Tag Archives: cd

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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I enjoyed my record collection, although its now gone and my Turntable and some of my record collection is with our son, which we love.

Honestly, I know it is sacrilegious, but I don’t miss it as my digital sounds great and while I don’t look at the record information  that comes with CD’s, what is available on my iPad, which is how I run my digital source, gives plenty of great information. While I don’t use it personally, Roon is supposed to be rich in artist and album information and better than the T+A MusicNavigator that I use.

And, PS Audio is having a sale on their LP’s

The vinyl feel

Ever notice that when you pick up a vinyl record, it feels like something real? I mean, as much as I am a digital audio fan, I cannot ignore the feel of vinyl. Its heft. The depth and texture of a 180-gram beauty.

And you can see the music. See the tracks and the spaces that separate them.

One of my great joys is opening for the first time a virgin vinyl release. There’s an intoxicating smell as you pull out the sleeve and release the vinyl.

I can’t help but feel a sense of awe and wonder.

And each copy seems unique: just slightly different than the others. After a few plays, it is definitely one of a kind.

And then there’s the artwork. The album cover is a canvas for some of the most iconic and beautiful artwork in the world of music, and holding a vinyl record lets you really appreciate it in a way that a tiny CD booklet can’t match.

For those of us who love music, holding a vinyl record is a powerful, emotional experience. It’s a reminder of everything great about music – the art, the passion, the soul. And it’s a reminder that sometimes, the simplest things in life can be the most meaningful.

There are only a few days left to score all the Octave vinyl you can.

Now, 1/2 off.

Enjoy.

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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PS Audio has 3 different boxes for its digital components. Their PerfectWave DAC,  a transport and now a Streamer.

I’ve been downsizing my audio racks and in fact, I am down to one rack for my electronics, although I have my T+A Amp 8 on its own platform. My digital components are two in number. My Melco server, which is where some 2500 CD’s are stored in WAV files and the other box, the T+A MP2500R, which does the rendering, controlling, CD/SACD playing and contains a truly great DAC.

Different strokes….

 

The last puzzle piece

In our little mini-series on streaming audio, we’ve covered the overview, the server, the controller, and today let’s finish up with the final puzzle piece, the renderer.

The renderer is sometimes a separate box or card (like PS Audio’s Bridge or AirLens), or part of a more complete grouping of the major components needed to stream music. Its job is to connect with the server, accept the digital bits being streamed to it, convert those bits to a form acceptable to your DAC, and pass them along.

  • Connect with the server
  • Recognize and organize incoming data
  • Convert incoming data to what a DAC wants (S/PDIF or I2S)
  • Deliver that data to the DAC

The renderer is the player. *(though this can be confusing because typically, a player produces something we can hear—like the output of a CD player. Renderers are digital in and digital out.)

In some parlances, the renderer is also known as the endpoint.

From a sonic standpoint, the renderer has the most important job of all. For it is here, in the final puzzle piece, where the proverbial rubber meets the road.

If we think back to our streaming system’s architecture, we remember that the server is a big network-connected hard drive. Our controller (like Roon) talks to both the server and the renderer and connects the two together when you select a track of music.

What’s important to understand is that big hard drive in the sky is sending its digital bits over the internet through a crazy combination of switches, wires, satellites, fiber, coax, etc. There are no clocks to get messed up. It’s just millions of little packets of data swarming around like bees converging in the hive. They all know where they need to go but how they get there and in what order doesn’t matter.

Our renderer organizes the swarm of bits into a uniform, orderly stream, processes the data into a form the DAC wants, then adds that all-important clock to run everything.

That final clock is where all the magic happens. Get that jitter and noise free and we have perfection.

Skimp on this last step and….

The renderer is the single most important sonic piece of the puzzle.

Make sure it’s up to your standards.

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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The impermanence of trends

Trends are nearly impossible to see in the moment.

When I was growing up men all wore hats and women were daring if they wore pants. That’s just the way it was.

Normal.

Only, normal is a trend: a temporary condition that feels relevant at the time but in hindsight is only a passing phase.

