One cool thing about the 2007 CES is that no matter how big TV screens get, how small portable devices become, or how compressed the bitstream is, there are those who only want the best sound for their music. Here are some nice setups that I wish I could afford to put in my house. The above device is a tube-driven (even the timing circuit!) CD player from PrimaLuna.
It’s nice to see that the art of making speakers hasn’t fallen by the wayside in the iPod era. There were Electrostatics from companies like Quad (#11) and King’s Audio (#6), traditional designs from firms like RBH (#7, with me) and Usher (#9), and more exotic offerings by companies such as German Physiks (#4) and MBL (#2).
On the component side you had things like a money-is-almost-no-object audio/video receiver from McIntosh (#1), massive turntables from ClearAudio (# 4 & 5), tube amplifiers, and even a battery-powered phono (No line noise) head amp from Sutherland Engineering (the one with the batteries in it, duh). A company called MSB unveiled a tweaked “audiophile” iPod interface (#2) called iLink that modifies the iPod to allow digital audio to be sent to the iLink and output via toslink optical, coaxial, or balanced AES/EBU format. Pioneer even had a demo (#8) showing high-end gear being driven by one of their Optical Digital Reference car units to demonstrate their new sound calibration technology.
oooops…
“]]I[[can’t hear any difference, so it doesn’t exist. I can’t design an amplifier, but every single state-of-the-art amp designer is wrong and an idiot, because >>I>I>I
damn those pesky tags! HERE:
“]]I[[can't hear any difference, so it doesn't exist. I can't design an amplifier, but every single state-of-the-art amp designer is wrong and an idiot, because ]]I[[ say so. How can anyone possibly be able to do something ]]I[[ can't???"
Bad news, amigo. It's been conclusively proven to be audible, and a long, long time ago, at that. Plenty of people, not just 'golden ears,' can hear the artifacts of compression/decompression, it's generally referrred to as 'pumping,' and if you can't hear it in a typical 128k MP3 compared to the original PCM, then your hearing IS shot.
"Buying these ultra high end audio systems are stupid. They aren’t the standard. They are the extreme. The difference may only be measured electronically, not audibly."
Stupid. Ya. I say that MREs taste as good as filet mignon, and if you claim you can taste the difference, you're kidding yourself, because I can't, so you must be stupid for not realizing what is obvious to me, that they taste the same.
The differences are audible. They're simply too subtle for you to discern.
Me, I can't tell the diff between van den Hul Magnum speaker cables and Music Hose - but, unlike you, I'm not the center of the Universe, so I don't state that there's no difference in the sound. Maybe there IS no diff in the sound. ]]I[[ don’t know. And neither do you.
And finally (at long last, eh?):
” It is the same as buying a $600,000 Bughatti or Ferrari. Very pretty to look at, even fun to drive. And more fun to boast about. But unless you have the requisite skill to drive one to the max and a place to do it, they are just wasted money.”
More than ‘fun to drive,’ a supercar is an emotional and visceral experience that, like they say about Harleys, “If I had to explain it to you, you wouldn’t understand.”
You don’t have to “have a place to do it” in order to appreciate the luxury, the hand-crafted appointments or the feel. There’s a lot more to things like Burmesters, Bugattis, Breguets and Bordeaux than the average person with average experience and average tastes can appreciate. There’s exclusivity and excellence. Some people have a deep philosophically-based ability to understand what it is to enjoy superlative things. If you don’t, then fine. But proclaiming those connoisseurs to be stupid, because you lack the requisite taste (and $) to enter that elite world only demonstrates who the stupid one really is.
Can you say “sour grapes?” I knew you could.
You don’t have to “have a place to do it” in order to appreciate the luxury, the hand-crafted appointments or the feel. There’s a lot more to things like Burmesters, Bugattis, Breguets and Bordeaux than the average person with average experience and average tastes can appreciate. There’s exclusivity and excellence.
That isn’t excellence or quality. Its snobbery. There is no noticeable difference, hence no difference. There comes a limit to the number of decimal places to can put after a number.
Most homes have too much ambient noise to be effective at sound reproductions. Even the blood pumping through your ears can cancel out “high end” audio. And don’t even get me started about automotive audio systems.
The problem with most of these supercars is that their “exclusivity” is skin deep. Most of them have low build cost and are not built to standards commensurate with the price.
The same is true of most high dollar stereo equipment. Thiel, Sonus Faber and Vandersteen speakers use drivers which are built just like ones sold theough Madisound to hobbyists. Tube units like ARC and VTL use PCB construction and transformers of far lesser quality to classic Peerless, UTC and Freed units. Solid state amplifiers such as Jeff Rowland-a graduate of a vo-tech school, DeVry-and failed sex manual author Mark Levinson are made with beautiful (but, in this age of CNC machining relatively cheap)pseudo-billet construction and cheap consumer semiconductors, common PCB materials and designs largely cribbed from semiconductor device manuals.