Mapman --
Audioengr,
Can your reclocking device deliver massed strings as cleanly and grain-free as the best CD players out there? Or good vinyl?
If so, I might have to try one.
(I'm obviously not Audioengr, but here goes..)
A lot a digital aficionados may not know the true potential of LP-playback (myself included), but I'd wager the opposit - that analog freaks doesn't know the potential of digital playback either - is prevalent as well.
Why even begin to suddenly base sonic findings - or a principle belief, even - to the advantage of vinyl on a theoretical standing of a more ideally produced square wave due to better HF-extension? And CD-players being better a reproducing "massed strings" than PC-based playback? I mean, could it be the (nostalgic) love of a physical storage object spinning..? I left CD-players years ago (my last one being the Linn Mimik) to welcome PC-based playback for one reason only, even with an infectious PC-environment to deal with: better sound quality, which entailed - guess what? Analog virtues, to be exact; a more organic, resolved, fluid, and coherent presentation. Bye bye CD-players, and PC-based playback achieved the better sound at a much reduced price, which we were many individuals to conclude unequivocally and independently (I don't know why PC-based playback sounds better to our ears, but it does).
Since the introduction in my setup of the Audiophilleo2 + PurePower USB to S/PDIF converter, better DAC w/better power supply et al., many PC tweaks (many more to come) and better software playback (now JRiver MC19 + JPLAY 5.2), what was good has become indeed much better. It's truly amazing how much potential even 16-bit 44kHz source material holds, and that there is still more to have had in regards to sonic bliss with future tweaking.
When reading the above I get the slight sensation of people jumping , or even clinging to a theoretical standpoint that might partially (or not) explain why analog sounds better in some respects compared to digital, as if to tip the doubt into firm belief when supported theoretically. I guess the same could be said for the digital camp in other discussions, but I try to advocate listening without getting carried away too much by theory.
Where digital is as is I believe "warmer" could tilt towards too euphonic a character, but the lowering of jitter seems to bring with it an obvious lack of glare, better texture and clarity, a more organic feel, and sharper yet more pleasing delineations (contrary to edge enhancement), which does lead me to think of the sound, in a sense, as "warmer" and certainly more authentic.
