Does anyone have a digital system that is as involving as their analogue front end?
I have a good analogue front end. Not stratuspherically good but good enough for this comparison. VPI Prime Signature 21 turntable, Pass Labs XP-25 pono preamp, Pass Labs XP-30 preamp and Hovland Radia amp. It has a lovely, very involving sound. On the right recording, I just drop everythng and am drawn in to listen.
My streamer, on the other hand, is decent but not spectacular. It is better than my CD player, but it is not jaw-dropping like my analogue front-end. My question is this: does anyone have a high-end, tier-one streamer (dCS Bartok Apex, Lumin X2, or something like them) that can rival a good analogue system?
@audio-b-dog thank you for the music recommendation! I started listening and will continue later. Track 1 is 32min! As to system viewing… click on a member user ID, the click Details. You will be able to see the system if they have posted one. |
After owning DACs from PS Audio, Benchmark, Whest, Luxman, Bricasti, Marantz, Wyred4Sound, Bryston, Prism, Auralic, Cary, Berkeley and others, I installed a Holo May KTE. NEVER before for digital had I heard such analog-like human voices. My 32/384 LP rips are as enjoyable as listening to the LP, a level that was never reached consistently by any of the other DACs. My turntable is an Acoustic Signature Montana Neo with TA-7000 Neo and Origin Live Agile tonearms, and a DS Audio Master 3 equalizer with Grand Master cartridge, and ZYX Optimum with MoFi MasterPhono. The AD converter is an RME ADI-2 Pro fs r Black Edition AD/DA Converter with After Dark power supply. |
Interesting. So, you hear no difference between the vinyl record and the hi-rez digital feed? What albums have you digitized? One album that I used as a benchmark was Bill Evans "Waltz for Debbie" which is stored in hi-rez on Qobuz. The one place that sounded markedly different from vinyl was the long decay of the cymbals. I felt as though I could hear the DAC working overtime to reassemble that fading decay that must be an extremely complex wave to recreate. I am using the Meitner MA3i streamer, which often sounds as good as vinyl. I've been testing out digitized versions of records I have. |
