Marvey's DAC Chart of Awesomeness

I really wish people can spend time to listen to the microphone feed before it goes into the mixing board that feeds the tape deck that feeds the RIAA EQ that feeds the vinyl mastering electronics that feeds the vinyl mastering lathe and see the major grand canyon void between the microphone feed and even the best vinyl pressings. The former is life itself (literally) and the other is an approximation of it.

 

Even more enlightening when you are the one placing and re-positioning mics while the musicians warm up and comparing that to the mic feed, constantly listening for differences in timbre and phase smearing between mics, whether using, abusing or trying to eliminate off-axis bleed. I'm a big fan of using bleed, with careful placement or minimalist mic technique.

 

Jason nicknamed them that?

 

I think this thread from Alex at Schiit may be of import. But this was way before the Bifrost Multibit was made public. So if Bimbo was the slang for the DS Bifrost uber usb, AKA BooBoo, then it must follow that Bifrost Multibit be the name of the Multibit

Our shop names



Yggdrasil - Yggdrasil

Gungnir USB Multibit - Gungnir Multibit

Bifrost Uber USB - BooBoo

Bifrost Uber no USB - Boo



I like the idea of calling it BIMBO, I just don't know how the women in the shop will react to me yelling that we need to ship 30 Bimbos to Amazon.

 

I've been only a minor studio rat, though mics from my collection are highly sought after. There are interviews and literature available for some of the greats that would have far more than I to offer. Look for AES interviews, Sound On Sound interviews etc. for the following people:

Al Schmitt
George Massenberg
Tom Scholz
Bill Putnam
Frank Laico
Tom Dowd
Bob Katz
David Chesky

A book I highly recommend is The New Stereo Soundbook by Ron Streicher and F. Alton Everest
Also recommended: Handbook of Recording Engineering by John M. Eargle

 

Sounds like an awesome plan! Every time I want to listen to music (any time day or night), please provide the microphone feed on my whim...the closer to the source, the better.

Of course, please be ready to recreate the Miles Davis - Kind of Blue sessions or the Allman Brothers At Filmore East at the very minimum...would a 5 day notice help for you to setup the feed in my listening room?

I agree, there is a huge void between the microphone feed and a final remastered product. But it doesn't help the cause of "playback" of recorded music.
A microphone feed will educate me to the differences of "live" sound vs "playback" of a recorded event. But it does nothing to recreate music of a time and era where I was not present to hear it "live".

How do we fill THAT void?

 

The point was that given the opportunity to hear the musician in the room, live mic feed and then final result, you would hear why some of the sound quality minutiae over which is argued often pales compared to the path @Original Ken describes. Everyone isn't going to have that opportunity. But there exist opportunities to hear instruments live on stage which can give some frame of reference while supporting the musicians more directly. Of course it also depends on venue acoustics and how well or bad the FOH and monitor mix staff do their job. Plenty of great musicians to hear these days.

 

I try hard to maintain a healthy diet of live music...truly a life enriching experience, always has been for me personally. I'm going to see Opeth (one of my favorite bands) in LA on the 24th of Oct. It is their 25th Anniversary tour! Wife coming along as well as I've played the music enough times at home, she knows some of the songs now



This is the theatre....the Orpheum. I find it MESMERIZING!



However, as good as live music is, I do try hard to get a small semblance of it through my playback system. It's just that vinyl does it much better than any digital I have ever heard at any price. Anyhow, you guys carry on discussing...

 

That's why I hate the way most of these Forums format the Quote - when it is in a faint typeface, often in a grey box, it is formatted for the purpose of ignoring it. My statement was a re-write of a previous poster's statement. (I think I am going to have to remember not to use the "quote" feature in those cases where my post doesn't make sense without the reader re-reading the quote.

 

shaizada wrote: "If the vinyl is actually mastered from a high res digital version (many times this is the case), there is a possibility for it to sound better than the CD mastering of the source."
But in almost all cases where there is an audiophile vinyl of a high res digital version, then the high res digital version is made available for sale. Adding RIAA EQ, Mastering Lathe, Vinyl, Phono Cartridge and Preamp to the reproduction chain cannot improve the sound.

The DAC used to drive the Mastering Lathe is unlikely to be better than Yggdrasil and is probably going to be worse.

I think that if Vinyl of a Digial Recording sounds better to you than your Vinyl playback system is introducing some "euphonic" qualities, much like tubes are known for.

 

I understood Original Ken to be talking about vinyl pressed from a hires digital source, hence the need for a DAC before the lathe. I could be missing it though.

 

You're reading too fast. My post started with the name of the poster and his quote that I was replying to.

 

This is an update to my earlier post in this thread at http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-dac-chart-of-awesomeness.63/page-2#post-6374

My Schiit Bifrost Multibit has been on for 125 hours now, which should be sufficient break-in for just about any capacitor.

It occurred to me that the slightly bright and glarey sound of the "Bifrost Multibit" might be due to the Japanese electronics I have been using to audition it - which have really excellent soundstaging as well as bass slam, but I remembered also have somewhat of a reputation for glare.

So, I went through my test tracks again with my Bellari Class A amp with the carefully selected Early 60's Siemens Munchen 12AX7. (This has excellent imaging and very smooth and even frequency response.)

Sure enough, this time there was no brightness and the only glare seemed part of some lesser recordings. Neither "cold" nor "warm" in this setup.

The Reiner Scheherazade had unprecedented separation of multiple instruments, and for the first time - no congestion at all.

Timbre was excellent with all recordings, and definition of instrument's shape and position was as good as I've seen.

And I'm really enjoying the outstanding bass quality as I listen to a lot of EDM lately like Disclosure...

Two thumbs up!

 

I know there has to be reasons, but I do enjoy the quality of many of my digital to vinyl recordings. The mediocre ones just sound lifeless, but a bunch of current ones (last 5 years) I enjoy more than out of my Yggdrasil. I'm sure I could search out a better mastering, but (bear with me) sometimes just buying vinyl is easier.

And this is coming from a guy who regularly attends roughly a concert a month.

 

I have to say, even on my entry level upgraded Project Carbon TT, my father's vinyl collection from 1965-1988 stuff (think every major release of everything XD) sounds wonderful and better than my digital versions of the same music. Haven't experienced the same amazement with newer vinyl.