but I think if you are 'sensible' about the issue and not 'carried away', perhaps common sense might tell you that caution is needed with perhaps even 'suspect' recordings flying about in the mix as well.
Same goes imo with headphones. People get so high on their horses about this or that headphone. Given the quality of some of the lower end headphones though, do we really 'need' to spend packets on boutique headphones that play the same files with small differences? When you hear what Frans can do by manipulation of a headphone, it makes you seriously wonder. Also, in a working situation, expensive headphones are very rarely used. Expensive microphones, yes, but not headphones.
Maybe there is an 'ultimate' resolution for files but I'm not certain we're really gaining that much from them. Probably more from the remix. Details can't be added to that old Zep recording and more likely, a hi res version might well pinpoint the flaws as Dyd has found on one of his tracks.
I like the hi es files a lot, but not convinced any more detail is flying out!!
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juke
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Post by juke on Jan 19, 2015 0:21:56 GMT
Sorry to hear that Syd. Pity I didn't have it here for you. You've made me feel guilty now! Hi Ian No reason to feel guilty<G> I just get it into my head that something must be investigated, being an eternal optimist I couldn't believe that the original master could be so poor, especially since an audio site was debating minor differences like 'maybe on version A the vocals are a litte more forward'etc. and no mention of sibilance I was surprised that HD didn't offer individual tracks, but the bit was between my teeth I've found the original Peter Gabriel So CD (1986) on Ebay at £2.86 used, quite a contrast on cost, so I'm looking forward to hearing that, hopefully no artificial compression. Syd
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Apr 4, 2015 10:12:11 GMT
Thanks to Javier, I've discovered the delights of DSD. Foobar set up with Asio output into my Ifi Micro is just brilliant. With more extended listening to hi res files and now DSD, I think there are bigger differences in the placing of sounds. The Frequency Response seems to be about what I'm used to hearing on CD but there is a kind of feeling that there's more 'space' in the recordings so that you become more aware of the acoustic.
Because the acoustic seems more 'natural' you feel that more detail is there and you are more sensitive to the playing as a result. It also could be the result of remastering. The DSD files are really impressive though and really allow you to access music in a deeper way.
I'm hearing subtleties in Genesis albums that I've not heard so well before. For instance, you think they're playing a certain chord, but the bass note being played suggests another chord!!! It's a bit complex to explain, but chords are kind of related.
As an example, the chord of C is Ceg. However, stick an A in the bass and it's the chord of Am7. Those kinds of things emerge on close listening, plus little passages that the keyboard player in particular adds underneath, that I've never been aware of before. The guitarist does this as well,and there's often like a 'sub-conversation' going on.
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Post by ronzo56 on Apr 4, 2015 10:43:34 GMT
Ian, where are you getting your DSD files from? Don't see a lot of sources yet for them. I know some folks have worked out how to extract them as ISO off of a SACD. But l think they convert that to a PCM file. I never thought that CD was as good as vinyl. CD's rarely give me the same emotional reaction to the music as vinyl or the old reel to reel. Have never really figured it out. But it's been there from the first time I heard a CD. I just read an abstract of a recent study that concluded that the CD format is incapable of capturing all aspects of a musical event transparently. www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17497. Unfortunately it costs $20 for a copy of the entire paper, only $5 if you are an AES member. Anyone here a member? I would really like to know about the whole experiment. Seems to be well designed unlike the previous study which concluded that there was no audible difference between 16 bit quantization and 24 bit i.e. there is no audible difference between file types.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Apr 4, 2015 16:06:17 GMT
I have a secret source!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2015 16:14:00 GMT
Is it an HP / Heinz hybrid? Cos I've tried that & it's minging!
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