smdb01us

Seems like Super HighRez is closing down shop. Sad, I really liked their service.

Yup, I have always been a bit confused by their releases and how it applies to the Conductor and the system and all the hardware they support. I stopped reading searching for the release notes and and blindly upgrading 🤷🏽‍♂️.

Howdy, with the latest code on N100s, has anyone been able to successfully enable native DSD playback? When I enable this option I get a message saying that my DAC does not support native DSD but according to the specs, the DAVE does. Ari is looking into this but I was wondering if anyone had this working. Any sonic differences between DoP and native DSD playing? Cheers!

Great introduction Chris, thank you for sharing! As a current networking nerd now in technical sales for a networking company, it is good to know we are well represented! 🤓 For the rest of us: don’t mess with Chris as he has a very particular set of skills. Skills he has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make him a nightmare for people like us... just sayin’

@The Computer Audiophile, "Moving along to track four, titled To Rome, the Alpha DAC RS3 presented me with something incredible that I haven't heard previously. When Ted Poor hit his drums, I could hear not only the drum head but I heard deep down into the shell of each drum." My system is not as detailed as yours but, wow, I see what you mean with this recording, those drums sound incredible! I used Qobuz as well to play the tracks that you mentioned in your review. In regards to the reference DAC. I demoed it in my system and it blew me away. I might be the exception here, based on some of the comments but I do love DSD's sound and I do have a large (at least to me) collection of about 200+ Hybrid/SACDs so I decided to go with the DAVE. If I wasn't so much into DSD I would definitively gone with the Reference.

Ride the Lighting now available on HDTDC 🤘🏽

Kill ‘em All and Hardwired to Self-Destruct are now posted on Qobuz remastered and high resolution. Will check them out soon.

From the AES (Audio Engineering Society) e-Library, a free document/article: High-Resolution Audio: A History and Perspective. http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=20455 Interesting reading!

Howyd, I ended up getting "Blue Train" (XUNI810729D64) as I am way more familiar with this album and I suspect most jazz listeners will be as well. I did a first comparison last night but it was kinda rushed as I needed to get some work done as well but my initial impressions are good and that I like this version. Notice this is a stereo version. I listened mainly to the first track, Blue Train, and compared it against my two other digital versions I own: 2003 BN RE RM mono (RVG Edition) CD (dbPowerAmp FLAC L3 rip) and 2008 Analogue Productions RE RM stereo SACD (Oppo DSF transfer). Playing source for all these files was my Aurender N100H. The very first thing I noticed was the difference in volume on all these editions. The RVG CD is definitely the loudest, significantly louder than the other two. Next is the flat transfer, which is what I would consider "normal" based on my listening patterns. Lastly, the SACD is the softest of the three, where I have to go up 7-9 clicks on my pre-amp volume. Not super important, interesting to me. I will have a chance to listen in more detail and more tracks in the following days and hopefully compare between vinyl as well (3 versions) but I would say initially that this stereo flat transfer does not feel as "hard panned" on the horns as the SACD. I also noticed more details and separation on the horns on first 30 seconds of the track and the same for the integration of Paul and Joe later in the play. Speaking of Joe's drums, I think I really liked how detailed and not harsh his cymbal/hihat sounded as those can sometimes sound very harsh and tiring to me (in general, not just specific to Joe's playing). So, right now, if I had to pick between my digital copies, I think I would chose the flat transfer over the other two, despite the fact that I really enjoy the mono CD version. I will add more details as I listen more. Cheers!

Luckily for me, she has a music background and a great ear for picking musical differences so I played a few different versions of the same album for her and she quickly understood why I do it. This weekend she had the control of the Aurender for the first time and just smiled when she saw a very similar situation with the digital copies (mono, stereo, CD, RVG remastered, SACD, etc).

Seems like the "Flat Transfer From Original Analog Master Tape" recordings are still on the store. Ok, I will take one for the team and buy one of the albums and report back tonight. I am really curios to hear how these sound. I will get Somethin' Else and compare it agains my 6 other copies (some digital and some analog, including a US '60 mono reprint). The website does not have any indication whether these are monos or stereos but since it says "original analog master tape" I will assume this will be a mono transfer... we will see. @kumakuma, I am glad to see I am not the only person that has SO many copies of the same album. My girlfriend was helping me organize my vinyl collection a few days ago and she asked me, looking perplexed "why do you have SO many copies of the same albums???", It was a long conversation/answer, lol. Stay tuned!

I have the 2002 remaster SACD (ripped on DSD and played via Aurender) and have been wondering about the 50th anniversary 2019 remaster on Acoustic Sounds (Single Rate DSD). When I compare the SACD to the LP stereo reissue (70s) I find that the SACD has a wider stage and much better instrument definition but I feel that the instruments overpower Jagger's voice and that his voice is somewhat lacking "something". Naturally, I have been wondering if the 2019 remaster sounds any better. Based on @Kimo comments, it sounds like it could be a good investment.

Well, if you are going to be super picky, and why wouldn’t we, I would say that the HR sounds better but not by much. Certainly passages you can hear a better instrument definition and perhaps clarity. I think it is worth to have. I just bought Undertow but also considering the whole collection.

It is also available on iTunes, not in high res, of course. I wonder if the remastered the albums in the process or just sampled them in high res? I purchased Undertow from Acoustic Sounds in 96/24 to compare against the ‘93 CD and vinyl. I didn’t get much time last night to do a full comparison but my first comment after sampling from a few songs was “wow, that CD sounds really good”.

@austinpop Echoing everybody here: excellent and detailed report/review/story! As a TT2 owner for about a month, I feel my own testing to be validated by your review and am happy that you went with Chord... ya know, the more the merrier! The only problem that I have now is that I am just about to finish paying off the TT2 and when I bought it, I double pinky swore to myself that I was DONE with upgrades. Now, -sigh-, after finishing reading your review... I am desperately seeing which limb or internal organ(s) I can part with so I can afford the M Scaler... 😣