   
|
|||
 April 15, 2005 Fun with EAC Like winning a Jimmy Award, copying a CD is not to be taken lightlyIn my experience, copying a compact disc is no casual endeavor. I have found that burning a CD in drive A to a potluck CD-R in drive B via high-speed commercial software produces not an identical but, at best, a fraternal twin. To my ear, such A-to-B quick-copies are usually flat, tinny, lackluster versions of the original. Over the years, well-meaning friends have given me dozens of such copies. Although I appreciate the thoughtful gifts, I don’t play many of them a second time. Unless the music is sublime, the sound’s harmonic thinness translates into itchiness on my part to move on. As an audiophile, I do not apologize for being as concerned with sound as I am with music. Otherwise, I’d spend my days lamenting the time and money spent on hi-fi over a quarter of a century. Of more concern to me is that all the quick copies I have on hand are from fellow audiophiles. Are they more immune than I to threadbare tonality? Do their ears compensate for the unbearable lightness of Neroing? If my toes would tap despite sonic blandness, I could not only enjoy simple A-B copies, but would also dismount the hi-fi merry-go-round once and for all. Sometimes I dream of emulating certain "objective" audio scribes by forgetting hi-fi cares altogether. But I digress. Until recently, whenever I needed a music copy, I would extract a CD’s contents to hard disk, then burn from information stored in a document file. Although this low-speed method produced a better replication than a quick-copy via Nero or its ilk, I would often flub a step. Nor were the sonic results so satisfying as to appease me. Nine months ago, when I learned of a mystical process called Exact Audio Copy, my life was forever changed. Installing the freeware from www.exactaudiocopy.de allowed me to participate in a joyous pastime. With little effort and minimum expense (Plextor drives, decent CD-R blanks), I could improve the sound of a compact disc. What a heady feeling! EAC helped me reap deeper satisfaction from my CDs, particularly older pressings. By transferring originals to EAC copies, I have effectively upgraded the performance of my hi-fi system at a cost of hundreds rather than thousands of dollars. Besides, EAC handiwork gives pride of achievement. For anyone looking to turbo-charge the listening experience without changing hi-fi hardware, I highly recommend "remastering" your music via Exact Audio Copy. As for the EAC technology, I defer to others to explain more than I care to know. Whatever its secrets, once installed, EAC is easy to use, and results in copies with more texture, tighter focus, and richer tonality than the original. In addition, EAC reinforces the "visual" element of stereo playback -- instruments and vocals "appear" in different planes relative to one another. For an audio nut like me, this sonic bas-relief is the Holy Grail of hi-fi. Under EAC’s optimizing influences, two-channel listening is akin to an audio/video experience without the monitor. Although the cues are aural, EAC copies "show" me more about the recorded intent than do almost any of their commercial counterparts. The one CD, of many dozens, whose EAC clone did not impress me was a Japanese pressing of the David Hazeltine Trio’s Waltz for Debby [Venus TKCV35114]. The copy’s punchier bass was offset by its drier midrange. Worse, the sense of space around the instruments, usually an EAC strong suit, was flatter on the copy than on the Venus pressing. As someone has stated, EAC is no match for a well-pressed original. Or is it? Perhaps there is a way. If I can’t beat you at my own game, you win a prize At the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show, I was pleased to learn that a couple of high-end manufacturers share my predilection for Exact Audio Copy. Mark Hampton of ZCables and Chris Hoff of Balanced Power Technologies demonstrated their wares using modestly priced components and a CD compilation produced via EAC. According to Hampton, EAC restores timing cues lost during the CD production process. By downloading music tracks to a computer’s hard disk via WAV files, EAC reduces embedded jitter much as do filters in playback hardware, but at the source of the problem. Where Messrs. Hampton and Hoff differed from me in their appreciation of EAC was that, Oliver-like, they bravely asked for more. For my part, I had experimented with different CD-R types, settling on black Imation video-game blanks for casual copying, and Mitsui’s MAM-A CD-R for special occasions. However, it never occurred to me to tweak the computing process itself. No surprise that Hampton and Hoff (H&H) attributed their noteworthy CES sound to their own respective products: ZCables, ZSleeves, and Balanced Power Technologies BPT 3.5 Signature Plus. Harder to swallow was their insistence that such hardware improved the EAC process. How does one improve on perfection? H&H’s argument is that the computer’s hard disk is awash in electronic noise. Pervasive EMI and RFI invade via power lines and