Reality Check CD - again

DavidS · « **on:** 10 Dec 2004, 03:46 am »

I sent Patricia Barber's new live cd off to George Louis to have him do the Reality Check cd from my redbook original. George apparently had some trouble with the cd - something to do with the copy protection on it but managed to produce his copy for me. It arrived yesterday. Played a couple of tracks of the original and then put on the reality check. It is pretty darn good - for me there is no doubt that the reality check cd sounds better sounding on my system than the original. Was trying to think of how much better. Four comments about this:

1. seperation of sound and instruments is excellent. I actually was less impressed with the original than I thought I was going to be. At times instruments and sound ran togehter and sounded muddled - some sibilance. This is no longer the case with the reality check and when I a / b it is pretty dramatic. Love this sound and have been thinking about what I need to change in my system to get this all the time.

2. the bass is much improved - in fact the most realistic sounding bass I think I have heard on my system

3. what % better - well it might be 20% better - pretty significant for this cd and system. I have experienced similar changes with addition ven haus power cord to my cd player and with my new speakers.

4. I would love to listen to more. I am regretting sending this cd - should have sent some guitar rock, or maybe Cowboy Junkies, older Lucinda could use a boost - see I could see how I might enjoy this machine.

So reality check gets added to that list of things I would consider to upgrade my system. For me downside is the hassle of copying my cds and cost of buying blank cds and having more hardware. This is why I do redbook cd vs. vinyl or sacd or even MP3. Convenience and I am about 500 invested in redbook cd.

Not sure where it fits with other possible upgrades to my system that might see similar amount of improvement such as:

power conditioning - probably similar price
upgrade preamp - have basic mapletree 3A tube amp
mods to cdp or amp
replace IKEA stand with something audiophile
get felt markers, glass holders of rocks, or other gimick stuff

nice thing about reality check is you get a good idea of what the improvement could be

By the way George Louis has been great to deal with - lots of information and no high or even low pressure sales.

At this point I haven't used any product on my cds. I also don't have ability to compare cds to see what is going on with reality check - this is simply anecdotal what I hear when I compare. I do recommend you check it out if you are curious for yourself.

My system - Ellis 1801s, PS Audio amp, Mapletree preamp, level one modded Jolida 100 cd player, BW subwoofer, and variety of cabling and power cords.

David Speed

Horizons · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 Dec 2004, 05:32 pm »

My results with a test CD were similar to yours.

I sent George my remastered redbook copy of Genesis - "Selling England by the Pound" which contains densely layered 12 string guitars, keyboards, percussion, etc. There is no question that the Reality Check CD was better. I was able to hear into the dense mix much better than before.

I'm sure this is the most obvious audiophile cliche in history but I started out listening to this CD to check various parts of songs for differences and compared these to the redbook. An hour or so later I realized that I had just listened to the entire album straight through - something I have never done in years.

George is on to something here. I just wish it was more practical to implement. The idea of sending most of my CDs and get charged per CD seems crazy. Then again, his $500 machine is a little pricy for two CDR drives and some firmware. Maybe not. If this could be released as a PC software app, that would be ideal.

audiojerry · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 Dec 2004, 07:22 pm »

Could you guys shed some light on what this Reality Check process is by pointing to a previous thread or something?

Thanks

Wayne1 · « **Reply #3 on:** 10 Dec 2004, 07:38 pm »

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue16/RealityCheck.htm

audiojerry · « **Reply #4 on:** 11 Dec 2004, 12:24 am »

Very fascinating article - thanks for the link, Wayne.
It has definitely picqued my interest.
As good as cd listening has become, there is still a telltale digital signature.
How old is the article?

DavidS · « **Reply #5 on:** 11 Dec 2004, 12:39 am »

the article is only about a month or so old. George has been very receptive and quick to reply to my emails. There have been a few threads on this at Audioasylum and here before this with a mix of responses. Have had a chance to listen to the Patricia Barber cd a few more times and so many things I suddenly enjoy about this cd - again the sound difference to my redbook is dramatic on my system - intoxicating. Appreciate that this wouldn't be the case with my whole collection but even Genesis (sorry Horizons not a Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins fan) might be a good listen. Close as I have come to appreciating why you might invest in a vinyl or sacd playback system.

David

eico1 · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 Dec 2004, 01:02 am »

Who knows if the processed cd is level normalized, eq'd, mutliband processed or limited, stereo enhanced or anything!

If a purist approach is really the goal and he's starting and ending with a 16 bit 44.1 signal, I would consider whatever he is doing a pre-distortion type processing, trying to correct for errors in the dac ahead of the dac. Of course, not knowing what dac is being used would just be using this pre-distortion as and effect.

There are plenty of diy processing games to be had on the PC, I have been playing with the foobar convolver, want to hear what a ARC sp11 would sound like, get the impulse response and run it out!

It's easy to find and effect that seems to sound better when compared to the origional in short term tests.

steve

mcgsxr · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 Dec 2004, 01:03 am »

I have to wonder what a cdr copy of the new cd would sound like...

sys1 · « **Reply #8 on:** 12 Dec 2004, 07:09 am »

Has anyone purchased George's machine yet?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #9 on:** 28 Dec 2004, 07:18 am »

Has anyone else taken him up on the demo? I'm really curious to hear about it. I'm also anxious to arrange a comparison between a Reality Check CD-R and an Eximius DVD-R. As much as I love the software, recordable DVD is a little trickier to do than CD-R, with more coasters and less universal compatibility with all players.

JLM · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 Dec 2004, 11:23 am »

Wonder too if the type of playback (upsampling, oversampling, or pure) would make a difference in what improvement can be heard.

nickspicks · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 Dec 2004, 12:16 pm »

this is a topic I have some first hand experience with.

One of my audio hobbies is two track ambient recordings of live music. For several years now, i've been mastering at 24bit and various sample rates from 44.1 > 96kHz.

all things on the playback side being equal...24bit audio sounds MUCH better than redbook. Of that, my ears are certain.

Of course, I always made redbook copies of these recordings to enjoy on my main system, and in the car...etc. I used quality software (wavlab) and the apogee uv22hr dithering scheme (which sounds awesome) to bring the bit depth to 16 from 24, and resample if necessary.

I used to take these newly mastered redbook copies and put them up agaist the 24bit raw LPCM files played through my recording gear and digitaly into my stereo, which at the time consisted of a Musical Fidelity CD-PRE24...a great sounding CD player and DAC/PRE combo. I could utilize the onboard transport for the redbook copy, and just run through one of the digital inputs for the 24bit files. The DAC in this unit would upsample any digital input...including ones from the transport...to 2496 upon playback. Worthy of mention...24/96 streams would also be resampled and not locked to an external clock...even when it didn't need to be.

End result...
It was *very* difficult, if impossible, to tell a difference between the raw 24/96 file and the redbook file that was being upsampled to 24/96 by the DAC.

Since then, i've changed my stereo around dramitcaly.
I can still do the same tests, and I find that the upsampled redbook info sounds 95% as good as playing high-res PCM to begin with. So, I took a different approach. I now focus my attention on the upsample at the playback end. I still master in 24bit, but I dont see much of a need for in terms of playback. Not at least for what i'm doing. Studio work is a different animal all together, so that doesnt' apply here.

Bottom line, get a good upsampling DAC....or CD deck w/an upsampling DAC, and you will definatly have a better sounding rig.