Trends are rather pervasive in high-end audio. First it was owning a console with everything built-in. Then we moved to separates. Turntables were all we knew until the CD came along. No one considered a subwoofer until it’s not cool to be without.

I think it’s healthy to separate trends from qualities that deserve permanence.

A love of music is timeless.

A desire to strive for better feels eternal.

It’s not a trend to fall in love with a great performance in your home.

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl

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My T+A MP2500R plays SACD’s, as well as CD’s and boy, does it sound great doing it!

Go for the gold

Today marks a smile milestone for Octave Records.

We’re launching two new killer discs, each mixed on the FR30s, and each available as a 24-karat gold CD in addition to our standard SACD and download versions.

While our SACD releases are popular, we get soooooo many requests for lower cost CD versions that we rolled up our sleeves to see what we could do.

Our first challenge was to make sure the 44.1kHz versions of the original DSD masters were flawless and held all the magic of a DSD recording. Our second challenge was to find the perfect pressing plant to make these rare 24-karat releases with the quality that we demand.

And we did! Now, for the first time for many, you’ll be able to enjoy state-of-the-art recordings as made by Octave.

Our first is our latest Audiophile Masters compilation number 6. What a wonderful collection of tracks from the likes of guitarist Miguel Espinosa, the Seth Lewis Quartet, a touch of country, classical, and sweet music.

The second is without a doubt killer. The Everlasting Dance by Tierro. I can’t wait for you to hear the recording quality we achieved on this masterpiece.

Both are available now.

Can’t wait for you to see what your system is really capable of.

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Jumping up and down

The humidity levels during winter months in Colorado are really low. Low enough that every time I slide my butt off the listening room seat I get a charge of static electricity—enough to really zap myself and the equipment. I’ve gotten used to discharging the static buzz by touching the grounded equipment rack.

But it reminds me that I rarely move off the stereo listening chair. That not since long ago when vinyl was king and I had to get up and down to change the vinyl LP side or select another track have I even given much thought to the jumping up and down of vinyl.

The most I ever do is when I am listening to a disc on the PST and it needs to be changed. I do find that discs (even CDs) still sound better than streaming but I hope that as soon as I get my greedy little hands on the upcoming AirLens that will resolve itself for CD and higher resolution PCM files on Qobuz and I won’t be jumping up and down quite as much.

That said, there’s nothing in the streaming world that I am aware of that’ll be playing the DSD SACD layer…though perhaps I’ll then switch over to Octave downloads and “stream” them from my computer in DSD.

No big conclusion here. Just a bit of ramblings and ruminations about jumping up and down.

You?

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Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Breaking with tradition

I know what I am about to do isn’t proper, kosher, or acceptable, but it’s the last day of the year so, what the hell.

The first time I heard Thom LaFond’s first track New Wildfire, I thought it was Harry Connick Jr.

Really.

I know, it’s not cool to suggest one artist sounds like another, but…

And danged if the next track, Isolation Hymn doesn’t sound like another famous group (you tell me).

And then the third track, Life as a Sigh is pure Thom.

This latest release from Octave is by far my favorite to date. Not only do the releases get better as the engineers hone their skills, but the artists do as well.

I have a new reference album in The Moon Leans In. It’s one hell of a great piece of music and an amazing accomplishment in the recording arts.

Whether you have just a CD player or a full on streaming rig you want to rip or add the download to, this is now not to miss.

Have fun!

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Dynamic contrast

Dynamics are defined as the difference between loud and soft. That the greater the dynamic range the greater the magnitude of differences between the loudest and softest.

At least that’s the official definition. In reality, we rarely come close to using anywhere near what is possible.

For example, the maximum dynamic range of a vinyl record (on a good day) hovers around 70dB while what’s possible on a CD is just about 100dB. If we were to play a track where the lowest musical note was 1dB and the loudest at 70dB we’d not be impressed by the dynamic range. We’d not be impressed because our volume control would be set such that when the loudest note played the softest note would be inaudible.  And, of course this would be even worse with a CD.

Technical issues aside, it isn’t so much the magnitude of contrast that matters, but rather a more complicated set of rules that involves time as much as any other factor.

