Hi Res CDs

[Kevin Bresnahan]

16 hours ago, sidewinder said:

With CD and streaming playback you have the D-To-A conversion process - which tales time and is subject to jitter. With vinyl the signal is continuous.

You like vinyl and that's fine. Vinyl playback adds coloration to the music and many people, myself included, like many of these audible additions. There really is no need to try and attribute your preference for vinyl to any perceived shortcomings in digital. If your digital music file was created from a vinyl source, all of the shortcomings inherent in the vinyl playback would be perfectly replicated - if done right. It's not a digital sound signature that you don't like - it's vinyl's sound signature that you do like.

Regarding jitter - at a demo of an external DAC, I participated in a jitter listening test. I could not hear it's effects. I understand that it's a technical problem that could affect the analog conversion, but after my listening experiment, I doubt that this digital conversion artifact is one of the reasons you find yourself preferring vinyl.

BTW, vinyl playback may be continuous, but it is anything but smooth. Look at that scratch coming up!

14 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

So you’re saying that material on a perfectly mastered SACD cannot be played back identically from CD? If so, I’d love to hear the reason why. 

How does DSD supercede the audible range of humans? Because 16/44.1 already accomplished this. 

I think this article describes the differences between DSD and PCM very well: https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/blog/what-dsd. It describes that standard DSD equates to about 24 bit/88.2 kHz PCM.

I also like the quote, "If anyone says that DSD is ‘better’ than other formats, the numbers don’t necessarily support that". This is even more true if the mastering engineer butchers the input signal.

[Scott Dolan]

Two quick points: 

1. Digital has no "sound". 

2. Neither does jitter, which has been proven over and over and over again to be inaudible.