Hardware, more and better, constant angst—bleh.
I suppose I'm the outlier among most audiophile circles because I rarely change equipment. And, I'm not eager to go listening to gear.
For me, I want better software. That's clearly my shtick, always has been. And, here, it's not as much the music as it is the sound quality—the sound quality of the recording. I'm just a nut about this, and I'll listen to just about any genre of music if the sound quality is high. (Well, not any, but many.)
Who else is in this strange boat navigating in and around the audiophile lands?
Yes, the hardware is important. And I'll be obsessive about putting together the best kit my budget will allow. Highly resolving, pure in sound, true to the timbre of real acoustic instruments. Oh yes, I get it—believe me.
But, once I'm at a point where my gear pretty well satisfies my obsession for really good sound quality, I'm done. At least for a while. Often a very long while. Because now I'm back to another obsessive search that I think has even greater impact on my overall enjoyment of great audio. That search is for great software.
Tom Gibbs has been a writer after my own heart in recent months as he pursues exceptionally high quality vinyl. Back in my vinyl days, I would have been right there with him. And then cleaning those lovely slabs of vinyl in an ultrasonic bath and a cleaning solution that was tweaked to a fare-thee-well to get the best results out of that ultrasonic cleaning. Oh yes, it really made a difference: disappearing surface noise, cleaner more impactful bass, greater inner detail, sweeter purer highs. Yes, indeed. Don't stop the search with just finding great mastering, lacquers, pressing, and vinyl composition quality. When you get it in your hands, before the first play sullies the surface, clean that baby. Ah, those were the days. And I'm happy to be past them.
Today my obsession is still with software. But that software is in the form of downloadable digital files, the best sound quality I can obtain. Because here is where the magic happens in my audio system today.
And, so, I'll drive my poor spouse (and listening partner of over 50-years) to absolute distraction with my listening comparisons to DXD 24-bit versus DXD 32-bit. To Pure DSD256 compared to DXD 32-bit. And when I drag her in to listen in hopes that she'll give me her opinion, she'll grin and bear it and listen and opine. We almost always agree—at least, I'll almost always agree with her because I'm no fool of a spouse.
In Tom Gibbs' current vinyl world, the apparent nirvana is one-step pressings. (That was never so in my vinyl days, but technology changes and I believe Tom.)
In my all-digital world today, my nirvana is Pure DSD256. Yes, I'll slum with other resolutions/formats. I listened quite happily this morning to a 16-bit 44.1kHz rip of a CD. It was Barshai conducting Shostakovich's Symphony No. 3, after all. Great stuff.
But, while I'll listen to low-mid-rate PCM, my objective is chasing after remasters of albums with DSD tracking channels to pester the label-owner to remaster those DSD tracking channels in a Pure DSD256 mix and re-release them. And, we have one this week. A real live one. I've just finished listening to the first track coming out the pipeline. And it is gorgeous! Just gorgeous, my friends. I'll talk about it soon in another article. And I have permission to share sample files, so we'll be doing that.
Even better are the recordings being made today with original tracking channels in DSD256, then mastered in Pure DSD256, with no PCM.
So this is what I'm living for today. More releases in Pure DSD256. Because when you hear it, it's like listening to that elusive 15ips master tape, only better. With greater dynamic range, greater transparency, and absolutely closer to the music. Stay tuned.
Will I be back on a hardware kick sometime? Maybe. There's a new amplifier coming from Justin Wilson, one of the great designers of electrostatic headphone amplifiers. And there is a new model of Stax electrostatic headphones. Yes, that combination of new gear just might get me back into the hardware search game. But, I have zero interest in the hardware search and angst game these days unless I think some new piece of kit might materially move my quality of sonics forward a good solid step. Just not interested in incremental minor steps with this or that. Boring.
In the meantime, the name of the game for me is software. And the players are people like Bob Witrak at HDTT (who just started using a new vacuum tube tape preamplifier that is upping his game), and Tom Peters (Cobra Records) who may be headed toward more Pure DSD256 remastering from his DSD catalog, and Gonzalo Noqué (Eudora Records) who continues releasing outstanding Pure DSD256 recordings and has led the way for the past four-to-five years, and Jared Sacks who says he's committed to making Pure DSD256 releases on his new Pelle D'oca label, and Robert Hunka of Hunnia Records who is releasing a new Pure DSD256 recording every few weeks, and Frans de Rond who is moving the same way with new releases on his Sound Liaison label (see my review of In Essence). Oh, and did I fail to mention Bob Attiyeh at Yarlung Records who always produces killer Pure SDS256 recordings? Or Aular Soon who has been making some outstanding jazz and organ recordings in Pure DSD256 released on his APSoon Records label?
So, I may become persona non grata with some of my recently developed friends in the recording industry, but I mean well by my badgering. It's really for their own good. But, Ann reminds me, its really all about me and this insane obsession I have for better and better sounding software. Ah, well. I'm still going for it.
I hope you will join me and share this obsession! Get off the hardware merry-go-round and really up your game on the software side of our audio world, whether vinyl or digital downloads.
