| Those are superb points! You might want to know that (4) has been IMO solved (long time audio enthusiast here, spent more than 15 years on solving that exact problem, developed my own startup that was focused on making DACs with the best possible analog sections - I gave up to a better idea done by someone else, which I'm going to mention next. Rob Watts, a DAC designer from the UK has solved the problem with his FPGA based DACs and pulse array analog sections. Instruments' transients and how they impact a listener (human hearing is far, far more complicated than vision) seems to be the key for the brain to mark a given sound a "natural one" and properly place it into 3D space. Watts works exclusively for Chord Electronics nowadays, but he'd started his own kind of DACs in the 80s. The guy is a genius, I have nothing more to say. My long time quest for properly sounding audio source has been finished. Currently he's working on his Davina project which is going to bring the same technology for audio reproduction (and rebuilding) to studios, leveling up his game even more. Stay tuned, because it's going to take some time. The only other company that does something similar is DCS, but they're extremely expensive and they're rather on the fun side of listening than accuracy. Myself, I use Chord Electronics Hugo 2 DAC (that's the cheapest one having all important Watts' technology, ca. $2500; there's also Mojo - very cheap, but it's mostly for the on-the-go listening) paired with either Audioquest NightOwl headphones or my valve custom made stereo. It's a bliss. PS: Regarding (3) there's no way noise cancellation technologies can produce superb audio. Not possible (unfortunately) at this point of technological advancement of how speakers are being build (and close to nothing has changed during the last 60 years in that area), so they should rather be saved for dealing with unpleasantness of very loud environments, not necessarily suited for music listening. |