wall warts. Such noxious Mongols skew the accuracy of the EAC process. If the harmful impact of line-borne parasites can be suppressed, the extraction and burning process will suffer fewer read/write errors. To prove their point, H&H employed their products in making the Re-clocking Test CD they were using. On the first day of CES, I was less than convinced by the sound they were getting. A few days later, I heard a semblance of live music coming from the H&H room. I went in for another listen and this time was flabbergasted. The short burn-in period had melded the system together. Its sound was free-floating, detailed, and uncolored. The temptation to give a Jimmy Award was strong, but I was nonplussed. Which components were pulling the weight? The Anthony Gallo loudspeakers had already scored a JA. The Sony receiver, which "objective" writers might readily credit, made my blood boil. What more could I say about the room, except that the ZCable filtering and BPT line conditioning sounded . . . well, how does such equipment sound? As I started to slink away, Mark Hampton graciously pressed on me a fifth-generation copy of the RTCD and told me to try it at home. I was so taken by his gesture that I offered a sporting challenge. If I could not make a copy of the Re-clocking Test CD that improved on his gift, I would bestow a Jimmy Award on the ZCables-BPT room for improving on EAC. I figured to win the comparison. The generic CD-R that Hampton handed me reeked of Office Depot closeout. It would be no match for a battle-proven video-game blank like the Imation. If H&H’s generic disc did trump the Imation, I could always resort to the costly MAM-A with "Diamond Coat" and phthalocyanine recording surface. It was merely a question of finding a better medium than H&H had used. In other words, I was skeptical that line filtration and isolation could make EAC outperform itself. Home is where the heartache is
As soon as my new OS was up, I found that EAC would not load. Apparently, Exact Audio Copy balks at being downloaded a second time to the same computer. All my efforts to reinstall it failed. Thankfully, Rocky had been down this road. He sent detailed instructions on how to load "Aspichk 4712," which permitted me to reinstall EAC. Life was good again. Before burning the RTCD, I tried a tweak of my own. I placed a square of ERS paper in the empty drawer-one slot above the Plextor extractor drive. I covered the top of the outboard Plextor burner with a second sheet of ERS. The resulting CD-R sounded better than Rocky’s, as well as better than the RTCD itself. I immediately placed two long-distance telephone calls to gloat. It was my pleasure to inform Messrs. Hampton and Hoff that they would not be winning a Jimmy Award after all. How does one say, politely, "My copy is better than your copy, nyaah, nyaah, nyaah"? A while later, over 12-year-old tequila, Rocky G. informed me that he had compared my copy as well as his to the RTCD. He said his copy came in third, mine was second, and the RTCD was first -- by a wide margin. I took brief issue, but Rocky was unmoved. "The ZCable-BPT disc sounds more dynamic, more detailed, wider, and deeper," he said. "Maybe you like the softer sound of the Imation CD-R, but it’s not as true to the source." Rocky’s dispassionate statement rang true. If his educated ear preferred the RTCD, then my judgment was bias-impaired. I had heard what I wanted to hear. And when I gave yet another listen to the RTCD, I had not improved on it. H&H deserved an apology. In light of the major improvements their filters and conditioners made in the EAC process, I owed them a Jimmy Award as well. Hearing is seeing When I called Mark Hampton to amend the record, he struck a casual attitude: he ignored me. "If you thought the reclocking CD was good, you should hear what I’m doing now," he said. "Since CES, I’ve found a way to reduce the noise floor by an order of magnitude. The power cord that goes to the computer now has 10 times the filtration capability. The copies sound much, much better." He must have heard me gasp -- a power cord to the computer? Wow, EAC is like hi-fi! "Let me send you a Red Lightning and a couple of Heavy ZSleeves to try in your system," Hampton volunteered. "See if they don’t make better copies." What a man! Instead of smirking at me -- which, in his shoes, I might have done -- he offered me new weapons with which to stay in the fight. Ten days later, I crawled under the desk and wrestled a snake-like Red Lightning and two salami-sized ZSleeves into position. The slots on the Red Lightning’s female connector grip so tightly, I had trouble pushing the cord into the IEC connector with just my fingertips. I was forced to turn the hard case around in order to get leverage. Power cords that grip like pit bulls inspire trust. Now began the chase in earnest. Using as a master disc Genius Loves Company [EMI 8 66541 2], a duet collection from the late Ray Charles, I burned EAC copies to Imation blanks using: 1) the Red Lightning alone; 2) Red Lightning with ERS; and 3) Red Lightning with ERS and an Eichmann