CD/Phono Frankenstein Monster

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

cjc wrote:

> I've heard of the Digital Time Lens(tm) and tube-based outputs - CD
> player design quirks designed to mitigate the so-called "CD Sound." I
> got to thinking a few days ago, had anybody ever tried designing a CD
> player with a - as nutty to me as this sounds - a phono type output?
> A low level, RIAA-curve-encoded stage, requiring a phono pre-amp?
> This would, obviously, add noise, and possibly even microphonics,
> depending on exactly how closely one designs the CD player's 'phono'
> type output to match what comes out of a cartridge. But could the
> microphonics-induced distortion be part of the 'spice' vinylphiles
> love?Could this player at least destress accuracies in the CD format
> that read as shrill or glassy to vinylphiles? Could this prove
> anything as to why certain folks like one format over the other?
> Would ‘digitalphiles" like me hate it? Just a thought.
============================

Another thought:

One day I was playing with a Van Alstine modified Dyna PAS preamp. This
one was built in the original Dyna chassis, and the variable-separation
control had been retained.

It's a good, cheap tube-type preamp, by the way.

I was fiddling with the variable-separation control and suddenly it
struck me that the CD sounded more like an LP; the soundstage narrowed
and became more "solid" toward the center, with an illusion of depth in
the middle. The only difference that switch causes is less separation.
We know that phono cartridges have substantially less separation
between channels than CDs, and the difference gets more pronounced as
the frequency rises. Perhaps some kind of separation-degrading circuit,
to mimic the characteristics of a phono cartridge, might help along the
"illusion."

But I'd stop short of digitally-synthesizing "inner-groove mistracking"
and the gradually increasing fuzz as a dust ball builds up on a stylus
tip. <G>

-GP