Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms": XRCD vrs SACD

Last weekend, K.O. and I listened to the title track of these two CDs back to back in order to hear the differences between them, if any.

This was on the following equipment: EMM labs / Meitner digital running into Lamm ML2.1 amps on the Triolon speakers, Stealth INDRA interconnects and Shunyata Anaconda Alpha powercords, HRS isolation bases and nimbuses, the CDSD transport resting on an Acoustic Dreams rack.

The album cover

We both agreed that we liked the SACD version better.

Of course there was more detail on the SACD version, but it also had more suspense, which I found to be an unexpected difference. Or maybe one can call it anticipation. This refers to that feeling you get, which this album does so very well, at the end of a loooong drawn out note when …you …know …the …next …note ..is …coming… …it …is …almost …here… …YES!

Imaging was also better and there was more solidity and presence.

Everything was better, though stepping back from the music a bit, mentally, one might say they was a slight artificial taint to the whole thing. That the ‘whole’ was not blending together as it might.

My interpretation of this was to reflect that the XRCD, being a very smooth, almost tube-like presentation, was also just as artificial, it is just that most of us are used to it because we grew up with that kind of artificiality.

This implies something interesting about the younger CD / DVD / MP3 / SACD generation, but I do not think I care to speculate right now on what that ‘something interesting’ may portend. No reason to think about tomorrow’s problems, we got enough right here today, thank you very much.

By the way, in the past we have compared the LP version to the XRCD version – and the LP was laughably (or very distressingly, depending on your point of view) better. It so out-classed its digital counterpart that I really felt ripped off that I had paid the $35 for the XRCD. Oh well. I think the day of the XRCD is over – it was great when most CDs and CD players had a strident edge . Now most CDs sound pretty good and the playback equipment either rolls off the treble a little or just plain sounds pretty darn good [or at least the playback equipment no longer sounds so bad as to require CDs like this that roll off the midrange and treble in order to make the music halfway listenable].

I guess we should next compare the SACD to the LP, but I am thinking that altough the SACD is closer now to the LP in quality, it will still be no match. Well, when the new HRS MXR equipment rack gets here (gloss black, ahhhhhhhhhhh. Yes, like that pictured in the post below this one. Oops, can’t let Neli see me drooling all over the keyboard or she’ll never type on this thing again) we will move the Brinkmann Balance upstairs and try this very thing. You want to be here for this, K.O.? 🙂

We are Remastering the Website

The Audio Federation website is always trying to maintain a balance so that it serves equally well all the different kinds of visitors we get: customers and audiophiles, the hobbiest and the merely curious, those looking for information and those looking for audio por*n/photos.

Finally happy with the look of the home page, and we’ll probably keep it until at least June, if not longer.

We added a Site Map page accessible from the home page to make it easier to get around – which I even find myself using more and more. The links at the top of each page in the dealership now let one easily get back to the home (top) page.

The Music page will evolve to become an annotated index into the Blog’s forthcoming posts of audiophile-relevent music reviews. Our emphasis will be somewhat different than other music reviews, focusing on the quality of the sound more than the history of the band or how the album fits within the bands other work, or fits within the genre as a whole. Not that this other information isn’t interesting – it is that it is already done quite well by others in the industry, and no reason for us to duplicate or detract from their good work

The Hifi’ing Magazine will evolve into being not only a list of recent show reports but an annotated index into the Blog so that people can more easily find ‘major Blog posts in history’.

The Audiophile’s Guide to the Galaxy will be updated, both visually and content-wise. Finally.

We’ve added a number of photo galleries to the dealership product pages, and these will get fleshed out a lot more with both pictures that we take here and those we have taken, and will take, at shows.

Gloss black HRS MXR equipment rack
We’ve also started adding ‘experience reports’ to the dealership’s product pages, which collect and display information about our experiences with the various products in several situations. The HRS vibration control product line is the first of many products we will do this for.

Neli will start working a lot more on the website; she knows a lot more details about most of the products than I do.

This means letting Neli have access to the website. I can just see it now. If you notice some descriptions going back and forth between say “lovely and detailed” on the one hand and “rich and detailed” on the other – you will know it is one of THOSE types of discussions going on here on the other side of your computer.

This is kind of like lending your spouse the keys to your Lamborghini (well, let’s just imagine we all had a Lamborghini, OK, and thatmost of us hadn’t spent all our money on audio equipment and $30 a pop LPs). How many times can you say ‘pleeeeease don’t break it dear’ before you get one of those matrimonial Death Ray looks? Once? Yeah, that is the way it works here, too.

I do try to get her to post her ideas on this blog…at least once a day, (and sometimes hourly. This nets me another kind of look). She made her own trip to Planet Abraxus, and to planet [whatever opera Mike Lavigne was playing the last hour of CES in the Swedish Statement room] and I am sure people would like to hear what she has to say about it.

But she is more comfortable talking about audio than writing about it, the opposite of her way too softly spoken husband. So it will still mostly be me who is posting stuff on the Blog about the ‘goings on’ here at the Belfry – with hopefully some occasional posts by Neli, and perhaps even some special guests, from time to time.

If you have any other ideas, please let us know. Thanks!

The Mating Dance Between an Audiophile and What the Uninitiated Would consider an Inanimate Object

Well, THAT was a long title – let’s see how the Blog software handles it…

One variation of this little dance goes like this:

We loved our Audio Note CDT2 transport. Paired with the Audio Note 4.1x Balanced DAC there was not the slightest digital etch or hardness to the sound – and whatever slight imperfections that it did have, well, it did not detract from it being definitively state-of-the-art nor did it impact our enjoyment of the music in any way.

Then we met another transport, the CDT3.

CDT3 next to CDT2

“Hi transport” we say with low expectations dripping from our test CDs. Yes, it was an enjoyable time we spent together, it was certainly a very nice transport and was admittadly better in everyway – though in some ways it was more better than others ways where it was only slightly better, it was especially better in the areas of PRaT, harmonic content and continuousness/flow/momentum – we were glad to have met it.

[The CDT2 is slightly more dynamic in the midi-dynamic range – or perhaps it is just that the note envelopes rise faster and decay faster – so I could see some people who would like this more aggressive sound, less analog and less continuous sound better].

But it wasn’t like we were going to abandon our long time partner, the CDT2. The CDT2 was our first Audio Note transport and we owed it some loyalty. Right?

Or is this just loyalty to our emotional investment in our belief that this is a really good transport and sufficiently good for us to be able to enjoy it unconditionally, forever.

CDT3 next to CDT2

Well, now it has been a month since we have heard the CDT3 and …. we miss it terribly. The CDT2 now sounds old and irritable. We now see freckles on our CDT2 that seem to grow louder each day.

Back of CDT3

Well, you all know how this dance finishes. We hope our CDT3 will be able to move in any day now – and though we still love our CDT2 terribly, we think it will be happier with a more appreciative audiophile.

Been there? Done that? Rinse and Repeat?

People who have been in this hobby for a long time know enough to ask before hand…

“Do I dare to listen to this thing?”

Funny thing is, we almost always say, with trepidation in every fiber of our being….

“Ok….”