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August 3, 2010 - 10:04am
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Eureka! Genesis digital lens
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Congratulations with your new jitter free listening
Much thanks Duck.
Mark
You can find Robert Harley's 1996 review of the Genesis Digital Lens at http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/824/ .
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Thank you John for the link. I certainly appreciate it.
Mark Evans
You need to tell us has it made the difference you thought it might? Just curious.
All I can say is WOW!
Robert Harley's review was 100% spot on!
The first thing I noticed immediately was that the micro-dynamics almost doubled in size!
What's nice about the Lens is that it displays the error number that is transport is operating in. My Wadia 8 has a speed error of 16ppm, which is not bad considering the Mark Levinson 31 transport had a speed error of 8ppm in Robert Harley's review.
Harshness, especially in my older CD's went away completely in Dither 2 mode. Dither 2 gave acoustic instruments a more 'liquidity' in tones and textures as on Chuck Loeb's "the Moon, the Stars, and the setting Sun" CD.
My newer CD's and HDCD CD's took on a whole new level of musicality in Dither 1 mode. Notes were more pronounced, Bass degredation improved immensely. And the vocals sounded more natural and less 'recorded' so to speak.
It has two modes: Dither 1 and Dither 2. In my opinion, the jury is still out on the issue of which mode is best to listen in.
Most of my listening was done in Dither 1 mode. I guess because most of my CD's are remasters.
This piece of digital gear is essential to have in any system that utilizes a transport and D/A converter. Especially if your transport and D/A converter has some age on it like mine. Unfortunately, Genesis Technologies do not make the digital lens anymore but you still can get your hands on a used one.. If so, BUY IT! You will not regret it!
FYI: A new Genesis digital lens listed for $1,800. I found mine in mint condition for $475.
Mark Evans
What exactly is this thing? Links please?
Here's the link Keld:
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/824/
Thanks a bunch!
No problem
Let me re-emphasize; the sonic improvements with the digital lens were not subtle nor were they marginal.
The improvements were stunningly prominent across the whole musical spectrum. Amazing!
Mark Evans
I'm just sad it doesn't have balanced inputs/outputs. Otherwise I'd love to own one.
It does have a balanced digital input and output.
Hey! There's hope at the end of the tunnel!
Yeah, All I did was post a $5.00 want-ad on the AudiogoN site and someone contacted me pretty quickly. I have found out alot of people scan the want ads over there that are not necessarily a part of that site. So your ad will get viewed by lots of people.
If you obtain one, you will never regret it.
Mark
That is a remarkable improvement considering your transport and DAC by themselves are no slouches.
Wait, what do I hear...is Paul out rummaging through his storage facility looking for the 500 units he didn't sell. lol Just kidding. Wait, I hear Keld dialing the phone.
I know, I've been hearing things for a while...
Exactly Jim, Hey wouldn't it be great if McGowan and Arnie Nudell teamed up to re-introduce the digital lens once again to the audiophile community at large?
From what I read, McGowan believes all CD transports suffer from speed errors to some varying degrees. Some cheaper, mass produced CD players are known to have a speed error up around 256ppm.
Compare that with the Levinson 31's speed error of only 8ppm. So, yes varying degrees.
Seriously, I can't think of one good reason why they discontinued this amazing jitter eliminator. Interesting to note that this is the only jitter interface that actually eliminates ALL jitter whereas the Sonic Frontiers Ultra Jitterbug and the Audio Alchemy DTI-PRO can't make that claim.
I have been hearing things too Jim, the voices in my head keep telling me to upgrade this and upgrade that.
Mark Evans
Mark
I guess the question become that with the digital lens is the question of transport quality totally taken out of the equation? Would any transport create a data stream that the lens makes perfect?
Now what if he DID offer the product again? Would the price make it prohibitive for people to own one now that very good DACs are affordable. How big of an improvement in sound would be had through the DAC Magic, The ARCAM RDac, or the Benchmark DAC1?
Now you've done it!
That's a great question Jim. Practically speaking, I guess the lens would make any CD transport more accurate as far as the speed errors are concerned. Of course, the internal componentry as well as the chassis design would be the only difference.
With my Wadia 8, which is basically a Teac player wrapped in an attractive brushed aluminum chassis utilizing the Teac VRDS clamping system. I'm Not taking anything away from Teac because as we know Teac makes an extremely fine line of digital audio equipment, and amplification known as Esoteric.
I would like to see measurments of my transport with a bottom line Teac CD player. I would venture to say that there would probably not be much difference concerning speed errors Im guessing.
My guess is at about the time the lens came out, Alot of high-end companies opted to go back to just a regular CD player because the tecnology had improved and could be integrated into one chassis eliminating the need for an external D/A converter. Which in turn, probably hurt the sales of jitter control interfaces.
Mark Evans
Except that the amazing thing is that most of us would be thinking that the Wadia and the Classe are very, very good and hard to really improve upon, except you did in a big way.
Not to make you work, but if you could for the fun of science, replace your Wadia with another disc spinner in your house and see what differences you hear. I think it will make a difference for the worse, but with the Lens, it may not be as great as we think.
With your new speakers you are probably going to have a great time. Thanks for the updates.
Do you think Paul is secretly reading all the posts?