I was probably 75% analog until recently and it has been 100% digital since Kassandra landed in my system.
Jeff's Getting a New Stereo System
- Thread starter Jeff Fritz
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I was probably 75% analog until recently and it has been 100% digital since Kassandra landed in my system.
Are you saying that Kassandra will sound better than a well set-up analog, or are you saying it sounds better than your analog, or are you saying you listen to Kassandra for the convenience + sonics balance
Well, it is easily the most "analog" sounding DAC I have heard but I am sure that I will return to vinyl in probably something approaching a 50/50 ratio. I don't get the feeling I am missing vinyl when I am listening through Kassandra but I also don't think it is actually superior where I will dump vinyl. The Kassandra gets the body and fullness of analog without overly smoothing the sound, which is what I hear with DSD. So, the attack but with body is there like I hear with good analog and this is unique in what I have heard with digital.
Door number three (convenience + sonics) is most probably the closest to the right answer. I still think my analog is competitve (it is also competitive with other really good analog setups I have heard) but not so obviously superior. When we had the Golden Atlantic in my system the analog was clearly superior as the GA was very tonally nice but overly smooth and soft and so the impression of realism was greater with the analog...this is also the same direction where my Monarchy falls somewhat short of analog...and bass drive...this is where Kassandra really kicks it is bass power and control...even better than the all SS DACs I have tried in my system. That energy is there, which is really addictive in analog and missing most of the time with digital playback.
When we had the Kassandra in my friend's system it also compared very favorably against his big Transrotor(3 motor, magnetic drive, SME V arm) with Transfiguration Proteus and Allnic H1500 phonostage.
I guess it scratches the itch where when you are listening to digital you think "I wonder what this would sound like on vinyl?"
I have a lot of music on vinyl that will simply not rebuy on digital so vinyl will stay and it is still as good.
Do you feel that DSD played through the Kassandra "overly smooths" the sound? Can I ask how and what recordings you are you feeding in the DAC?
I was not using DSD with Kassandra, only PCM from a cd transport...no computer audio. Recordings were wide ranging from Tori Amos "Boys for Pele" to Tchaikovsky http://www.deccaclassics.com/au/cat/4770532
and Jazz from the ACT label (Depart, Kim Sun Nah and EST). Also, Al Di Meola World Symphonia "Heart of the Immigrants" and "The Grande Passion". Beethoven late quartets on Deutsche Grammophone. Britten Violin Concerto on Decca. Hayden Symphonies and Katchachurian violin concerto (played by my ex-girlfriend for her competition winners performance). Let's see what else? Classical guitar on DG (can't remember the artist but was Spanish composers). Violin Virtuoso on EMI with Itzahk Perlman. Jan Garbarek group live in Dresden on ECM. Keith Jarrett "Belonging" on ECM. Miroslav Vitus "Universal Syncopations" on ECM. William Orbit "Strange Cargo III". Rush Hemispheres and so on.
DSD was streamed to the GA from my friend's Mac mini running Roon and optimized (not sure how, don't ask) for lean running. He brought it along with the GA because I don't do any streaming. I heard GG with DSD and thought that it also sounded too smooth (something I have thought about DSD from the beginning when it was on SACD).
The extent of smoothness you want/need will be changed based on your streamer, your software, the tubes you use (in the GG, GA does not allow tube rolling). So it will be a whole set up. You can have filters for DSD and every filter sounds different. Also, some tracks will suit PCM better and some will suit DSD better and some will sound nice upsampled and some will not
Well, given that I have heard this overly smooth sound repeatedly regardless of the DSD setup, I am inclined to think that it is somewhat inherent in the technology. I am talking going back starting in the early 2000s...
Sacd and dsd playback are very different. In HQP the filters snd convolution engine allows one to shape almost any playback profile. I am also smiling with my GG and from what I heard the GG2 update will have me chuckling and the full Pacific will have me hysterical.
Cant wait for thsse to be launched. It should stop all discussions. LoL.
Yes but dsd is not SACD. That is my point.
SACD is dsd bound up...played back via mostly crappy all in one converters with set filters.
Didnt a GG with 242 tubes handle the Kass in Europe?
LoL.
The Kass is a great Dac but not a substitute for sliced bread.
SACD is dsd bound up...played back via mostly crappy all in one converters with set filters.
Didnt a GG with 242 tubes handle the Kass in Europe?
LoL.
The Kass is a great Dac but not a substitute for sliced bread.
Let's keep the KASS GG out of this, I consciously did not bring it up when brad tried to put in a talking point about GA when the subject was something entirely different. And then about DSD and PCM. Lol. Let him get some talking points in.
a significant issue with many dacs is the value of HQ Player (and some other methods) on the dsd data stream which SACD bypasses. you can rip an SACD to a file and then compare the two. HQ Player properly applied makes a difference pushing the file further. likely the new Lampi super server offers similar advantages to dsd files. and then there are Quad dsd files which simply trump any SACD.
dismissing higher rez dsd is just ignorant.
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Probably you were listening to the characteristics of the implementations - I also listened to several SACD players that sounded soft. But my current DSD player does not sound soft, I even prefer the SACD layer in most hybrid CD/SACD recordings I own.
It is surely a question of preference, but already in 1999 John Atkinson wrote:
"But the proof of any audio pudding is in the hearing, and in that respect DSD-encoding would seem to be beyond reproach. Every Stereophile writer who has auditioned DSD under critical conditions—Robert Harley, Peter van Willenswaard, Jonathan Scull, and me—has found it both very much better than 16/44k1 CD and much closer to the analog experience.—John Atkinson"
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content...yer-direct-stream-digital#V46lLtdYCUlFcaah.99
You obviously never heard a Vacuumstate level 5 modded Sony SACD player. Only time I have heard a convincing DSD demo.
As to the KASS, GG comparison, well it was basically one man's opinion vs. another's.
As to the GG, you have had more than your fair say about it on this (and probably other) forum. No worries, I would say that it too is a good DAC, but no substitute for analog.
As to the KASS, GG comparison, well it was basically one man's opinion vs. another's.
As to the GG, you have had more than your fair say about it on this (and probably other) forum. No worries, I would say that it too is a good DAC, but no substitute for analog.
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