Technologies power strip. I then repeated the entire process using a gold MAM-A CD-R in place of the black. If anyone needs a copy of Genius Loves Company, please let me know. I have half a dozen stages of reproduction sitting around. Each one sounds better than the EMI (the irony!) original. Along the way, I remembered the other half of the H&H equation, Chris Hoff’s BPT power-line conditioner. Although I do not own a BPT BP-3.5 Signature Plus, as was used for the RTCD, I do have on hand a first-generation BPT BP Jr. This transformer-based device has long powered the digital transport in my stereo system. Reluctantly, I disconnected Jr. from the main system, lugged it into the office, and got down on all fours again. Up to that point, each new copy had sounded better than its predecessor. By itself, the Red Lightning power cord increased image density; RL with ERS tweak gave a wider soundstage; and the RL with ERS and Eichmann Technologies power strip provided tighter focus. Substituting the BPT BP Jr. for the ET extension magnified the virtues previously detected. But there was more. Burning to the sweet-sounding Imation CD-R now gave an edgier, more accurate rendition of the duets. BP Jr. allowed Ray Charles to croon or growl as he saw fit. Van Morrison sounded raw and mellow by turns. No wonder the recording won an Emmy for engineering. The previous setup made for easier listening than the artists had intended. With the BPT, there was bite. However, the most striking feature of using the BPT was a more precise placement of performers. Copies now projected images in front of, alongside, or to the deep right and left of the speakers, as phasing permitted. I did not recall as much front-to-back dimensionality during the H&H demo at CES. Now I understand Mark Hampton’s ongoing efforts to make better EAC copies. He’s observing the same phenomena I am and has become addicted. In my experience, the holography of the latest EAC recordings is hard to match. Phase information on the recording, whether derived from physical placement or conjured up during the mastering process, is largely masked by timing errors. EAC, properly tweaked, restores the spatiality. The experience of listening to a well-filtered, reclocked copy is akin to discovering stereophonic sound in the 1950s. Remember the Doppler effects on early LPs, the widely separated horn sections, the sound of a bell way over there? My latest copies from EAC via ZCable/BPT remind me of that era. They recall the fun of "seeing" stereo for the first time. Enter the dragon chip: does it or doesn’t it? Although satisfied that I had attained the hot setup, I could not resist the pull of curiosity. At CES a fellow scribe, Clark Johnsen of "Brother, can you spare a pair of pants" fame, had directed me to an incredible display. In the Golden Sound room, the MC was wowing the crowd with a device called the Golden Sound Intelligent Chip (GSIC). Placing the GSIC on top of a CD player for two seconds while a CD is playing is purported to restore timing cues. Say, isn’t that what EAC does? Under show conditions, the GSIC did produce richer tones from a mundane recording. Intrigued, I exchanged hard-earned greenbacks for a GSIC to try in the privacy of my own home. If there’s one born every minute, my time had come yet again. While preoccupied with the EAC mission, however, I forgot about the GSIC. Ten weeks later, I spied it in a desk drawer and decided to reproduce the CES demo for a dealer pal. Midway through the presentation, a light went on. What if I "chipped" a CD and then copied it? Would two timing-correction devices in series lead to even better sound? To say that a CD exposed to the GSIC makes a better-sounding copy would add drama to the narrative, but I’m not certain that is true. Even if the GSIC enhances CD playback, the effect of "chipping" may not make a difference to the EAC process. Perhaps timing cues can be restored only once rather than doubled-up? My GSIC supposedly has a few more treatments left in it; I may explore the subject further. I do think the GSIC smooths out the braying of male vocalists more than it enhances the lilt of lady singers. According to an award-winning physics professor, this distinction is possible. Tests show that a man’s voice contains atonal bleats intersperse with more mellifluous tones. A woman’s voice has a purer, less primitive tonal content. If timing errors emphasize the caveman chirps in the male voice, this may explain why I prefer chanteuses. They leave my hunter-gatherer warning instincts alone. (Further aside, last night someone brought over a hybrid DVD that had caused his CD player to jam shut. When I tried to make a copy of Julieta Vengas’ Sí [BMG 82876 65807 9 2], a strange thing happened. As I brought the DVD near the open drawer of the extraction drive, the modem in my computer tried to dial a number. When I pulled the DVD away, the dialing stopped. Forward again, dial tone again. I suspect this phenomenon may be related to Rocky’s observations about digital memory, as well as the effect of the GSIC.) What, there’s more?
