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A fit of Audiophilia

I am an 81 year old retired software engineer who still dabbles in that activity and am stuck trying to find a minor bug - which has nothing to do with the post except for being the reason for a glass of wine and the striking of Audiophilia.

I started to wonder about different file formats, external clocks etc.

A telling track for my critical listening is the "Bless the lord" from the Sveshnikov 1965 recording of the  Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil.  This has deep Russian octavist voices, a wonderful choir, the intense emotional voice of Klara Korkan and was recorded, I believe, in a basilica.  

In addition to the LP (which wins) I have a DSD128 and PCM 24/192 recordings.  Level matching the digital sources was tricky but playing the DSD at +5.5 dB was as close as I could come. (DSDs are usually about -6dB to avoid stability issues near 0dBfs).

The DAC is the Esoteric K-01XDSE which is a ΔΣ device and so operates internally in DSD 512.  I was listening with 4x upsampling, PCM filtering M1, and DSD filtering off.

The  PCM won, its slightly higher resolution yielded a slight increase in (surprise) resolution.

Conclusion unless something was mastered at better then DSD 128 if PCM 24/192 is available, use the PCM.

I then tried the experiment with and without the external SRS FS 725 clock,10 MHz, sine wave, 50 Ohm.

The K-01xdse has a very high quality OCXO clock but spatiality, these sense of the singers as 3D people, was noticeably improved by the external clock.  The FRS 725 uses the same physics package as Esoteric used to use in their $20k clock (they now use an OCXO clock at a slightly lower price). Conclusion, an external clock may well be worth it.

I do not have a spare $16k to compare the new Esoteric G-01XD with the FRS 725.  But the Stanford Research Systems unit is a bargain.

My clock cable is an entry level priced component usually used for uhf broadcast application, so now I am wondering if I can get even better SQ with an "Audiophile" clock cable, I am thinking of the Shunyata Theta or the Mutec PSC 50.  There are some insanely prices Shunyata and Esoteric products but ...

After all that the 60 year old Melodiya disk has a richer, deeper timbre and greater spatiality - but perhaps that is the effect of the Koetsu RSP/Sutherland Dos Locos front end.

retiredaudioguy
retiredaudioguy OP
290 posts
 

@wsrrsw I do hope this is a community!  Where I live most music lovers do not seem to be interested in the quality of the sound.  The only serious one of whom I am aware owns a local company.  Indeed there seem to be few who have any interest in "classical" music so I find this forum to be a major resource - for sustaining my sanity.

It has always seemed to me that a good conversation ends up far away from the original topic and I hope that on this forum this is not viewed negatively.

Audiogon is a commercial enterprise, and we pay nothing for the use of this forum,  so I have no issue with selling being a breach, fees paid by sellers and advertisers allow to have this platform.

I do thank you for your post.

 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,737 posts
 

@retiredaudioguy Well the minty box set has arrived , been thru the Degritter and system warm after a few hours spinning records… Vespers awaits.  

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,737 posts
 

Re the reference track: great balance of hall and voices - excellent dynamics. I haven’t compared it to digital versions and other than so so pressing quality, don’t feel need to. Bravo

pindac's avatar
pindac
3,941 posts
 

@retiredaudioguy I sense from the interest in OCXO clock, that your investigation could extend to DIY to create the best chance for the Crystal Oscillation to be extremely consistent at 10Mhz.

A DIY Triple Oven for extreme Temperature Stability and Tungsten Cube to draw in ambient resonances is the typical options, and would most likely be a cheap way to attain Clock Performance similar to the Esoteric G-01XD.

It is this side of digital that has been luring me from the Dark Matter.

The environment the Crystal Operates in is proven to have substantial benefits to End Sound Quality.

A manufacturer will have one pay handsomely for their efforts for a crystal, where as the DIYer get massive bang for their bucks.

For myself I see my favourite RIDWB as the material to embed an OCXO clock into. 

More importantly what do I know at this stage, It's all just another theory awaiting the venture.

retiredaudioguy OP
290 posts
 

I am glad to see that you have this wonderful album - on your great system.

There is surface noise - it is in all of the LP from lead in to runout so it is the pressing, not recorded noise.  BTW some of the tracks need to be nudged left, this is noticeable on both the LP and the PCM.

I listened to both the LP and the 24/352.8 PCM (parts anyway) and the DXD/PCM from HighDefTapeTransfer is rather good - I think much of the difference was between the presentation of the Koetsu RSP and the Esoteric K-01XDSE.  If you want to preserve the Vinyl and get almost all of the performance the digital version is worth it.  The DXD/PCM is better than the DSD - at least through my DAC. the DAC converts everything into a 64 bit, 22.5 MHz stream for the Delta-Sigma conversion - also the DXD/PXM format was used for mastering that transfer.

There was more warmth to the analog bass and the digital version felt very slightly less dynamic.  The Doc Locos is probably responsible for this.  I am sure your ARC gear is superb but when I first heard it the Dos Locos, forgive the cliché, made my jaw drop the way the music popped into focus, the bass growled and the performers were anchored in the soundstage.  If you get the chance to audition a pair do so!

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