charliehatch wrote:

Rick, I noticed that some of the Dragonflys are 96 kHz maximum. Is that true for the Cobalts? If so, you'll hit the wall on some of the Qobuz songs, which are at 192 kHz. When they say hi res, they ain't kidding. Most are below that, tho.

Charlie

Hi Charlie

All the Dragonfly DAC's play up to 96k. Apparently they play 192k at 96k also. So I don't know how much better or differently a 192k file would sound vs. a 96k. Of course there's always say a Chord Dave DAC for $12k or so for an uptick, but I'm not going there now . Though I don't doubt moving up the DAC scale improves what a great headphone or speaker can deliver.

So far, listening to hi res via the Cobalt in Amazon Ultra FLAC format vs. Tidal's MQA, it's pretty close SQ wise, and definitely a tick up from 16 bit CD quality. Everything just seems cleaner, more detailed. I haven't listened to enough Qobuz to have a good comparison playing the same tracks yet.

But the Cobalt is a big step up from the Dragonfly Red I had prior to the Cobalt being introduced. I love the clarity, dynamics, refinement, heck even musicality. But the Ananda's brought out the magic. Listening on closed back Sony MDR-1AM2's wasn't in the same class for realism, transient response, size of sound stage, "being there".

Rick

rjohn79395 wrote:

I don't know how much better or differently a 192k file would sound vs. a 96k.
Rick

My hearing rolls off at 4 kHz (gasp!), and even though I've tried and tried, I cannot tell the difference between 44 kHz and higher sample rates. I can't hear the difference between reconstruction filters either (I've tried and tried there too); the effects there must be above 4 kHz.

I had a friend over and set up a blind listening test. He has way better hearing than mine. I played two tracks with identical content, one at 44 kHz, the other at 176 kHz. (These were Reference, so probably really recorded at those rates, or equivalent.) I swapped them at random and he couldn't tell which one I was playing. He ended up picking the 44 kHz track as sounding better! Go figure. (Maybe his hearing isn't as good as I thought...)

I firmly believe that some people can hear differences in sample rate (probably due to filter differences). I'm just not one of them.

Oh well. Funny thing is, I can still hear subtle differences in components. I think that's because most of the musical information is below 4 kHz.

Charlie

Incendio/The Shape of Dreams (2013) - Azucar mocha

Beautiful piece!
The McIntosh is on amp duty today.

anthem wrote:

The McIntosh is on amp duty today.

Hey, Anthem

You cycle amps some like I cycle music genres.

For me, switching between genres is a chance to shift focus, moods. You have the rare luxury of choosing lots of premium amps to use, and play mostly jazz.. When you have a minute or two to spare, kindly share what about each of your amps, from McIntosh to D-Sonic to Emotiva, to all the other amps you keep in the barn, do you like, to fill the listening need you feel at the moment? You switch amps kind of like I switch music genres!

Happy listening!

Rick

I haven't listened to their music in quite a while.

Cinque/Catch a Corner - Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

Phenomenal sonics!
Steve Gadd on drums, of course.