Just when I thought it was safe to conclude this report, another novel event transpired. Blue Circle Audio’s famous black box, the BC86 Mk III line conditioner, flew down from Canada, crept into my office, and plugged itself into the BP Jr. Like throwing a switch, the computer’s constant whir dropped in level. I unplugged and replugged the BC86 to make sure I’d heard right. Yep. The noise floor fell twice in a row. Anally retentive to the core, I couldn’t wait to fire up EAC and burn another copy of Genius Loves Company. By now, the world’s most duplicated CD should have had no room for improvement -- but it did. Harmonic definition increased and vocalists sounded -- however slightly -- more real. I hate to say it, but the BC86 Mk III is yet another indispensable addition to the EAC chain of reproduction. Detect a trend here? The amount of filtering a computer system needs appears to be endless. For someone who sells power-line conditioners, the notion is luscious, and my passion for EAC has become more torrid than ever. I must alert all copy-making fiends that help is available. Not only crazed hobbyists but also professionals, especially recording studios, need line-filtration devices. Because studios are famously quiet, I see an irony that "untreated" digital consoles fill the recording environment with noise pollution. The space may be free of reflections, but the sound itself is dirty. It’s like powdering a hairy chin -- there’s still a man under there. I believe that a raft of power-line and parallel noise filters could generate far quieter master discs -- more realism at the source. All I need is a friendly recording studio to underwrite an experiment. I would replace all power cords with ZCable’s Red Lightning, plug all recording devices into BPT units, and run Blue Circle noise suppressors in parallel to the whole mass of components. I would soft-pedal the Golden Sound Intelligent Chip -- it might make the studio owner nervous. Besides, Rocky G. says that if you listen to a CD twice in a row, it sounds better the second time. He thinks GSIC is related to digital hardware keeping data in short-term memory. And who knows if the GSIC’s effects are permanent? No one’s aural memory is long enough. Credits due First, Mark Hampton has just sent a pack of megarefined Exact Audio Copies. He will not disclose the innovations, but does admit to having treating the inside of his computer with noise-reduction devices. Additionally, his EAC system is now wrapped in 25 Heavy ZSleeves. That’s a lot of Zs sacrificed in the name of science. Let us hope ZSleeves are made of renewable resources. Included in the pack is an old favorite of mine, Dead Man Walking: Music From and Inspired By the Motion Picture [Columbia CK 67522]. The most striking improvement over previous EAC editions is the low-frequency bloom. Deep bass fluctuates with surprising gradations of pitch. On the other hand, I’m not so sure about the overall musical gestalt. Perhaps increased resolution brings to the fore riffs and trills that were meant to remain on the edge of awareness rather than become foci of attention. The result of so much resolution may be fatigue. How many distractions can the human brain comfortably process? I will have to spend more time evaluating the newest discs from California. In the meantime, I am bestowing a belated Jimmy Award on ZCables and BPT for their pioneering work in copy-enhancement technology. Second, I finally made an EAC that is more exact than my old Japanese nemesis, David Hazeltine’s Waltz for Debby. It was not easy. I had to build and exploit products and ideas from ZCable, BPT, Blue Circle, Mitsui, and ERS. The problem is that it’s hard to sit through an entire session of the David Hazeltine Trio while barely breathing. Piano, bass, and drums are so poignant, so obtrusive on my inner being, that emotion overcomes me. I have to get up, leave the room, go back to work. To the inventor of EAC, a young German scholar, I say Vielen Dank for reviving deep-seated musical joys. Exact Audio Copies are restoratives for the soul. Herr EAC, wherever you are, please accept a Jimmy Award for copy-software superiority. …Jim Saxon
|
|||
|
On arriving home post-CES, I
confronted an urgent need to change computer operating systems. Because I was eager to
hear how the RTCD sounded in video-game black, I asked my good friend and EAC guru,
Rocky G., to make a copy of the RTCD on his recording system, which is practically
identical to mine. Rocky’s version came over a day later, and I was surprised that it
sounded softer, less dynamic, than the H&H original, if nonetheless pleasing to the
ear.