Just an update on the TRefs. I now have a few hundred hours on them, and I think they have improved a bit since my last report. The presence, clarity, and detail are really astounding.

I've been ripping my Mercury Living Presence set (the first one). Playing these 3 microphone, 1960ish vintage recordings is wonderfully illuminating. I can hear the difference between these recordings and the more "modern" multiple-mic recordings. (I'm talking orchestral classical here.) On some recordings I can hear a greater sense of presence with the Mercuries. My current theory is that multi-mic recordings can have more than one mic picking up the same instrument with a phase delay between them that causes a time smear. The Mercuries really convey a clearer sound. It really is "Living Presence." The TRefs allow me to hear that difference.

Great fun. These speakers continue to amaze.

Charlie

Charlie - have you tried listening to MQA quality via your Oppo/Tidal setup? While the Oppo cannot do MQA natively, you could connect a computer via USB to your Oppo 105 (or your Vega) and have the Tidal desktop app do the first MQA decoding. You would at least get 24/96 quality, per this link on MQA decoding here: www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-decoding-explained

and there is info on how to do MQA via an Oppo 105 here: forum.audiogon.com/discussions/i-need-a-...tidal-to-my-oppo-105

Curious if you can hear a difference in sound quality in your rig vs streaming the CD quality. (if not already done so --- be sure to be on a Hi-Fi subscription or trial, and have *MASTER* checked in the desktop app 'Streaming' settings). Also interested as to whether doing Tidal desktop app via USB, instead of the built-in Oppo Tidal app, would solve your gapless playback issue for Tidal classical.

maybe you can do Tidal desktop via USB straight into the Vega too.

hot_rod wrote: Charlie - have you tried listening to MQA quality via your Oppo/Tidal setup? While the Oppo cannot do MQA natively, you could connect a computer via USB to your Oppo 105 (or your Vega) and have the Tidal desktop app do the first MQA decoding. You would at least get 24/96 quality,

Curious if you can hear a difference in sound quality in your rig vs streaming the CD quality. (if not already done so --- be sure to be on a Hi-Fi subscription or trial, and have *MASTER* checked in the desktop app 'Streaming' settings). Also interested as to whether doing Tidal desktop app via USB, instead of the built-in Oppo Tidal app, would solve your gapless playback issue for Tidal classical.

maybe you can do Tidal desktop via USB straight into the Vega too.

hot_rod,

Thanks for the information. I read the content on these links. My understanding is that playing MQA through the Oppo will get me to higher res unfolded MQA, but the Oppo (and Vega) will not have the digital filter compensation that a full MQA decoding will provide. Darn! One generation too old already!

OK, good enough, but my experiments with hi-res flac files so far have been a mixed bag. I cannot reliably detect the difference between 16/44 and 24/96 (or even 24/176) at normal listening levels. I'm not saying others can't hear a difference, just that I can't. Certainly my DAC, amps, and the TRefs are capable of reproducing sound based on that higher resolution. MAYBE I'd be able to hear the effect of the filter compensation that full MQA decoding would provide, but that remains to be seen. Or heard.

Currently I have only a Windows 10 tower computer located in my home office, which is across the house from my audio equipment. So a USB link there is just not practical. I am considering purchasing a laptop, which would allow me to establish a USB link to either the Oppo or Vega. That would also allow me to start playing with room mode correction using a miniDSP between my Oppo coax out and my Vega coax in. That was the original plan.

But none of that would allow me to get to full MQA decoding; I'd have to look at another box (DAC, probably) to provide that. And, it's a good question as to whether the miniDSP signal processing would mess up the full MQA filter compensation. After all, these room correction boxes are just pushing stuff through digital filters. This part remains to be seen.

Finally, I do have the Tidal Hi-Res subscription, and the quality there has been excellent. It is possible to push files directly to the Vega DAC from a laptop via USB, so that option would be available. Probably the simplest way to get to unfolded MQA, actually. And, as you say, it might solve the classical gap-interruptus problem.

Thanks again for the info!

Charlie

@moderator

Could you please respond to the following. Thanks in advance.

---

The Triton Golden Ear Reference seems to have a linearity problem at quite modest volumes (90 dB). It looks like the AMT ribbon suffers from the problems that have always plagued these designs - lack of ability to produce even modestly high SPL without distortion. Infinity solved this problem by using arrays of the AMT but Triton Ref only has one.

You can see what I mean on these plots from Soundstage particularly the deviation from linearity.

www.soundstage.com/index.php?option=com_...770:nrc-measurements...

Of note also is the comb filtering of the AMT tweeter above 4KHz - this is due to the fact that the diaphragm is too large to produce these higher frequencies without interference and hence the comb like appearance of the frequency plot (lots of wiggles). The advantage of comb filtering is it can give a pleasing expansive effect - electric guitar players use it all the time to make guitars sound big - it makes it hard for the ear that detect the origin of the sound and will reduce pinpoint Soundstage on a stereo but conversely will make higher frequencies even bigger and expansive.

The Stereophile plots better show the comb filtering. Note that off axis is the first to be affected which is because of the different distance the sound travels from either side of the large (compared to a conventional tweeter) diaphragm of the AMT.

www.stereophile.com/images/118GETRfig4.jpg

The person who wrote those comments is an idiot and hopefully will never buy our speakers so none of us ever have to deal with him/her. I can only believe that, if not stupid, then misguided, or an attempt to dissuade others from the GoldenEar products.

Not technical enough? The "non-linearity" he's referring to, and the associated distortion, is extremely low, inaudibly low, and insignificant compared to ALL the other benefits of the HVFR tweeter. Both the magazines that this data comes from LOVED the speakers and said nothing about this insignificant issue in their reporting of the measurements.

Thank you @Moderator.

If you don't mind, I'll pass along the second paragraph of your write-up.

For context, the disparaging comments stems from this thread forum.audiogon.com/discussions/does-it-have-to-be-loud , where I am a participant.

Note that my response on audiogon even goes above-and-beyond yours!

EDIT: See the last few posts of the audiogon thread for my response