Am I crazy? DirectStream DAC Sounds different with or without an SD card?

Note this is not an analog v. digital issue.

A state of the art 1960’s vinyl playback system could not even start to reproduce the sound captured on a 1960s LP. Only now can we hear what is on these old LPs. And we keep getting better at it and finding even more on these 60 year old albums.

Again, recording technology has always been far better than our ability to play back what we have recorded.

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I had my DirectStream DAC with Bridge II for about 4 months. After seeing this post I plugged in the SD card. What did I hear? This is crazy but the soundstage becomes more three dimensional, and the bass is tighter.

I will listen again tonight to see if I still feel the same. But so far I am amazed.

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Elk, this is my point. Audiophile engineers, at the highest level, attempt to build equipment that will play back a recording as faithfully as possible.
I don’t believe that most recordings and mastering are done with the same intention of faithfully capturing the actual sound that is being recorded. I also don’t believe that most professional equipment are made with the same level of intent to make equipment with the highest level of accuracy possible.
Thank goodness there are a few professionals that think like audiophiles who work to make the most accurate equipment and recordings possible.

There are “creative” people all along the process who (purposefully or not) put their stamps on any production. From what I’ve seen they are mostly doing their best to realize a vision, but that may or may not have anything to do with being faithful to the original performance.
All professionals like using good equipment, but they each may have something different in mind in defining good equipment.

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Yes, digital vs. analog wasn’t my point, rather that those old recordings („accidentally“ analog) were also better because more care was possible at the time.

But the pure „recording technology was always better than playback“ doesn’t meet the (my) topic. It doesn’t explain why and if it was in spite of a certain HW and optimization ignorance or clarifying what should make recording equipment more immune to progress.

The more flexibility a new tech offers, the more people will use that tech to express their own creativity.

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Exactly. I don’t doubt many want to reach the goal of great sound and do what they can. But it seems the way to reach this is dominated by the „credo“ of a scene. The Credo of high end consumers is (exaggerated) „try to get the latest s*it no matter what it costs“. The credo of the professionals seems „everything our usual suppliers don’t offer is voodoo“. Exaggerated as I said and there are exceptions.

This is not necessarily the goal.

A chamber music recording is intended to be accurate, presenting acoustic instruments in a performance space.

A Diana Krall closely mic’d recording is intended as intimate artifice. Her recorded voice pleasing the majority, but absolutely not “real.” Heavily compressed and additionally EQ’d this is not what she actually sounds like. But most audiophiles love it, along with the raft of other popular female altos.

Then there are rock and other pop recordings which do not even pretend to sound “real.” They are creative statements which sound wonderful on their own terms, but have little to do with reality.

On the far extreme is electronic music. No “real” sounds, but it is often exquisitely and carefully crafted where each sound is fully intentional.

It is not more immune to progress per se. Rather, the job is technologically - counterintuitively - easier. For example, a 50 year-old handmade ribbon mic is magnitudes more accurate as a transducer than a modern loudspeaker.

Thus my example of comparing a 1960 LP with a 1960 playback system. We all know the 1960 LP is vastly superior to the 1960 playback equipment of the time. Play that same 1960 LP on today’s equipment and the sound is often superb.

This disparity continues. Currently loudspeakers and the room are the biggest challenges to overcome in playback technology.

Nope. Not even close. Pros love new gear and advances as much as audiophiles. Spend a bit of time on Gearslutz.

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I understand the mic example and take your background about the gear heads in pro audio.

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“This is not necessarily the goal”. This tells me we are in agreement.

We may be. :slight_smile:

One thing neither of us mentioned are the recordings where the production team wants it to sound like actual instruments but the recording fails. We all have heard dreadful recordings which are simply bad.

I have made a few where no matter what mics, where they were placed, where the musicians were - it still sounded less than what it should have. Bleh.

Okay, this thread is now officially been hijacked :stuck_out_tongue: Don’t mind though, very interesting read so far.

@dchang05 Thanks! That counts for 2 crazy audiophiles haha.

I have listen with the SD card inserted for about 6 hours now, and no question the sound is better. In fact, now the sound is better than this morning.

Thanks for starting this thread. Who knew a SD card will improve sound.

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Very interesting indeed. Even more so the possible explanation / culprit -the perceived drop in SQ down to the processes of having the unit read the card when there isn’t one. I guess everything does count huh.

That is until one gets a power spike and you het a bad load of Windom that leaves you wondering what happened to my sound. My DS went through periods that a software reload would cause thing to improve. Perhaps it is time to try that again Ted had speculated it might be degaussing.

Are you guys just putting in a blank SD card or doing a full reload on firmware too by cycling power?

Mine has the latest firmware so I did not reload any software. I think Ted’s point may explain the possible reason of SQ improvement.

Will any ol’ SD Card do? Does it need to be formatted any specific way?

The SD card came with the unit. I have not uploaded anything into it. But I do not know if PS Audio has formatted in factory or not.

The smaller the better. Definitely less than 32gb. FAT16 or FAT32 should do the trick.