Core Infinity listening impressions and comparisons

[Confused]

Probably to be expected, this thread has drifted off topic a little, but I would like to give an honorable mention to @Kwan for posting this in the MC3+USB thread:

I just got the CI upgrade yesterday, and have a brief comparison of

- RoonAir through Ethernet to Devialet; vs
- my existing sotm sms-200 -> mutec with Cybershaft clock -> AES of Devialet

Unfortunately I've to tell the latter is still better in SQ, and the CI upgrade improve the SQ of AES input as well.


Now back to my own adventures.  To be honest, I do feel that trying to gauge the difference in an audio product when it has been out of your system for two or three weeks is a very difficult task, but nevertheless, I have decided to have a go.  Tomorrow my 1000Pro will be on it's way back to France for CI Board installation, so today is my last day with a non-CI Pro.

I made up a familiar playlist and ran through this with Roon / HQPlayer/ mR/Mutec / AES/EBU then with 'Roon AIR'.  I am aware of the problems with aural memory and so on, so I made notes as I went through, anything particularly good or bad was noted, I actually surprised myself at how critical looking the notes were!  When my CI Board equipped Pro returns, I will repeat the exercise.  The idea being that I will have the notes to refer to, as well as the comparison between mR/Mutec and Roon AIR.  Let's see how it goes.

I have performed Roon AIR versus mR/Mutec comparisons in the past, but today's test was still very interesting.  Recently I have been trying the poly-sinc-xtr filter in HQPlayer, which in casual listening I have been enjoying very much. My past comparisons have put the mR/Mutec in front, but with Roon AIR surprisingly close, so would this be the same result running poly-sinc-xtr?  The answer is yes and no.  Initially, I thought that Roon AIR did sound very similar to the mR/Mutec, at a level that would be very difficult, or even impossible, to do blind, however, as I ran through the various tracks it started to become surprisingly clear that the mR/Mutec combination was better.  Nominally AIR sounds the same, but it is with things relating to atmosphere, sustain, little details, the realism of vocals, sound staging, this kind of stuff.  Many times I noted things that were particularly special with the mR/Mutec, which AIR, although nominally sounding excellent, did not quite achieve relative to the Mutec.

This evening I will be packing my little Devialet's back into their boxes for the trip to France, something I genuinely feel very sad about.   To be continued.......