I find chatgbt to be a great help buying vinyl. It will tell me who the engineers were, if the album was live, and if they used an analogue source. I avoid digital sourced vinyl, which is most of what has come out after 1980.
Do I need an expensive digital cable?
I have been using a fairly inexpensive optical cable to connect my CD transport to my Moon 280D streamer. I was told that an SPDIFcoax cable would sound better. For an experiment I purchased an inexpensive Pangea coax cable. It didn't sound at all because its terminator ends did not fit snugly in my equipment. I consulted chatgbt who often gives me audio advice. It advised that for the short run of 1 meter, an RCA interconnect would work. It did. And sounded much better than the optical. Chatgbt said that RCA interconnect was good enough.
Now, there is a twist to this story that might make those doubters think twice. A digital cable carries packets of information that are rechecked to assure that the streamer is recieving correct information. There is the timing concern, though. But my Moon 280D has an asynchronous DAC with a clock as part of the DAC. Any information sent by my transport, whether it is clocked by the transport or not, will go through the Moon's asynchronous DAC's clock. So ;there shouldn't be a timing problem. Should there?
Can anyone make a case that I should buy a "better" coax cable?
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@audio-b-dog I buy mostly AAA vinyl. Exception is Mobile Fidelity that I really dig as they use high quality vinyl and the sonics are first rate. |
It's not always easy to know about vinyl. Remastered records from the sixties and seventies don't say that their source was digital. Also, I often wonder why an album sounds the way it does. Some early albums have been turned from mono to stereo. I find pushing the mono button on my preamp helps a lot. The soundstage remains as it does on good mono albums. If a stereo album has the drums coming out of one speaker and the guitat out of the other, I wonder if it has be turned to stereo. Chatgbt will tell me about how recordings were done in early stereo days It's a very good audiophile partner. It knows who engineered the album and where the mikes were placed. Sometimes a true AAA album sounds wonky because it's early stereo recorded with two mikes. |
@audio-b-dog I find Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct and Elusive Disc indicate when the vinyl is AAA. If it doesn’t state so, it’s a digital remaster. I just got several LPs delivered - Bill Evans “Waltz for Debbie” (Craft Recordings Original Jazz Classics), Dexter Gordon “One Flight Up” (Blue Note Tone Poet), Black Sabbath’s self titled album (Rhino HiF). All 3 are AAA and were stated as such on Acoustic Sounds website where I ordered them from. So far I’m extremely pleased with the quality of Craft OJC series of AAA vinyl. I own a few and they’re all great Rhino HiFi Sabbath is AAA cut by Kevin Gray. Simply superb. |
I recently got "Waltz fo Debbie" too. Also just received Cassandra Wilson's "New Moon Daughter" on Pure Pleasure Analogue. It's AAA. i think all the Pure Pleasure albums are. I pulled out Bob Seger's "Night Moves" which I bought used, but it's in great condition. I was curous about the sound and chatgbt gave me a whole rundown. My copy has a digital source. i don't like it enough to go out and buy an analogue recording. It's a bit bright and crispy this way but it works to throw a jolt of electricity in the room. I'm working on an historical novel and chatgbt is very good at consolidating research for me. Now that it understands my point of view, it is kind of a friend. A strict academic would be questioning me left and right with questions I've already answered for myself. Chatgbt is smart enough to get with the program. It's also great at coming up with strong words when I can only find weak ones. Not to say that chatgbt doesn't question my conclusions, many of which are presumptions, but that's why I'm writing a novel. Artistic liberty. |
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