Digital Drive Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Re: Finally, someone who makes sense!

Posted by Christine Tham (R) on April 8, 2007 at 17:52:02

In Reply to: Re: Finally, someone who makes sense! posted by Ted Smith on April 8, 2007 at 10:43:37:

I'm prepared to accept that some mods make sense, and some modders may indeed know what they are doing. My post wasn't intended to be a universal condemnation of modding :-)

However, the issue I have of most comparisons is that they are anecdotal rather than objective. To date, I have not seen any empirical evidence - noise floor lowered by at least 1dB, jitter halved, etc. etc. The only objective measurements I have seen are my own, and they are decidedly inconclusive at best, and in at least one instance the modded unit exhibited far worse measurements so the end result is certainly different, but not better.

For example, even the report you posted was of a comparison that was problematic. Sony players, as we both know, do improve from burning in and comparing a brand new stock unit with a used modded design is unfair, as you pointed out. And since no measurements were taken all we know is that the units sound different, we don't know for sure that the unit that sounded better is *really* better.

For example, if you kept both units for several weeks and listened to both of them over an extended period of time, you may find over time that you prefer the unmodded unit.

It's easy to initially mistake increased distortion artefacts, or even increased jitter, as euphonic. Indeed, a common technique during mixing is to add a "harmonic exciter" to the mix or individual tracks - in other words, adding distortion to the sound. Used judiciously (and I'm not ashamed to admit I use it myself) the sound can indeed liven up. But if you listen to the sound for an extended period of time, you may find that you will grow to dislike the sonic signature.

Also, seemingly trivial and insignificant changes can cause a perception of improved sound. For example, when I took my Sony player to the repair centre to get the laser replaced, it seemed the player sounded much better when it was returned (and I was careful enough to do a comparison between it and my reference player before and after). And yet absolutely no changes were made to the design, and the parts that are swapped in are no better than the original.

And several weeks ago John proved over in diyhifi.org (rather comprehensively I thought) that the Lavry DA10 was resampling no matter what reclocking mode was selected - and in fact the only difference when flicking the switch were slight differences in the power supply noise. And yet many people claim they can hear the difference between CrystalLock and Narrow modes and that CrystalLock sounded substantially better.

Perception bias is very powerful. If we *want* to hear a difference, we *will* hear a difference. Even when we don't expect to hear a difference, sometimes we seem to hear a difference. But is the difference significant, or even better?

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Sonic Craft

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---