Suteetat

I think PD said no difference on USB cable because if they say it does make a difference, they will draw a lot more fire from the skeptical factors. People who believe USB makes a different are generally not so vocal against people with opposing view (well, may be this threat is a an exception ). Personally, I have regular computer USB2, JPS Superconductor 3 and Locus Design Axis USB at home and auditioned Audioquest Diamond in the past. Currently my favorite cable is Locus Design Axis. I wonder if there is an aftermarket cable for the cable that runs from USB-X to PD MPS-5, no clue if they will make a difference but just because.....

I upgraded from Berkeley Alpha the original version to PD MPS-5 and it was a significant improvement in just about all area. At that time MPS-5 still had the original firmware. A few months after that, I had a chance to hear EMM XDS-1 in my own system for a few days and had no urge to switch to EMM at all. A different presentation but not really an upgrade as much as lateral move. One may prefer one presentation over the other but I did not feel I would gain anything much and consider the difference in price, it was a no brainer. The most recent firmware that cameout at the end of the year really improved the sound of MPS-5 by quite a bit. It was really nice that after almost 3 years, PD continues to improve with no added cost. I have not heard MSB though so I am not sure how they would match up with each other. I heard Esoteric K1/K3, dCS Puccini in other system and did not give me any itch to try it in my system so I guess that's a good thing as well.

I just downloaded a trial version. In the past, I could not get Jplay to work with Playback Design usb driver with JRMC but Jplay5 works smoothly. I think there are some improvement, not huge but noticeable. However, I will need to give it a bit more thourough evaluation before I made up my mind. However, it does not seems to be compatible with DSD playback. I only got static and display on Playback showed 384 kHz instead of DSD. Hmmm.. it will have to improve the sound significantly for me to bother switching output between jplay and playback USB when I want to switch between PCM and DSD, I think. It switches between various PCM resolutions with no problem, however.

I saw BBC documentary a long time ago and it was excellent. Deryck Cooke CDs are excellent but better to familiarized yourself with the music for awhile first before listening to his leitmotif examples otherwise it is a bit too much of an information overload. I appreciated it more when I actually recognized the leitmotif from the opera and learn what it meant rather than the other way around. Hmmm... looking back, I suppose I already have pretty much everything but this is such a nice package to have and supposedly the 1997 remastered is better than the original CD release.

I did set the bit depth to 24 bits when extracting file using DVD Audio Extractor so it should be ok. I will have to transfer file from my work computer to my music server tonight and give it a listen. I was listening to the CD a few days back but have not had time to actually compared it to my 1984 CD version and the more recent Esoteric SACD version. I probably would not bother doing anything much about meta data except getting album name, composer, and such. I think I'll leave track name alone for now! The books are very nice except why such a small print for such a big book. I think my old John Culshaw Ring Resounding paperback has bigger print. Now that I am on the verge of needing progressive lens, small print is a curse

Thanks, I do have program that can convert wav to aiff. I was just wondering if I missed something in DVD Audio Extractor regarding aiff. Anyhow, so this morning I tried ripping my bluray copy to alac with DVD Audio Extractor and I got 9.5 GB. I am not sure why there would be any discrepancy between sizes of various rip using the same program? Should I worry that perhaps there is something missing or if I did not setup something properly?

Hmmm... using Makemkv, I got 21.5 GB fild again just like DVDFab bluray copy. I only use backup mode. Did not try to rip it. However, using DVD Audio Extractor, this time I got 14.1 GB 24/48 wav file. I did not see any option for AIFF which is what I would preferred. I currently only use evaluation copy of both MakeMKV beta 1.7.1 and DVD Audio Extractor 7.1.1 on Win8. Strange!

thanks for the link, I was using DVDFab to make a copy first and that was the problem, according to your link. Will try makemkv instead.

if ALAC is 10.3 GB, I would expect WAV to be more like 20 GB though. Did you download it from HDtracks or rip from the blu ray? If from blu ray, would you mind telling me how you did it? Thanks

Hmm.. because of copy protection, I used DVDFab bluray copy program to copy the 24/48 blu ray disc to hard drive first before using DVD A Extractor to rip WAV file. The blu ray file is 21GB but after ripping with DVD A Extractor, I only got 15.7 GB of data. I set DVD Audio Extractor to 24 bits. Has anyone else extracted this blu ray disc? What is your file size? HDtracks does not mention the size of the 24/48 files so I could not compare. Seems a bit strange that an audio blu ray disc would have almost 6 GB of non audio content?

