Is there much of a time lag associated with this approach, considering its impact on non-sustained peaks.
Thanks Ted! Would be interesting f e.g. the dynamic tympani hit of a very low level Reference Recordings album would already hit the peak. Or the bass of a less dynamic but very high leveled HipHop recording.
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No time lag. That’s the peak part, it rises instantaneously and the filter lets it fall more slowly.
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Better sell your analog rig now before the next generation of DACs are released. If things are that close now, the next gen is liable to totally eclipse your analog rig. I hung on to all my film gear too long, and it was just about worthless when I sold it.
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…and then switches back to Sunlight with a slight delay when no peak is detected?
You miss that part of the game is the records and their quality… they would have to be sold, too, for a good part without a chance of digital replacement 
But to RonP I can say, it’s right (imo), unless a vinyl rig isn’t a multiple of his digital’s price, it can just be partly better. For those with quite comprehensive demands it gets quite expensive. But then the distance for digital gets bigger than one new generation
Good point, if the LPs don’t have digital replacements, then I can see hanging on to the analog rig.
And many enjoy vinyl albums, sound quality aside.
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Yes, when the average level falls just a little you are back to Sunlight.
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Gary, that was proposed when CD was released; SACD, DACs, Streamers and with every “new” development in the digital domain… Digital is cut-up and stuck back together. I’m not anti digital, far from it - I will own 2 x TSS. I think Ted is a frigging genius and I love reading all of his posts (look forward to them) but, there’s some kind of “Magic” with a really great analogue recording/playback that no digital box, thus far, can out-perform it.! The only reason I can see the vinylites selling their TT rigs - they’ve ruined their LPs with excessive cleaning!
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From my experience, I see quite everything in Jazz (and a bit more selective in classical) pre 1970 as more or less strongly superior on vinyl (if the right masterings/pressings - not only audiophile ones - are chosen). Exceptions might exist occasionally (at least one immediately comes into my mind). The same for every analog recording thereafter. The rest depends on the quality of the vinyl rig and masterings available (of which there are nearly always more better ones available on vinyl) and the criticality for vinyl tracking limitations. But then there’s so much good music only available digitally…good to have both.
If the upcoming generations of DAC’s should be enabled to show their real potential, a load of past recordings would have to be re-produced digitally with similar superior technology as the upcoming DAC’s and care as taken for many vinyl releases imo.
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I was afraid that may be still be the case. Every time I’ve heard a good anolog rig in the past, I had a hard time listening to CD’s for weeks afterwards. Just wishful thinking on my part I guess. I best keep my distance from any good anolog rigs for the time being.
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I am taking delivery of a Stellar Phono Pre in the near future. It may be my last phone pre if the MK II or the TSS live up to Ted’s expectations. To be honest I’ve lost the zen moments I used to get while record cleaning. Now I look at it as a chore.
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Just today I listened to the AP 45RPM of Oscar Peterson We get requests. As I do occasionally, I switched to the same Analogue Productions SACD release for a short cross check and was floored how much worse it sounded (much bigger difference than for many other viny/digital comparisons). I then googled and found this for the digital release. OMG, if they’d just make use of pure DSD at least for SACD’s. But something else must have gone wrong, too, for many of the AP SACD releases compared to the vinyl .
“Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. The DSD was sourced from the PCM. George listened to all of the different A/D converters he had before he chose which to use, and he felt the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project.”
Qualifier unnecessary in this house.
I have similar thoughts o the subject, maybe not a hard line at 1970. Post 1970’s analog (vinyl) releases by ecm, Black Saint, Soul Note, HatHut releases come to mind regarding jazz and truthful fidelity. For me it gets down to if it is a properly done analog source I prefer vinyl, or reel to reel tape. Some of the most early analog to digital cd jazz transfers just sounded harsh. Between the digital play back available in the 80s, and the transfer method of analog to digital released as main stream CD. More recent digital to digital recordings sound quite good with proper recording, mix and mastering skills. Digital playback equipment has also improved considerably, compared to what was available in the 80’s and 90s, the DSD is a case in point.
I did a comparison on AP’s 45 vinyl of Willie Nelson’s Stardust to SACD to Qobuz and the vinyl was better than SACD which was better than Qobuz. My 192/24 test rip of the vinyl via a PS Audio NPC sounded better than the SACD too.
It sounded as if noise reduction was applied to the SACD and applied several more times to the Qobuz release and robbed the sound of life.
It’d be nice if there was a database of which format of am album is best.
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Interesting! Thank you for sharing your experience!
PAAS SQL is your friend.
It turns out the Dynamic Range DB might subtly indicate what I hear… The SACD and CD are more compressed than the vinyl.
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Willie&album=Stardust
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