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Conversion to DSD: Does It Eliminate Digital Glare?

Hi All

  This question is for people that have gear capable of converting vanilla redbook pcm CD files in to DSD.
To my knowledge this would include the Sony HAP ES and certain DACs, such as one that I am interested in, the Mytec Manhatten.
   I currently have two highly resolving CD Players, the Oppo 105 and the Denon "Anniversary Edition" SACD/CD player.  I listen to Classical Music about 99.9% of the time.  Rest of the system is Parasound PreAmp JC-1 and Power Amp A-21 with B&W 803- Diamond speakers; Bluesound Vault-2 and Node-2;
and a MacBook Air via Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter into a 10 year old Apogee firewire dac.
  My complaint is that some CDs, particularly in full Orchestral passages, tend to harden, particularly the strings.  My SACDs (I have over 100) don't do that, and I tend to attribute this to the DSD used in SACDs.
I am therefore interested if converting vanilla rebook CDs to DSD tends to eliminate this problem.    
mahler123

Showing 6 responses by mahler123

mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 
If you are still playing the original file types, and the same dac, then how do you know it's the cables?  I haven't found that cables and room treatments make the slightest bit of difference for this issue.  My SACDs sound great but some--not all-- of my CDs tend to harden up in loud passages.

mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 
Hey browns fan
I had read your thread about the Sony before I posted my query and was intrigued. That was one reason that I referenced the Sony, because it up samples all recordings to DSD. I already own the
Blue Sound so I am not interested in another player that archives CDs. Instead, i was hoping that if a dac that converts everything to DSD (and of course the Sony cannot be used as a dac because it has no digital inputs) would improve the sound of the Bluesound (which is actually quite good in it’s own right). Modding my Oppo might be worth considering. Sorry about Johnny Manziel.
Willi--ok, I’ll take your word that your cable experiments have worked for you, and I haven’t spent nearly the time or money that you have probably spent. I have, however, tried about 4 different cables and a couple of room treatments to no avail. I decided ultimately to use Nordost Blue Heaven because they are neutral to my ears (all that I want a cable to be) and sanely priced. They are unshielded but since I don’t have a TV in this system no big deal.
coli-my present dac is a pro piece, and I love it, but it’s getting long in the tooth. Mytec Manhatten is basically a pro piece as well, and it ain’t cheap, but it’s creator basically invented DSD and it uses firewire, which I much prefer to usb
mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 
 One of the recordings that bothers me the most with glare is an early 80s CD transfer of and Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of Sibelius Second Symphony (early 60s recording).  Yesterday I was playing the same recording from a Japanese Ormandy collection, presumably remastered transfer (I can't read the liner notes since they are all in Japanese)
and lo and behold, most of the glare isn't present.  
mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 
I heartily agree with Eric's last paragraph.  The best DACs are now improving redbook to levels that we previously hadn't thought possible 
mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 

After living with the Mytek Manhatten for a few months now, I do think that an improved Dac helps----with glare.  Note, seventies, that the mytek features the same chip as the Oppo 105, but the implementation is worlds apart--so it just in't the chip that makes the DAC.  As I have been playing some of the more offensive digital recordings--a Jean Pierre Rampal 'big box' on Erato is Glare Culprit #1--it isn't that they now sound soft, but there is a simultaneous gain in detail and loss of ugliness, especially in the treble.

   regarding Annie Fischer's Beethoven, I never thought they sounded deficient via the Oppo, but they are more impressive via the Mytek, particularly in the midrange.  And yes, that certainly is a resonant Bosendorfer that she plays.

   I have listened to these recordings both in flac from my Bluesound Vault and via the Oppo asa transport, both fed into the Mytek, and I don't think the digital format matters beyond lossy and lossless

mahler123 OP
3,024 posts
 
I don't think it's a fantasy to say long live SACD.  In Classical Music there are over 3000 titles available .
   My current two DACS, the Mytek Manhatten and the Bryston BDA-3, are glare free, even on the worst recordings.  I'm sure the DSD has something to do with it, but they also both have great isolation and power supplies.  It's nice to know that state of the art digital is possible without having to take out another mortgage...
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