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Learned something new today and it isn't good.

I have been in this crazy hobby for over five decades and thought I knew most of the basic information regarding audio quality.

That was before this morning.

Today I learned about the practise of applying "pre-emphasis" to CDs that was around during the late '70's and early '80's. Apparently this practise was developed as a way of reducing the signal to noise in digital audio. The problem is this was a two-part process and required the CD player to have a "de-emphasis" capability to allow the disk to play properly. Without the application of de-emphasis, cd's would sound "bright".

My question would be, "Does everyone else know about this?"

If you do, "How do you deal with it?"

I still listen to CDs and this is not something I need in my life.

128x128tony1954

Showing 1 response by drmuso

drmuso's avatar
drmuso
74 posts
 

I have an old tube DAC that has de-emphasis circuitry and an indicator light when a CD has pre-emphasis.  Only a few classical CDs in my collection made this indicator light go on; maybe I don't listen to those anymore, but I haven't been troubled that my subsequent DACs lacked this circuitry.

If you think you want a DAC with the de-emphasis circuitry, I'd be willing to sell my Anodyne ATAS.  It was working fine last time I used it.  When I bought it in the 1990s, it sounded better than a well-reviewed Wadia DAC I compared it to in my system.  The ATAS cost $3000 then.  I've intended to put it up for sale, but just haven't gotten around to it.  IIRC, it only goes up to 48kHz, so it won't work for today's high-res files.  But it will give CDs some nice tube warmth. 

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