Chippy_boy
25-08-2009, 08:15
Hello folks
I missed this welcome section previously and went and introduced myself on another thread.
I have to confess I am not a mad keen hifi buff, but I do like to listen to music that's vaguely realistic and of a decent quality.
I long ago gave up on endlessly trawling through my jumbled mess of CD's in favour of streaming the digits (lossless, bit perfect) from a computer. Originally an HTPC and more latterly I have switched to an Apple TV.
The rest of the kit is Tag Mclaren amplification and Wilson Benesch speakers, and most recently a Beresford Caiman DAC that I am delighted with.
I am a complete skeptic when it comes to cables and cable directionality and other even more (imho) daft ideas. In my view (as an ageing physicist) - so long at the cables are of a high quality, without excessive resistance, inductance or capacitance, and with some decent mechanical integrity so they don't fall to pieces - then they should make no difference to the sound quality. If they DO, then there is something wrong with them (esp with regard to the 3 properties above)! The other thing is, I don't believe I have a particularly good "ear". I can't really say I can tell the difference from one decent cable to another.
My belief is even more strongly held when it comes to digital cables. What more is there other than bits and jitter? So long as all the bits are correct, and the jitter is either removed by the dac - or low in the first place - I can see no other way for information to be transfered from a transport to a dac. You don't get strawberry flavoured bits; only bits.
Years ago, when people had no experience of top quality hifi huge emphasis was placed on the quality of the source. 33%-33%-33% was a common understanding of the appropriate amount of spend on source-amp-speakers. Many advocated an even higher emphasis on the source. "Rubbish in, rubbish" out was the perceived wisdom.
But I really do think things have moved on so much today that a very inexpensive source can produce incredible performance. And *much* more benefit can be derived from using better speakers and amplification. Hence my use of the quite expensive Wilson Benesch's, and the slightly expensive Tag amplification.
Cheers all
Chip
I missed this welcome section previously and went and introduced myself on another thread.
I have to confess I am not a mad keen hifi buff, but I do like to listen to music that's vaguely realistic and of a decent quality.
I long ago gave up on endlessly trawling through my jumbled mess of CD's in favour of streaming the digits (lossless, bit perfect) from a computer. Originally an HTPC and more latterly I have switched to an Apple TV.
The rest of the kit is Tag Mclaren amplification and Wilson Benesch speakers, and most recently a Beresford Caiman DAC that I am delighted with.
I am a complete skeptic when it comes to cables and cable directionality and other even more (imho) daft ideas. In my view (as an ageing physicist) - so long at the cables are of a high quality, without excessive resistance, inductance or capacitance, and with some decent mechanical integrity so they don't fall to pieces - then they should make no difference to the sound quality. If they DO, then there is something wrong with them (esp with regard to the 3 properties above)! The other thing is, I don't believe I have a particularly good "ear". I can't really say I can tell the difference from one decent cable to another.
My belief is even more strongly held when it comes to digital cables. What more is there other than bits and jitter? So long as all the bits are correct, and the jitter is either removed by the dac - or low in the first place - I can see no other way for information to be transfered from a transport to a dac. You don't get strawberry flavoured bits; only bits.
Years ago, when people had no experience of top quality hifi huge emphasis was placed on the quality of the source. 33%-33%-33% was a common understanding of the appropriate amount of spend on source-amp-speakers. Many advocated an even higher emphasis on the source. "Rubbish in, rubbish" out was the perceived wisdom.
But I really do think things have moved on so much today that a very inexpensive source can produce incredible performance. And *much* more benefit can be derived from using better speakers and amplification. Hence my use of the quite expensive Wilson Benesch's, and the slightly expensive Tag amplification.
Cheers all
Chip