One for the MAC lovers.

[Deleted]

Red Wine Audio Isabella
Joined: 05/01/2009 .:. Online .:. Comments: 191

Tue, 12/01/2009 - 17:40 — ciamara
I recently had the pleasure of listening to the Red Wine Audio Isabella Vacuum Tube Preamplifier/DAC. I was at a friend's place helping him set up a new Model Four, and I had a chance to listen to the Isabella through some very nice headphones. The Isabella setup was as follows:
- Macbook Pro
- iTunes/Amarra
- redbook and high res WAV and AIFF files
- USB connection to Isabella
- Sennheiser HD800 headphones with upgraded cables

That Isabella is a very nice sounding unit! Very detailed and open, yet smooth and silky in character. I could easily lose myself in there for hours on end without growing tired of listening. Well done Vinnie! Also, I personally have the Sennheiser HD650 headphones and have enjoyed them for years. But I was really amazed to hear how much bigger and more detailed the soundstage was the HD800's. Too bad I have such a small head ... I felt like they were going to swallow my face (ha ha ha).
Seriously, though ... I was able to hear the difference between identical files -- one ripped to AIFF and one ripped to WAV. The latter sounded better, indicating that WAV actually does sound superior. But that is a subject for another thread ...



__________________

Sanjay Patel | Ciamara Corporation | New York, NY | www.ciamara.com


www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Red-Wine-Audio-Isabella

P.S.
Yes Miguel, you introduced the Isabella and Isabellina to the NYC owner.

[rowuk]

I read a lot about these sonic differences, but they are always attached to "personal opinion". For the heck of it, I took one of my first generation digital masters from one of my concerts and saved then to WAV and AIFF formats. I guess my system sucks, I don't hear the difference. The stage size in classical recordings is primarily determined by the microphone setup. The formulas are here:
www.sengpielaudio.com/

The best classical recordings put the entire orchestra image only across the spread of speakers. If the spacing and angles are wrong, you get a strong mono component or the instruments seem to group at the speakers. If the balance of direct to reflected sound is right, you can hear the size of the room within a meter or 2. A couple of DB around 70-200Hz and you can make the stage as big or small as you want. 2000Hz is the secret for "hifi" detail and 8-10K for "airiness". Yes, I really believe that most of the voodoo is merely a shift in the frequency/time domain. Very easy to accomplish with resonant reproduction systems like headphones and speakers. The rest is accomplished with supersonic signals modulating into the pass band.

Of course, there are more factors, but without a measured common frequency response and output level, how can you judge what is really different? I consider most of these "reviews" to be a literary wanking contest.

That being said, there are many differences in sound that cannot be easily explained. Most of the times only symptoms are dealt with to make sure that the authors agenda is preserved!

If you want to hear some sonic truths, check out Reference Recordings or Delos.

[Deleted]

If you want to hear some sonic truths, check out Reference Recordings or Delos.

Robin
I have already listened to a few RR demo tracks. As for the superiority of SSD over HDD, 6 months or so back there was a CA Symposium with leading Recording Engineers, artists, Mastering Engineers and DAC manufacturers etc., as well as paying members of the public.
I understand that David Chesky (Chesky brothers) was among the attendees.
The SSD was unanimously preferred in all the carefully organised comparisons. Many Recording Studios have now changed to SSD.
e.g. Puget Sound Studios in the U.S.A.

Alex

P.S.

2000Hz is the secret for "hifi" detail

That is part and parcel of the DCM QED speakers that I use. I remember reading about this at the time I was considering purchasing them, and before instore listening.
From memory, a couple of dB reduction (?) in the crucial area can make a world of difference if correctly implemented .

[Deleted]

Nigel
The main problem is that up till now, most people seem to have settled for music around the house with remote control access and track information, and using "lossless" files to save on HDD space.The problem is, no matter how much they want to believe they have great music playback, it is far from what can be achieved by other routes.IMHO, it wouldn't even come close to what you are getting via vinyl playback into your speaker system. It is only recently that I have made inroads into the closed mind thinking, that just because computer generated rips may have identical check sums to an online data base, that they MUST have identical SQ.. Just as a very good CD player sounds better into a high quality DAC via SPDIF, Firewire,etc., then a mediocre CD player will NOT sound as good into the same DAC.
There is a lot more ANALOGUE processing in extracting the digital information from a CD than most people want to believe.
The same applies to the ultimate quality of the CD /DVD ROM that is used to rip CD to a PC's HDD or SSD.
e.g.
www.aqvox.com/download/AQVOX-highend-CD-drive-E.pdf
It is too expensive for my tastes though !
This has been a sticking point with many technical people as they can't see past 1s and 0s.They do not want to believe that Jitter is able to find it's way through a PC.As an example of this, I recently tried ripping CDs with a dampened external CD ROM, but had difficulty getting the checksums to match those from the online data base, except perhaps for one or 2 tracks.However the ripped tracks sounded very good indeed !In an effort to get check sums accurate as well, I then changed the settings in EAC to SECURE MODE, and instead of a ripping speed of around 9 x with this particular CD writer, it was then dropping as low as .1 times(1/10th normal speed) and going backwards and forwards over the same area many times to get a more accurate result.The SQ was FAR below that of the earllier rip running at a fairly constant speed, compared to this one where the data ended up being correct, but had not been a smooth and continous extraction.
It was also painfully slow !
Although my PC setup is quiet enough to go in my main listening area, it is not feasible to have the PC there. For that reason, I will on Saturday morning take my 32GB Corsair Voyager GT USB 2.0 pen with me to a friend's place, for him to play through his laptop into his very expensive speakers, and DIY amplifier and modified Benchmark USB DAC, when we have a listening session there.
Alex