»

[Flash@TMB]

Our new crossovers arrived today. These take the output from our desk and split it between the various speakers. Our old crossovers were digital but did not have a digital input. The new ones do. This means that previously:

Playing a CD - the CD player would convert the digital CD to analog then send it to the desk (preamp) which would convert it to digital, process it, convert it to analog then send it to the crossover, which would convert it to digital, process it, convert it to analog then send it to the speakers.

CD (digital) --> CD player --> analog --> desk --> digital --> process --> analog --> crossover --> digital --> process --> analog --> speakers

But now:

Playing a CD - the CD player sends the digital straight to the desk which then processes it and send it to the crossover which processes it then converts it to analog and sends it to the speakers.

CD (digital) --> CD player --> desk --> process --> crossover --> process --> analog --> speakers.

So we go from 4 digital to analog conversions on various qualities of convertor down to just one on an extremely high quality convertor. And of course we now benefit from all the processing being performed in the digital domain without any requirement for intermediate conversion but all the benefits of the digital S:N ratio. Our noise floor is not 114dB. This means that we can turn our stereo fader down to -114dB (usually desks are pretty much inaudible by -50 dB and still produce a perfect (although very quiet) signal without any noise whatsoever! Which is startling.

The useful thing is that when you turn the volume up to normal levels you start to hear all sorts of things that were inaudible before because their relative volume separations were greater than the noise floor. Now you really hear every single nuance of the high hats, and the bass sounds especially good. But a lot does depend on the quality of the original recording. We also heard distinctly better separation between instruments and it should be possible to really hear the difference between standard 44.4KHz CD sampling and SuperAudio CD. The crossovers native sampling rate is 24-bit 96KHz, the same as DVD-A and PCM and equivalent to SACD (although SACD works differently using a 1-bit system at 2MHz sampling). Even with a bog standard CD the vocals sound incredibly natural and you really get that full on HiFi effect but with the added fun of full on live level dynamics (unless the CD is compressed beyond all recognition).

Interesting is that on most recordings you can distinctly hear the tape hiss which is usually covered up by noise imparted from the equipment.

Movie sound should be hugely improved.

With live music the desk will convert the live feeds to digital, process them, then send them to the crossover which will process them, deconvert back to analog, then send the outout to the speakers. This cuts out 2 D-->A and A-->D conversion steps and the deconversion is now performed by the exceptional electronics of the crossover.

These crossovers largely mittigate against any perceived deficiencies in the preamp and A-->D stages of our Yamaha digital mixer.

So if anyone is interested then bring your favourite and best sounding CDs or even better SACDs along on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night and we can have a listen. We can also now even more effectively demonstrate how shockingly shit MP3s sound

To the best of my knowlege this is the highest quality and most sophistcated sound rig installed in a venue of our capacity in the UK.

http://www.xta.uk.com/dp428/Bevel%20Frameset.htm

[ZeromiserY]

Originally Posted by Flash@TMB

Our new crossovers arrived today...... sophistcated sound rig installed in a venue of our capacity in the UK.

http://www.xta.uk.com/dp428/Bevel%20Frameset.htm

lil' kid..... i dont know what the FUCK you just said, but you reached out, and you touched a brothers heart.

[soundian]

He said:

Without the need for so much uncalled for analogue->digital and digital->analogue conversions, which are always "lossy", you're already excellent sound at the Moorings is just that little bit better.

[Flash@TMB]

We didn't think the difference would be all that noticable or apparent. Although we expected to hear a difference back to back if we really concentrated. The main reason we went for these units was the wireless control feature that enables remote control of any individual speaker from anywhere in the room. This provides a band EQ, a 9 way parametric EQ, gain, delay, XOver point and curve type, limiter etc. The most useful setting being the gain which enables the engineer to make a particular speaker louder or quieter during a gig. So for instance if we find the bar very busy and we're losing top end, then we can turn up the hi and himid speakers, or if everyone is at the front and the delay speakers are blaring out at the back and pissing off the barstaff then we can turn them down. It's also possible to save a huge number of presets and switch between them instantly at the touch of a button.

BUT... as soon as we installed them and played a CD it was a revelation The improvement is very noticable. The system has become the best sounding HiFi that I've ever heard. Like stupidly good. Worth coming down to hear it some night Ian but bring your favourite CD with you.

We're still awaiting one final part which is a card for the desk that will enable us to run out DJ decks direct digitial. At present only the DVD/SACD player is direct digitial. Unfortunately the jukebox does not have a direct digital output, but at least we've eliminated a DA and AD conversion within it's output chain - haven't tried it yet but hopefully it will also sound a little better.

[Teabags]

flash, when you talk technical, you make me hard.

do you know anybody that I can buy drugs from?

[Flash@TMB]

We got the DJ decks and MiniDISC hooked in direct digital yesterday. The sound was a revelation with much greater clarity. Mark and myself then spent the rest of the evening unobtrusively tweaking it during the CeeJays excellent set. The increased clarity and separation has enabled us to turn up the volume on the deplay speakers without their becoming noticable. The produced a more uniform volume throughout the bar.

Then we turned up the subs a couple of clicks, so now it shakes the floor a lot more, and really punches you in the chest. Thanks to improved separation this was acheived without any degredation in clarity. We later tested the setting son the jukebox and DVD and they also sounded noticably better than before. A busy dancefloor demostarted that we'd the punters like it too.