How music streaming is righting a wrong of the Compact Disc

[Richard Brand]

Admittedly, the eye just like the ears has failings. However, if we were both on a battlefield and God forbid a shell hit nearby, me being deafened and you blinded. Who would have the best chance of survival, despite the ears 360 degree detection against the eyes limited to around 90 degree without swivelling the head?

I do not think there has been enough evolutionary time for either the human eye or ear to have evolved to detect incoming artillery shells, although you are more likely to hear one than see it. However, sound was used very effectively for detecting submarines, aircraft and V1 drones in WW2, but nothing could detect a supersonic V2 rocket. As the lady said, if she was going to be blown up, she at least deserved the excitement of knowing it was about to happen!

 

[Jez Ford]

I wrote this piece. I am thrilled by the wild ride through both pertinent and impertinent arguments in the forum. I appear to have been historically inaccurate in assuming 96kHz DAT when 48k DAT was the thing. Memory fail; of course it was 48k. Or 44.1k, but I still reckon a lot of imaginary conversions populate the CD world. Everyone else, just great to get comments. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Richard Brand]

Hires audio is basically inaudible. Its way beyond the human level of perception.
Nobody but nobody can discern the difference between 16 and 24bit sound
But you can clearly hear the difference between an analogue source and digital. They sound very different
I will always take analogue sound

Let me tell you a true story of how in my 70s I could easily pick the difference! I have owned Quad electrostatic speakers (ESL-63 and ESL 2905) for about 40 years so I am used to accurate sound. Most of what I play these days is SACD, which I played through a Marantz universal player's analogue outputs (it was too old to have HDMI). I also play CDs through a good Sony player with balanced outputs.

One day the Marantz failed and I just had time to get to a HiFi dealer. They said they might have just the thing – the then brand new Reavon UBR-X200. I’d never even heard of Reavon, but they guaranteed it would play CDs as well or better than my Sony CD player, would play 4k video better than my Panasonic, and SACD better than my Marantz. I splashed the cash there and then, took it home and connected the analogue outputs, including 2-channel balanced. Set the options according to the manual. Put on the CD I always use for evaluating speakers – Decca’s 1969 ADD recording of Britten conducting his “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”. Apart from highlighting most orchestral instruments, the finale of this piece builds from the faintest triangle strokes to the most complex percussion cross-rhythms and awesome brass overlays.

Did the Reavon match sound-wise? Tick. Then West Side Story on 4k. Was it better than the Panasonic? Certainly started 10 times faster. Better picture. Tick. Now for SACD. I test with the second movement of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto on Hyperion, where the soft piano notes can just hang in the air.

What I heard was full volume pink (or white?) noise. WTF. Checked all the cables, checked the manual. Eventually changed the settings to the opposite – not easy as the machine has to be rebooted. Success – at least I was hearing 5-channel sound. Did the piano notes hand in the air? No. WTF. Check the specifications of the Texas Instruments Burr-Brown DACs, one 36-bit for the balanced CD output, the other 24-bit for multi-channel output. Neither mentioned DSD. Email Reavon support. No, our multi-channel SACD is down-converted to CD quality. WTF. Wait a minute, what about 2-channel SACD through the balanced output? Sorry, that’s CD quality too.

So I absolutely could pick the difference between DSD done properly and 16-bit CD quality. Fortunately the Reavon also outputs HDMI which sounds fantastic through my 32-bit DSD capable DACs. Pity I wasted my money on the DACs it uses, but the UBR-X110 was not available back then. By the way, I have not seen any review of the Reavon UBR-X200, even ones containing extensive lab results, which has noticed this obvious fault.