My grail of 'all 1500 cds to hard drive' had to involve a Sonos Dem.
Friendly and local "Audio T" arranged a 2 x ZP80 and controller rig fed by I-Tunes lossless and driving a Naim system into Focal monitors.
I selected a Katherine Battle piano and soprano track and
a Penguin Cafe multitrack minimalist composition to compare and contrast.
On the Naim CD player I heard airco in the hall, squeaking feet on the stage and hall ambience (but not the audience, they are German and remain quiet!)Battles voice soars effortlessly in a real space.
The Cafe piece is multitrack analogue, tape noise is present but soft and somehow welcome. The loopy nature of the work is infectious and the layering of instruments is pleasing
and the timbre analogue.
At matched level the Sonus sound was remarkably similar. we
were using the digi o/ps of the ZP80.
But on close listening KB was singing in a different hall,reverbs were drier feet less squeaky, airco quieter.
The Penguins were similarly reduced, tape noise attenuated instruments not quite the same texture. Fine sound ,but not the same sound.
This kit is brilliant for what it does but can not replace
the Polycarbonate disc yet.(another codec could perhaps)
My next step is to buy a 17"I-Mac with 500G drive and 1G memory and use that only for I-Tunes digital playout into my Meridian D6000 speaker pair.
Any body else in this territory?
Rolo 46. GL6 7NL UK.
My grail of 'all 1500 cds to hard drive' had to involve a Sonos Dem.
Friendly and local "Audio T" arranged a 2 x ZP80 and controller rig fed by I-Tunes lossless and driving a Naim system into Focal monitors.
I selected a Katherine Battle piano and soprano track and
a Penguin Cafe multitrack minimalist composition to compare and contrast.
On the Naim CD player I heard airco in the hall, squeaking feet on the stage and hall ambience (but not the audience, they are German and remain quiet!)Battles voice soars effortlessly in a real space.
The Cafe piece is multitrack analogue, tape noise is present but soft and somehow welcome. The loopy nature of the work is infectious and the layering of instruments is pleasing
and the timbre analogue.
At matched level the Sonus sound was remarkably similar. we
were using the digi o/ps of the ZP80.
But on close listening KB was singing in a different hall,reverbs were drier feet less squeaky, airco quieter.
The Penguins were similarly reduced, tape noise attenuated instruments not quite the same texture. Fine sound ,but not the same sound.
This kit is brilliant for what it does but can not replace
the Polycarbonate disc yet.(another codec could perhaps)
My next step is to buy a 17"I-Mac with 500G drive and 1G memory and use that only for I-Tunes digital playout into my Meridian D6000 speaker pair.
Any body else in this territory?
Rolo 46. GL6 7NL UK.