Gramophone Player Audio Quality

Wonderful!

It's a pity I can't get it through the DS (and Andrew has explained to me why not) but it's impressive even through the headphones.  I'm working on it though.

Yes, well done indeed.

Vic

Listening in Moscow via Squeezebox Duet, optical connection to Quad CDP2 D/A stage, thence to Quad 909 amp and Quad 2905 ELS speakers, my verdict is mixed. The audio quality is OK, not dissimilar to the old cover-mount CD in fact. However it lacks the solid, 3D imaging apparent in the sound stage of the BBC 'HD' R3 320 kBit/s trial, or in most 'studio quality' FLAC downloads.

To me though the biggest drawback when using the Gramophone player is that no programme data is available on the Squeezebox, resulting in one's having keep going to view the PC at regular intervals to find out what's playing. Perhaps some clever person could devise a Squeezebox plug-in to address this.

Listening through headphones, I'm impressed by the quality. Musical and enjoyable.

Might be looking for the Hamelin preludes soon.

Love the bass drum in the Bartok 2nd piano concerto too (the other instruments aren't too bad either).

Best wishes,

P

That's interesting, because both The Guardian and Gramophone use the same technology platform for delivering video & audio - ie, Brightcove.

So the delivered quality is purely down to the bitrate(s) the respective sites have chosen to implement (ie, pay for, ultimately).

I'm really looking foreward to seeing where this one goes!

I accidentally brought the topic of computer audio into the LP vs CD debate after I had plugged my computer into my amplifier for the first time to listen to the G-Player. Not having looked seriously at the topic previously I received useful comments from John Duncan & VicJayL, however I'd better bring the topic back where it belongs.

I have now moved on a little which may be of interest to others not yet into downloading audio. Having connected computer to amplifier via the audio out jack on the computer I can't say I was impressed with the result: I wanted a simple and easy improvement. I have no interest in IPhones, IPods, MP3 players or the like and whilst I have read glowing reviews of all singing & dancing machines from Naim, Linn & Arcam in Gramophone I have no requirement for new amplification which I doubt I would prefer to the World Audio Design valve amplifier in this particular set up. I wanted something with no menus, no programs nor an instruction manual as thick as a novel.

As I was near a Maplin shop a couple of days ago I purchased the wireless gadget identical with that shown in Andrew Everard's current article on this topic in the magazine (apart from the brand name) for the sum of £39.99. I plugged the USB stick into the computer, connected the little box to a couple of phono sockets on the passive preamp and connected the device to the mains via the (supplied) transformer plug and lead. Switched everything back on again and it worked straight off. I noticed an improvement in audio quality immediately. The slight hum & buzz of the wired connexion disappeared and the sound had opened out. The frequency response was obviously much flatter; the excessive bass was tamed and some treble restored.

I next decided to do a few comparisons. Sutherland's Casta Diva didn't have quite the openness, presence or sense of ambiance of the Kingsway Hall's acoustic of Kenneth Wilknson's lovely 1960 recording evident on the CD. Collins's Mozart 40, a superb performance just how I like my Mozart, no scrawny sounding vibrato-less period instruments but a brisk and powerful performance with a great orchestra sounded superb on the CD, very much better than the G-Player but then both of these recordings date from the early days of stereo with simple microphone techniques, valve tape recorders and no Dolby systems; before sound quality deteriorated to what we get today. From the Radio 3 I-Player the sound seemed closer to CD (do they use a different bit rate or something?). Elgar's piano quintet (Ogdon/Allegri) was quite listenable but not quite equal to CD. Closest to CD was Tasmin Little's Delius concerto but then this is more modern digital master and sounds  a bit dull on CD anyway. It doesn't have the brilliance & immediacy of the older analogue master issues - a typical example of the deterioration in sound since 1960s recordings referred to.

So, early days yet but thanks for your suggestion Andrew: an improvement over direct connexion to the computer, but in this set up does downloading match the old Technics CD player? Quite frankly, no.

It is I suppose ironic after all this wittering on about audio quality that most of my download listening so far has been to 78s on the British Institute of Recorded Sound's player! Here downloaded sound is often superior to some items transferred to CD where the latter have been emasculated by the dreaded CEDAR noise reduction system which the BIRS transfers seem to mercifully have avoided, being rendered au naturel.