lol, it does lead to a point though…which is, now that I’m at a point in my life that I can afford a ridiculously expensive system… is it too good?
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This is an interesting topic. Most of the upgrades I’ve made over the years have resulted in improving most of my cd’s, but not all, some still suck, and some do sound worse. The main reason I upgrade is to improve musicality above all, but I’ve also managed to improve other things along the way, like transparency, detail, and imaging.
Lowering the noise floor, via line conditioning, and vibration control improves everything. I also like to keep the tweeters aimed slightly outside of my shoulders, even though some music sounds better with the tweeters aimed more directly towards my ears, but that amplifies the negative effects of bad recordings, hence the compromise.
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What makes a profound difference for me in my system and why I love the sound of Redbook in my system is the use of the Decware ZROCK2. Which has now become the ZROCK3.
Makes my vinyl sound better as well. Each of my systems has one. I have a ZROCK3 on order to replace one of my ZROCK2s.
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When I bought the Iggy remastered version of Raw Power I was stunned at how bad it sounded.
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Hope I never have to find out what a DR0 sounds like 
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Agree about many “80s CD with fortunately a few exceptions.
Comes to mind Brother In Arms or Tracy Chapman.
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Ageed.
I’ve used the track “Highway 29” many times to note changes good or bad to my system tweaks.
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One nice thing is you don’t have to ride the gain. It is as loud as it is going to be from start to finish.
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IMHO, a resounding NO! I’m in the same camp as scotte1 on this one. It’s just one of those many ‘imperfections’ life throws at you. For sure, some music in your library is not going to sound as good as you remember it when you first heard it ‘back in the day’. OTOH, music in your library that was lovingly produced in a technically superior way will be rendered superbly on your ‘better’ system. I think it’s more than just a glass-half-full view. You’re sure to get much more pleasure from a highly resolving system with the ‘better’ recordings than from a system on which the poorer recordings sound ‘better’ at the expense of what better recordings can (and should) sound like.
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Well said.
Interesting product. Wish it had XLR connectors as well though.
Some upgrades improve the sound of most of my cd’s, this appears to one of those upgrades.
I used to think “Infinity” sounded like crap because the Audiovox cassette deck and Radio Shack speakers in the way back of my ‘70 Opel Kadett station wagon were crap. But that didn’t stop me from cranking it up and belting it out while sitting in the way back parked in the driveway. I loved that car, that system, that album, and those moments in time. I had maybe $200 USD wrapped up in the car, system, and cassette combined (~$1000 today).
It wasn’t until relatively recently, in the pursuit of hi fidelity, that I was dismayed to learn that, nope, the system was better than the recording, which was crap. “Infinity” in CD is still crap, along with 95% of everything else in my 1990’s dominated CD collection.
IME, recreating moments can tarnish treasured memories so I won’t be looking to Autotrader for a 1970 Kadett wagon. But I am thinking the 90’s vintage lofi desktop system I have boxed up doesn’t need an upgrade to be the perfect partner.
While poor engineering - capturing the studio performance? - is one aspect of the sound, another is the mastering. Some recordings made over 50 years ago - i.e., the Romeros Mercury Living Presence recordings of Rodrigo’s Conciertos - never cease to amaze. Others, like Sinatra’s Capitol output sound so much better in their 2015 remastered format. Randy Travis’ ‘Storms of Life’ (WB 1996) CD became progressively worse to listen to as my equipment improved. The 2022 (?) remaster is sonically wonderful. I find that old pop and soul recordings remastered by Duncan Cowell and Nick Robbins of Sound Mastering in the UK and some of those remastered by Bear Family are far better than the originally released versions and well worth acquiring.
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It is a fantastic device. Not only do you have two different EQ curves you can apply with adjustment, but different tubes influence the sound as well. It is pretty transparent, and the new 3 version will reportedly be even more so.
It woulds cost more than twice as much though if it had XLR connections, and be housed in a larger case. . . . I use Decware’s ZBIT to handle balanced XLR in and single-ended RCA out–as it uses top of the line Jensen 1:1 transformers and an attenuator you can get full balanced gain and adjust down as needed to single-ended.
The one bad aspect: it will take six months or so to get one built and shipped. Sigh. That is still six to eight times faster than having a preamp or amp built by Decware!
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I had a Kadett Rallye and later a Manta Rallye. I do browse for these cars occasionally but, like you, I start thinking that it’s best to leave the past right where it is. BTW bought both cars new, one in high school and the other in college. I’m sure they would seem underperforming compared to today’s cars, just like the gear we listened on. But they were fun!
In the 90s I bought two Carver CD players that had vacuum tube output stages. Noice. Plus they came with a magic button you could push if the cd sounded like drek. I never used that much. I had the top of the line single cd player and also the five disk changer. Both are in a closet somewhere in my house.
Early on I was all about Carver, then Sunfire, then Anthem. Good times.
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This happens sometimes with high end systems. Recently a neighbor came over to my house and asked me to play Hotel California on my system. Now, before I tell you what happened, I should be clear that there are probably various issues of that song, using different compression, perhaps different mixes and who knows what all. And I don’t know which one I accessed (through Tidal). But here’s what happened: it sounded lousy, and my neighbor was shocked. I think he concluded that my stereo isn’t very good, but that’s not it. It’s more likely that he heard what is actually on the recording, and he didn’t like it. But it may sound great on his car radio on a summer day. I cannot tell you how often I really like a particular song but don’t care for the recording itself. But when the recording is done well ----- WOW.
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Ha. I went carver sunfire then pass. I just liked his stuff. Pass I like better but hey.
To all worried about your system that’s too good. So I left my system for 4 months. I came back and omg. What a difference. Don’t know how many have had to do that but your first listen back is insane
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I might as well come right out and say it, in my system, I cannot tolerate CD’s. With most CD’s, my mind has to work too hard to correct for the hard leaness of the sound and I get fatigued really fast. Some well recorded SACD’s are not so bad, but my PST is mostly in storage. As to streaming and files, most 16 bits recordings are not much different to the CD’s, but a bit more listenable due to the playback signature of my streamer, which has a more natural feel to it. Same goes for hi-rez 24 bit 192k and DSD 64 compared with SACD’s. The real breakthrough is well recorded DSD 256. Now that puts me into the organic, natural real live sounding catagory. For me it’s that or well recorded vinyl that I enjoy the most when listening to music.
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Aren’t SACDs DSD 64?
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