Quality difference from 12 years ago on Equipment

Unfortunately true.....

 

I got into DVD-A in late 2001 with a Panny RP-91, and recently went with a Marantz UD-5007. I'd say the sound quality improved dramatically in this case.

 

Well, there you go. Probably not worth it to upgrade just for audio quality, but these units offer features unheard of a dozen years ago. The OPPOs are universal players (CD/SACD/DVD-A/DVD/Blu-ray/4k-Model 203/data discs) and typically have a USB input that can address a connected computer or external storage drive. Their internal DAC can handle hi-res PCM, DSD, and multi-channel. They are wireless/wired networkable; i.e. they can play files from other locations on your network, typically controlled by a smartphone app. Older models (103/105) have built-in support for Netflix, Pandora, internet radio, etc. Also, they have improved BR load times; a particular weakness of my old Sony which takes forever.

Can't Amazon Alexa or Google Home do this today? I think they are pretty close.

 

I have the top OPPO already. Got it a few months ago....I made the comment for those that may not have been aware of my happiness with the new OPPO. Nice piece of gear. Very happy with it.

 

One make of cd player i have had nothing but bad experiences with is TEAC, the lasers just dont last imo. best player ive ever owned is a technics burr brown, man it sounds great.

 

The new ones are approximately a dozen years newer...

And, they have that new component smell...

 

Not into smell...

 

I've got 2 VRDS machines boxed up with draw mechanism problems. Not easy to get repairs these days (and on one the lazer may also be suspect). I bought a Cambridge CXC transport recently and it has far better sound quality.

 

Considering the average component has drastically gone down in weight over the last 10 to 15 years, items like blu ray players, CD players, the notorious all in one players, integrated amps, receivers and so on, consider the main bulk of a quality audio component is the power supply and when an all in one SACD/CD/DVD and so on player weighs less than 5 pounds one has to come to the conclusion the power supply, mainly the transformer(s) has been seriously compromised in those products.

So yes, quality has gone down, add to that many items from the last 15 years simply have not lasted with heavy use compared to the still running stuff from 20+ years ago.

Unless you are talking more expensive to high end I would say across the board quality has gone down significantly.

 

Like so many things, quality has lost its importance. Customers want, cheap, and easy to use. Sad.

 

No, I believe you can do that right now with Alexa, Amazon's little device.

 

The only significant news on the SACD front has been higher sampling rates from the standard DSD64 to double and quad rate. In principle this is no different than PCM progression from Redbook to 96k/24 or DXD.

As people have noted above, build quality seems worse with newer gear so the only reason would be less repairs initially and ability to handle higher rates. Note I am making no claims for or against the higher rates. Different people hear different results.

 

DAC's (as far as sound quality) bottomed out years go, IMO.

 

lol, why use cassette to record music from the internet? You could just record it on the PC that is playing it. Cassette is the most useless of all the physical formats you mentioned.

 

bottomed out or peaked? If they bottomed out years ago, when are the best DACs from?

 

You are correct. I meant peaked.

 

Curious ... why do you do that, instead of saving it digitally?

 

I had a room (suite in fact) in a smart Vegas hotel like that. One button and the curtains closed and the light went on. Or something. It drove me nuts. If I wanted the curtains open *and* the lights on I had to perform some specific sequence of button presses that I could never remember and it took about 3 tries with the curtains opening and closing like anything.

Then in the middle of the night the Jacuzzi turned itself on automatically and woke me up with the sound of roaring water. I think that was a bug!

Tim

 

No, you can do that with any current smartphone.

 

This is the nightmare scenario...all devices internet-connected and all pre-hacked by various governments. No thanks!

 

If you are interested in some of the newer formats--e.g., MQA, DSD--I am sure there have been improvements over the course of the last twelve years. It is a little less clear if one is thinking primarily about CD playback. There are a number of current manufacturers who still use DAC chipsets that have been out of production for well over ten years. Legacy chips, such as the TDA 1541A and PCM 1704 are still being put into new DACs by manufacturers who have stockpiled them. The reason current chips are not necessarily better is because of the priorities in designing new chips (sound quality is not a high priority). The highest priorities are size (then must be very small) and low power consumption because chips are now mostly used in mobile devices. Also, most chips perform multiple functions, not just audio conversion.

 

Except that technology has made this possible. First, how much power do you expect is needed by a CD player? Here's what CD looked like 25 years ago:


Since then, chipset densities are increased 100-fold, 224-tap 32x sigma-delta converters and all the logic of an audio player can run on 1.5v CMOS the size of a grain of rice, and switch-mode power supplies with integrated controllers convert power at 30kHz instead of 60Hz. Pocket-sized media players can play 96/24 for days on a battery charge. The weight of a magnetic transformer core is not a good measure of sound quality.

 

Hello, yea because really i want to build a collection of rare music on tape, something i can look back at in years to come

 

All physical formats are useless tbh, Its something i do for fun, i know tapes are obsolete but still.

 

except that it won't sound any good.