As we listen to softly recorded music our ears open up so we may better hear into the soft passages of music. Kind of like an automatic level control. Once opened, we’re then startled when even a moderately loud passage comes rolling in.

Dynamics happen with a very set formula of time and contrast.

It’s not the range of possible that matters, but how its implemented that offers us a sense of dynamics.

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Tough choices

When do we make the decision to compromise? To choose convenience over quality of experience.

It is far more convenient to stream music than play it from a CD disc. And yet, discs of the exact same music still outperform by a noticeable degree music streamed by even the best stereo systems.

Being basically lazy I tend to lean hard in the direction of streaming. Certainly, I can hear and very much appreciate the differences between the physical copy and the streamed version. But that said, the convenience of streaming is so enticing…

It’s a tough choice knowing where to draw the line.

Where is that line for you?

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Why stereo?

In an age where multi-channel receivers and equipment can be easily had, why do we stay with only two speakers?

Some of us have been around long enough to remember the days of Quadraphonic sound.

As its name implies, Quadraphonic sound utilized 4-channels of audio typically encoded on LP vinyl in a matrix system based on the work of musician and mathematician, Peter Scheiber. His basic formula utilized 90° phase-shift circuitry to enable enhanced 4-2-4 matrix systems to be developed, of which the two main leaders were Columbia’s SQ and Sansui’s QS Systems. (Scheiber eventually sued the Dolby Corporation for theft of his intellectual property).

The three most popular quadraphonic LP formats in the 1970s were SQ (Stereo Quadraphonic), QS (Regular Matrix) and CD-4 (Compatible Discrete 4) / Quadradisc.

These 4-channel systems enjoyed a brief flash of acceptance and then died out, never to be heard from again until the advent of home theater.

Seems people weren’t all that interested in populating their living room with more than two speakers for the playing of music.

Though some of the most involving and emotionally satisfying musical presentations I have ever heard were multi-channel in nature, I still am in love with two-channel audio.

It might have been nice at one point in the development of home audio systems to have had buy-in from the world that rooms should be filled with speakers and recordings should all have many tracks.

That’s not what happened and I for one am pleased with what we have.

Blog Posts

Asheville, Walnut Cove, Biltmore Forrest and Western North Carolina’s Audio and Home Theater specialists present Cane Creek AV and Paul McGowan – PS Audio, Intl.

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Hope for the future

There are many reasons why we launched Octave Records, but chief among them was to add to the small supply of high-resolution recordings as well as to help set standards of what we as the high-end audio community demand in the way of well-recorded material. To that end, I think we’re on the right track.

Part of the reason we felt compelled to add our voice into what seems like an empty wilderness is the deplorable state of most modern recordings. Seems the state of the art has been sliding backwards for years.

I was heartened to learn that a committee formed by the Grammys has been pushing to set some standards for high-resolution recordings. Though they are not taking a stance on either heavy-handed compression or the loudness wars, they are at least addressing the issue of resolution and…get this…pushing hard against not only MP3, but raising the sample rate above CD quality!

Imagine!

“THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 44.1/16, 48/24, 96/24, 192/24 AND BEYOND
Is there truly a noticeable difference between MP3s and 192/24 files? Absolutely, but everyone owes it to themselves to listen and compare. In most cases the differences between CD-quality and 192/24 are at least noticeable, and frequently, they are stark. Skillfully mixed and mastered music with a wide dynamic range benefits dramatically from a hi-res workflow. For recordings
such as symphonic film scores, classical music, or other recordings that feature acoustic instruments, hi-res audio is a perfect fit—the increased audio quality can be appreciated by virtually anyone who hears it. In the experience of this committee and the audio professionals we interviewed (including numerous rock, pop, and urban producers and engineers whose work is aggressive and powerful), recording, mixing, and mastering at resolutions 96/24 or better results in a final product that is both sonically superior and faithful to the sound of the final mastered mix.”

You can download the paper here.

I realize this is a task akin to steering the Titanic away from danger, but we gotta start somewhere and I am heartened to read that recording engineers are being told resolutions higher than 44.1kHz are audible and preferred.

Maybe there’s hope for the future.