Analogue and Digital Sources

   Vinyl

Vinyl records have been around for a very long time – but almost became extinct when the CD appeared on the scene in the early 1980’s. However a hard core of audiophiles stuck to their belief that "vinyl was best" – and the format has survived to this day. Many devotees of Vinyl claim that because this is an analogue format – the "harshness" caused by the DAC used in CD players was avoided. The problem with CD is that the digitised waveform has a "jagged" profile – and this accounts for the difference in sound quality. Modern turntables with well engineered platters, low friction bearings and anti vibration motors provide a stable platform for the stylus to extract the finest detail from the record groove.

Acoustic Perfection supplies a turntable/arm combination that meets with the demands of the vinyl enthusiast. The Bix plus turntable offers a very high quality solution to the playing of vinyl.

   Compact Disc

Despite inherent problems with compact discs – with their relatively low bit rate – they still remain the mainstream source for serious listeners of recorded music today. Since the early 1980’s CD players have evolved from the original Philips designs – and audiophile players are now available that employ high quality Burr Brown D/A converters and upgraded playing mechanisms. Many high end players also incorporate separate power supplies for the analogue and digital sections, and have the electronics configured as dual mono bestowing clean channel separation. Several high en designs include tubes for the output circuit, which helps keep the analogue signal smooth. Recently – CD players with up-sampling capabilities have become available – the function of which is to increase the sampling rate – and further improve the quality of the signal reaching the amplifier.

Acoustic Perfection offers a selection of high quality tube based CD players from Shanling and Cayin.

   SACD

The Super Audio Compact Disc was introduced by Sony – on the pretext that it offered a wider bandwidth, wider dynamic range, and higher sampling rate than the conventional CD, and therefore overcoming the CD’s shortcomings. With an audio bandwidth exceeding the normal hearing range –some may argue that this is an irrelevance – but is claimed that being able to reproduce frequencies often up to 100Khz adds a further dimension to the music. There is a perceived increase in terms of air and separation between instruments and importantly the bass is transcribed with a depth that exceeds the usual level in CD recordings. Moreover the treble can be described as softer and richer and the reproduction of the human voice is more structured and wide ranging in harmonics compared to CD. The stereo image is incredibly stable and well focussed, with a fast precise and deep bass. In general SACD sound has a lot in common with the legendary advantages of the best vinyl productions.

Whilst the format is regarded as specialist – there are around 4500 SACD’s available of which over one half are classical recordings – with Jazz and popular music lagging behind.

Acoustic Perfection is pleased to offer Hi quality – tube based SACD players from Shanling and Jung Son.