For a few weeks I have been pondering either getting a turntable.....or giving 24 bit/192kHz Flac a try.
Decided to go for the second option and have just got the £250 Meridian Explorer. Like most of you, I already had the Laptop!
Now...first of all this is all new to me. ie - I haven't got a clue.
But I plugged it in.....and I am pretty impressed. I would say it outperforms my Meridian CD player.
:-O But hang on a minute - is that a fair contest? The Flac files are 24 Bit 192khz, and my CDs are not. Maybe not a fair contest. (No I don't want a blind test thank you very much. I am claiming no more than that the DAC sounds really, really good).
Steely Dan's Everything Must Go album sounds
huge. In fact it sounds like.......No I just can't say it. Try to imagine that I just used the V word.
A couple of days ago I had never heard of a (free) software media player called Foobar. I found a thread on Wigwam forum how to set up Foobar and that has made things a bit easier.
Comments
I was about to tell the forum that there is no longer any need or logic for anyone to buy a £1000 Cd Player. Now obviously that is an utterly stupid conclusion because I doubt that many people are planning to do that in 2014. But really serious audio from your modest Laptop with a £250 add on? If you are thinking about it I say go for it. You will still need a good amplifier (IMO) but there are some amazing speakers around now for reasonable money.
I started this thread hoping there would be some tips for a Foobar novice like me. For example, in WASAPI mode should Dither be ticked or unticked. I can't decide (pun intended)
I have just deleted the rest of this post about how "big" it sounds because I cannot prove it. :-S But if I can find a track with a slightly loose Bass, and then get an object to fall off a nearby shelf during a 24/192 track playing through the DAC, but not fall off the shelf during the CD version of the same recording then I will tell you about it. But don't hold your breath.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
That would be a great argument for buying a DAC for £250 - maybe even less than then - and not to buy the current version of my £1100 CD player.
My amp has a volume control and nothing else.
Produce results that indicate that under test conditions I have done no better than guess when asked to indentify A: Chicken Curry or B:Tofu Curry presented to me in the following sequence:
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(Brief rest......) then:
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In fact I will withdraw my original statement that it sounds better than my CD player. I have no choice but to withdraw that because am not sure when I am next going to listen to any CDs. It is better for me to say: Holy shit! "That sounds good for a cheap laptop from asda combined with a £250 DAC!!!"
That is pretty much how I would approach a New Pickup Day or a New Guitar Day.
I have said several times on this forum that I don't dispute the results of double blind testing. But I might question for whose benefit is the test. Taking my example...... It seems unlikely that the test I described would change my food buying habits. Why would it?
Eating a small amount of Chicken Curry before I have my evening meal of Tofu Curry (to give my short term memory the benefit of both) is not a problem at all. But it would be tedious.
For whose benefit is the test?
After the test on New Violins v Old Violins a couple of guys pointed out that they did not expect any of the musicians to sell their old violins and buy new ones. Why would they?
But they were not disputing the test result!
Like I say, showing that a person fails to identify Tofu and Chicken under test conditions simply tells us that they have failed the test. It is not an indication that Tofu and Chicken are identical.
Going back to recorded music - Can you describe the blind test that you have suggested you would want to take in my position? For example lets imagine that you hear a track at 1500 kbps first. And then you hear the same recording at 9000+ kbps. If you are stopping the test at that point then I am (just about) still with you....but this was not a very long test.
Maybe you will continue.
But......
Surely you are not going to ask your brain to identify the 1500kbps track after it has been exposed to the 9000kbps track?
What sort of test is this?
)
But I accept that I cannot force you to discuss the details of a blind test that the listener has designed (or any other topic)
Nothing sinister intended!
At some point I will give it a go!
I have tried it with pickups but A/B testing just seems impossible even with the fastest change ever. So I leave them in a month which can cover a lot of mood swings, ear wax fluctuations etc.