Fifer;235563 Wrote: > Why? I'm agreeing with you that there are differences.
Fifer - "Unfortunately" you're saying that all discernible differences are caused by the presence/absence of distortions of one sort or another. I happen to agree with you. It seems to escape some peoples grasp that you can't improve on the original source material in any absolute or true sense. It is what it is. All you can do is either make it worse or "different" by introducing noise, distortion, squashed dynamics, messed-up frequency and phase response etc...or you can add/take away as little as possible. The best systems add as little as possible (IMHO) - however personal taste is always allowed, so adding some "colour" is fine. Whether this is a very very small amount of even-order distortion from valves or whatever doesn't matter. I don't believe that all sources and amp sound the same. However, I do agree that the majority of broadly equivalent modern designs are all pretty close. As far as amps are concerned, headroom is always going to be a point of difference between designs. You can hear a small class-a amp "sag" when it runs out of steam... Sources (or more precisely, DACS) are simply a matter of tonal taste IMHO. The character of the analogue stage can be shaped by the designer. As far as digital transports are concerned....either they jitter or they don't - and some leak RF into nearby gear more than others. So, getting a "good" transport means solid engineering whereas Dacs and amps are usually "voiced" by their designers and that becomes a matter of preference/taste. Sorry, I've started to ramble - what I wanted to say is that transports can and should be immaculately engineered to do exactly what they need to do, whereas analogue gear will alway be a combination of objective design/engineering and subjective opinion. -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... ...SB3+TACT+Altmann+MF DACXV3/Linn tri-amped Aktiv 5.1 system and some very expensive cables ;o) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39093 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
