Digital Drive: Yes, I do. And thank you very much for bringing this to our attention! by Tomcat

Jerome,

I have just a different opinion on which track access method is preferable. But basically, you're absolutely right: there is a difference. And I have learned this just because of you. Thank you!

I guess that's my experience with most tweaks. The problem is not so much to perceive a sonic difference at all, the problem is to tell which sound is closer to the musical truth that has been recorded. This isn't always easy. And paradoxically, its becomes more difficult the harder we try. The analytical listening method of most audiophiles that tries to break down the music into isolated sonic properties focuses on the wrong criteria and is, in my opinion, utterly misleading. I believe that, as long as we are talking about music reproduction, the only criterion that makes any sense at all, is musicality. If our listening approach when evaluating components is radically different from our attitude when listening in a real-life concert, then there is little hope of getting closer to the goal of re-creating real-life music. To me, musicality IS accuracy. Try to seperate them, and you open a Pandora's box.

Another cornerstone of my audiophile philosphy is the belief that there is no such thing as euphonic distortion. I honestly believe the term 'euphonic distortion' to be as Orwellian as it sounds. To me, euphony and distortion ARE mutually exclusive. If a new component sounds worse, less musical, less involving, more fatiguing, then I believe it is worse. As simple as that. I honestly think that, in the world of audiophilia, most emperors ARE naked. If the SID was more resolving, if it provided greater information density, why would this be limited to distortion products and artefacts? Why wouldn't there be more musical information at the same time, especially musical information? Why wouldn't there be increasd musicality? As I hear the SID, it wreaks havoc with the integrity and cohesion of the musical signal, it destroys the proper harmonic and rhythmic relationships that have been recorded, and it simply doesn't provide superior low-level resolution.

And finally, the SID is cheap enough for Prokofief to safely try it for himself. But his question was about experiences with it. I just wrote about mine. And if Jerome likes the SID as much as you, Jerome, who is to tell him he's wrong? I'd say the most important thing is that a listener enjoys his music. And if the SID works for you, it works for you. In the end, that's the only thing that counts, I believe: subjective pleasure. We need to be hedonists. All of us.