Took me awhile to really think how to phrase this properly. BTW, I also enjoy a discussion where people can also be cordial even if there is a lot of disagreement. Let me sum up what I see here and see if I can sum up all the long winded argument that I put up before. Blind test removes certain bias. Yes, no disagreement there. The main question is "is there a different between A and B" Is A better than B". Now, both blind and non blind listening can answer that question. In an ideal world, removing bias by blind test certainly is helpful. However, my big question is can you really assess audio equipments/accessory accurately under blind test condition. Generally, blind test is done under limited time period, you listen to A then B then whatever for 5,10,15 minutes at a time then switch. I already proposed two scenarios previously where under strict time limit, where my conclusion would be totally different than when I have extended audition. Can you keep blind test going for 1 hours, 6 hours, 3 days, y days in real world situation? As I say, sometimes, you need to let the novelty of somethnig sounding different wear off first before you can really assess a new piece of equipment in a system. My standard practice is to replace and item in my system then listen to it for a week or so. Then remove it, put back in the old stuffs then see. If I really feel like I miss the new stuff and really want to put it back in, I know I want it. If I don't miss the new stuff or actually think that my old stuff is better, I am done and save myself some money. It may not always be possible to do home audition for a week but as long as possible, 1 day, 3 days whatever is still preferable to quick ABX. Afterall, who would be willing to spend $5000, $10,000 equipments or whatever based on 10-20-30 minutes ABX trial rather than trying to listen to it for as long as you want until you can make decision. If you can somehow arrange something to do ABX for a whole week. Most likely by the first few hours or days, you should be able to distinguish which is your old stuff and which is your new stuff and the blind part is over anyhow. I think I will stop here as well!

Well, in $2000 range, I suppose these 2 subs + whatever sattelites/ PA speakers + amp should fit the bill at least the +/- 3dB from 20Hz-20kHz 18" PA Sub Woofer Bass Speaker Cabinet - 500 Watts RMS - | 18 Inch Sub Cab | 18" sub woofer | 18 sub https://www.chasehometheater.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=135&vmcchk=1&Itemid=135&redirected=1&Itemid=135 Other criteria, I don't know, lots of receivers nowaday gives excellent specs, low noise floor, low THD etc etc, presumably should meet the criteria that was proposed. Don't ask me how they sound, never heard them and I have not been in a market for stereo at this price range for a while

First of all, listening test blind or unblind is going to be subjective.Blind test does not make listening objective since you don't actually measure anything. It supposes to remove certain bias but evaluation is still subjective no matter how systemic you might try to design a test. Subjective listening will be affected by various factors, blind or unblind. My main point is that blind test only deals with certain aspect of the test but it is not infalliable and certainly I don't think that listening test is actually an ideal topic to set up a blind test for various reasons that I already mentioned. It is certainly very possible to find system at $2000, $5000, $50,0000 and $100,000 that will meet your specific criteria. Do they all sound the same then? If you can't hear the difference, good for you, no need to waste any extra money and you can spend money on other more worthwhile pursuit.

opps sorry, I am not sure where the rest of the paragraph went but I just noticed that the end was cut off! cont previous post) If the result is done by an independent third party like NIH, the data would be considered more reliable. If any cable company conducts such test, someone will say that of course the result is favourable because cable company finance the study. Personally in this hobby, it is good to have skeptics and we should not believe everything that a manufacturer say. As much as a person should not believe what a manufacturer say or what one person hear in his/her system and take that as a fact, I also don't take a claim that 'this is voodoo', 'this cannot possibly be so' ,' 0 and 1 is 0 and 1' and conclude that it is not so. If a person has a theory and explaination that it should not make a different and actually go out and give a listen, blind or unblind is not as relevant to me, and say that he/she cannot hear the different. That is fine and I respect that. Afterall, I am looking for people who like to share their experience rather than their bias/prejudice/preconception (even if it is right). I don't proclaim to be the know it all, my hearing is best but like anybody else, we are wading through lots of information/misinformation and we all try to digest it properly and that's not easy.

Let me add just a little bit, there is one cable brand that in the past, when I auditioned it, immediately, I felt in love with it, incredible detail, well extended top, clear, pristine, very upfront, exciting sound. Within the first 5 minutes, I really think this is it. But foolishly, the dealer actually came to my place to home demo this cable and let me listen to it for quite a long time. After an hour or so, I found it to be fatiging and putting my old cables back into the system was a relief. A few weeks later, the same dealer came back to my place and let me have a 2nd chance at it. The same thing happened. However, if he set up a blind AB test for me between new cable and my old one and let me listen for may be 5-10 minutes at a time A-B-B-A style. My conclusion may very well be quite different. Not too long ago I also had a chance to listen to one of those systems that cost more than average luxury car. The first 45 minutes, I was really underwhelmed (system was already warmed up before I arrived). It was unexciting, nothing really stood out and grab my attention. But after awhile, I could not find any real false or weakness in the system. I could actually hear the music as it supposes to be and there is no hardware that really called my attention to it. I went in expected to be blown over by the system right from the beginning but it really took me a long time to really appreciate what I hear and it was really addictive. In a quick blind test, this system may fail miserably. Of course some people may not appreciate this sort of things and that's not what they are looking for in their stereo system. But this would be another instance I think where usual bind test setting would not yield the same conclusion that I would reach otherwise.