CD vs lossless from iTunes

[Anonymous]

I tested it out with my friend last weekend as he is looking to buy a new system so he wanted to find out the differences.

CD through CA 640C and Flac from Sonos to DacMagic. The sound is noticeably different. The CD player was less detailed but more punchy whereas the DacMagic was more detailed and more natural. Both he and myself preferred the DAC route. We also tested out playing CD through a Bluray player and that was rubbish 🙂 although it did improve slightly with different speakers.

Granted, they are not high end equipment but at this budget level, it seems there are plenty of choices and it's just personal preferences.

 

[Anonymous]

Bamboowan:
I tested it out with my friend last weekend as he is looking to buy a new system so he wanted to find out the differences.

CD through CA 640C and Flac from Sonos to DacMagic. The sound is noticeably different. The CD player was less detailed but more punchy whereas the DacMagic was more detailed and more natural. Both he and myself preferred the DAC route. We also tested out playing CD through a Bluray player and that was rubbish 🙂 although it did improve slightly with different speakers.

Granted, they are not high end equipment but at this budget level, it seems there are plenty of choices and it's just personal preferences.

Bamboowan,

Am I right in thinking that your CA cdp was using it's own dac vs the Sonos using the dac in the dacmagic? If so it's not surprising the dacs sound different, but the confusing aspect of the original post is the differences in sound reported when using the same dac (i.e. the equivalent of you testing Sonos into Dacmagic vs CA into Dacmagic).

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, sorry, misread the first post. I have not tested my CD player into the DacMagic, mainly because it's really a hassle plugging everything and I don't have a long enough cable. The problem with these things is there are so many combinations I can test out.

 

[JoelSim]

JohnDuncan:chebby:Also I would level the 'playing field' by connecting directly with optical to your MacBook Except I have a horrible feeling Joel's Macbook Air is about the only Mac that doesn't have an optical out... EDIT - indeed it doesn't. And no USB in to the CDP, so airport express is all you've got. I suspect this might be one of those cases where "hopelessly coloured" sounds better than "high fidelity"...

LOL! Not hopelessly coloured, just more natural ie Elton was singing in my room rather than through a pair of speakers. There was nothing wrong with the lossless, just wasn't as nice.

 

[John Duncan]

JoelSim:LOL! Not hopelessly coloured, just more natural ie Elton was singing in my room rather than through a pair of speakers. There was nothing wrong with the lossless, just wasn't as nice.

I mean that in a good way, in the same way that a valve system by definition is generally full of harmonic distortion, but sounds all the better for it.

 

[Anonymous]

personally id avoid elton singing in my room at all costs and go for lossless in that scenario