Comment on Freed At Last From Patents, Does Anyone Still Care About MP3?
wookiepedia@lemmy.world 2 months agoI’m curious if you’ve tried listening to lossy compressed audio through a vacuum tube output stage? I use a cheap tube compressor with the attack and release turned to minimal and just a little bit of extra makeup gain so that the tube colors the audio a small amount. Think of it like sanding the layer lines of a 3d print, but for audio. It does introduce a small amount of hiss and colors the midrange a bit more prominently, but you can eq that out.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve never had access to any tube equipment. I did listen to lossy audio from a late '80s Technics reciever which had a similar effect to what you describe. It made the music much more berable to listen to. I do most of my music consumption on my PC now. I do love the mixes used for vinyl records however, It makes me sad they’re not available digitally. Most modern music is brickwalled sadly. I’ll buy a few records now and again because of the dynamic sound. Sorry for the rant but I love dynamic recordings and I’m sad they’re a rarity now outside of expensive vinyl records.
wookiepedia@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If you can, I highly recommend you try it out. There’s relatively inexpensive tube amps, even on Amazon that you could play with and box back up if it’s not your cup of tea. I just looked at the compressor I use and the price has gone up to a point where it doesn’t make much sense anymore, but it is SUPER useful to add some warmth in between a digital source and the class d amps I use in my PA system.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It might be worth trying. I’ve heard people replace the factory tubes with better ones. Is that something worth considering? What tube amp would you reccomend?
wookiepedia@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Swapping out tubes (and opamps on your DAC) is very much a thing, and I’m convinced that I can hear the difference between a sovtek tube and a Chinese clone, but that could be all in my head, as it wasn’t a blind test. Do some research on the amps, but for computer use, Fosi mc331 has an integrated DAC and puts out about 100w per channel. If my computer didn’t already have active studio monitors, I’d have pulled the trigger on it by now. For $116, it’s hard to resist.