The file is riped from CD and read by MusicBee from a computer.
Either by USB or Bluetooth. The sound is the same.
The merchant https://portier-hifi.ch/ from whom I ordered the device also made the same observation as me but also on other products.
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If Bits are Bits
- Thread starter Takaya
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Either by USB or Bluetooth. The sound is the same.
The merchant https://portier-hifi.ch/ from whom I ordered the device also made the same observation as me but also on other products.
Well, page 17 then..
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Look this is not some mysterious thing. The signal coming from the device is all there is. It either is exactly the same, which it will be if the same bits are fed thru the same device or something is different in the feed or in the output after conversion between direct CD and streaming. If you don't verify those, reasonably easy if you have the tools, then it quite frankly is crazy to go on about how the same bits sound different.
As others have mentioned, the output from the CD player is likely a little bit louder than the streamer which makes the sound perceived as slightly fuller.
Did you disable volume normalization? Do you use exclusive mode (WSAPI or ASIO)?
To be clear, we’re talking about only one device here, it can play CDs, but is also a USB DAC.
"If you cannot check and guarantee matched levels, you aren't getting past job #1 in comparisons."
Okay, if you say so.
To be very specific, the files sound like a CD read by a REGA Apollo.
Player which I was really very disappointed with despite the glowing reviews from many "great" specialists.
You seem determined to pretty much ignore the input from everyone here, so I'm not sure it makes sense to keep this going.
If you decide you want to move this discussion forward by actually doing something more than make more unsupported claims, please let me know directly and I'll open this thread back up to you.
Until then...
1) Rip the CD a second time and compare the files. This looks for errors in the ripping process. A lot of people use “Exact Audio Copy” since some other software doesn’t have the normal error correction or specialized modes.
2) Bluetooth shouldn’t sound the same because it’s lossy. This suggests a different path.
3) My experience with the Sony TA-ZH1ES is that different file formats which have the same perceived dBFS in editing software are reproduced differently at the analog stage. The same hardware may have different output levels for the same digital dBFS for disc versus file. See my post on the DSD sound of Japanese drums.
As @Blumlein 88 mentions, this is a well-understood phenomenon which is why there is such insistence on exact level-matching.
Here's an article that goes into the topic: https://www.extron.com/article/loudnesscontrol_ts
TL;DR perception of frequencies varies depending on SPL, so a small change in SPL can be perceived as a change in tonality instead of a change in SPL. Also why music sounds better when you turn it up.
One source played 0.5 or 1db louder won’t sound louder. It will sound fuller. If you want to do a controlled listening compaison you:
1 - Need to ensure levels are matched to within 0.1% using a voltmeter at the output of the DAC.
2 - Need to not know which source is playing.
Do that, and you’ll find you are no longer able to tell the difference - if the playback gear is working correctly.
The only way to know is to measure it. You can record the music and then run DeltaWave.
The other thought process is that different digital filters are used.
Looking at the manual, you have your answer
Note the rest of the ASR folk. Don’t be so hard on people who say they hear differences between two things that should not be different.
Note the rest of the ASR folk. Don’t be so hard on people who say they hear differences between two things that should not be different.
AudiOhm
Senior Member
Some people just do not understand what is being said...
Ohms
Ohms
Do you still have the option to return it?
Equal or better performance can be had for 10th or less the money.
can your Cary Audio DMC-600SE also play the 44.1 CD rip from a usb-drive? That would eliminate even more possible differences.
That upsampling algorithm in the software will be different than the algorithm used for CD playback…
No, he specifically said “with the Cary”. That implies that the device does it. But once again, a total lack of any details to properly assess the situation. By now we’ve identified more than half a dozen things that could cause a possible difference…
If the upsampling is the cause here, it should be easy to check: you can just disable it. And if you hear a difference it’s probably because the digital filters of the Cary are terrible and/or the upsampling changes the volume slightly.
Contrary to what the manual claims about evil up/oversampling in DAC chips, the AKM chips in this thing happily oversample at 128x and 256x
I’m pretty sure that there are close to zero DAC chips that upsample to only a fixed rate of 96 kHz.
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What if if the noise floor is high?
