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The Modern DAC killed High Resolution Music - has Stereophile proven it?

Hi Everyone,
One thing I've mentioned a lot is that over the past 10 years or so DAC's really closed the delta in how well they play CD (i.e. Redbook) vs. high resolution (96/24 or higher). I've stated for a long time that the delta closed so much that high resolution music no longer seemed to be as important.

Stereophile just released an interesting set of measurements regarding jitter performance of older players vs. today. It's not absolute proof of my thesis, but it certainly is correlated.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/2020-jitter-measurements

One thing, as I commented, you don't have to compare old DACs to the $15,000 Bartok. The Mytek Brooklyn and others in the $2,000 price range also demonstrate this, and in fact has a very similar jitter rejection profile to the Bartok. The point to me is, almost all decent DAC's have jumped leaps and bounds in jitter performance. That's for sure.  Perhaps this explains the disappearing gap in performance as well between Redbook and Hi Rez?

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mytek-hifi-brooklyn-da-processor%C2%96headphone-amplifier-measur... 

erik_squires
erik_squires OP
17,555 posts
 
I don’t really understand this statement .  The recording that I was referring to, the Shostakovich Tenth Symphony with Nelsons  and the Boston SO, is a recent recording, issued as a CD and then a few weeks later as a download in 3 resolutions.  I would presume that it was only “mastered” once, and never “remastered”,

Hi mahler123
Unfortunately, I know this is an unreliable inference. It has been shown over time that releases on different formats are mastered differently. Even different releases of the same recording on the same medium may have a different profile, including changes in:
  • Compression
  • Spectral balance (i.e. EQ)
  • Channel separation.
It is possible to take a high resolution recording and down sample it, and put that on a CD, but without actually talking to the engineers responsible, I have no idea what happened.


Again, I don’t understand the point here.  The original focus of the thread was on modern DACs , the thesis being that current DACs enhance Redbook so much that High Rez is irrelevant.
 
I think "irrelevant" is too strong a term, and if I said that I should correct it. My apologies. I meant, "a lot less desirable" .  Saying modern DACs killed High rez was hyperbolic, which is kind of my brand. :)

Modern DACs bring out the best in everything, all resolutions.  IMO they do a better job of showing the distance between High Rez and Redbook.    


Ok, but what if this isn't that High rez is better, but Redbook playback is bad?  I mean, we have this bias that poor CD playback prooves high resolution is better data. What if it just poor CD performance?

erik_squires OP
17,555 posts
 
Here is the experience I had comparing redbook and high resolution music and what got me thinking of this. I had an ARC DAC 8 and Mytek at the same time, so I got to hear how they played each.

  • ARC DAC 8 Redbook: 80%
  • ARC DAC 8 High Resolution: 95%
  • Mytek Redbook: 95%
  • Mytek High Resolution: 97%

What was also interesting is that while the ARC benefited from a Wyred4Sound resampler, the Mytek did not. It played the same.

Of course, buy the music you like, but if what I heard was true and a trend, this reduces the value gap.

Best,
E
chilli42
111 posts
 
I have a Brooklyn+ with an S-Booster external power supply.  It certainly improves Redbook playback.  Thing is that I have a closet full of Redbook CD’s that I like and their is no way I would consider replacing these with high res files.  The difference in musical enjoyment does not justify the cost.
drbarney1's avatar
drbarney1
203 posts
 
There is argument between DSD and PCM through a resistor ladder DAC. WHich is better? I have been using an MSB Platinum with an upgrade buffer circuit to get rid of jitter. MSB thinks this is better than DSD. But PS Audio makes a DAC which converts PCM to DSD before converting it to analog. We need some discussion of which is better or what are the pros and cons of each.
erik_squires OP
17,555 posts
 
We need some discussion of which is better or what are the pros and cons of each.

@drbarney1

I am not the administrator of Audiogon, my friend. If you want to have that discussion you can start your own thread on the topic and I’m sure many will participate.

I have only dabbled with DSD. Getting the Mytek supported by my operating system took quite a while. Now that I'm using Roon which is very DSD friendly I may return.


Best,
Erik

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