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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: I can understand your "weariness"... posted by Ivan303 on April 21, 2004 at 07:33:04:
. . . . except maybe that this post had me laughing so hard I nearly cried, whereas many of the others just made me shake my head. Brilliant.What follows has nothing to do with the post immediately above, but is sort of an all purpose response to a few thoughts expressed in this thread.
On the Digital filter/Analog Filter/No Filter front - The Audio Note DACs have never used digital filters because they were found to do great damage to the music's ability to run the gear gauntlet (ie - one's system) and emerge from the speakers as anything that would capture one's heart and soul, or even make one inclined to listen for two more minutes.
While working on creating digital transcriptions of various older analog recordings, Peter thought perhaps a nice gentle first order filter would reduce the "fried eggs" sound to a more palatable level. To his horror, the minimal filter drained the music of its life blood. (You can hear this effect for yourself on a CD many AN dealers have where Peter has included transcribed bits from a number of analog recordings both with the analog filter and without.)
This discovery cast doubt on the assumption that using an analog filter rather than a digital one in the DACs was as good as could be done. Thus, the next DAC, the DAC 4.1x Balanced, was designed with no filter from the outset. Beginning several months ago, the Level 2,3 and 5 DAC designs have been altered to incorporate a complete "filterectomy."
All of these are happily playing in widely varying systems around the globe. I'm not aware of any complaints resulting from "interactions downstream".
On Pricing - Some in this thread have complained about pricing. I'm at a loss as to why. AN offers 10 assembled DACs at present - five of them between $1,499 and $4,975. They all benefit from the lessons learned in the top level DACs, and all reproduce music in a way that is recognizable and consistent from top to bottom. People can listen their way up and buy where their ears and or budget tell them to stop. Or not buy, if the listener is not impressed relative to other mfgr's offerings. The market decides, and everybody wins.
And by the way, the passionate music lover is more likely to go for the top models than those looking for the prestige or bragging rights that comes with immediate brand recognition. There are many other makes better suited to that hollow pursuit.
Theory and hypothesis are all very well, but it's the ability of one's audio system to communciate the passion, pathos, fury and tenderness the musicians have imbued the recording with that matters. I'd just as soon make the company tagline "Sounds like heaven, measures like a bag of rocks", but I'm told that would simply lead to further misunderstandings. . . . .
Keep your ears and your mind open.
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Follow Ups
- Responding in this location for no particular good reason . . . - DRCope 04/21/0408:32:30 04/21/04 (2)
- "Keep your ears and your mind open. " - Rob Thomas 23:14:20 04/21/04 (0)
- Music vs. bragging rights - GliderGuider 10:22:47 04/21/04 (0)
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