There were adjustments on the front of the machine to fine tune the decoding of the data recorded on tape. After a couple of months working on the same piece of tape, the error count started to rise above the correctable level. “The biggest drawback to the 3M system was the minimal error correction. The “brick wall” analog filters on the 3M machine hand-wound coils and took up most of a circuit board. There were no 16bit converters in 1981, so the 3M system used a 12 bit Burr-Brown converter and 4bits of an 8bit converter as gain-ranging to produce the 16bit results. The digital audio was recorded at 50kHz 16bits. I guess 3M wanted to sell you lots of tape. “The 3M 32-track used 1” digital tape and the 4-track used 1/2” digital tape. Going deeper into Google tells us that The Nightfly was committed to the digital domain in 1982 at 16 bits with a 3M digital encoder. According to Bob Stuart, early ADCs, especially those deployed in digital audio’s early years, were less than stellar. MQA’s pre-processing of the original master promises to correct for any time-domain damage wrought by the original ADC. Here we might ask: why bother at all with MQA?īecause MQA is more than hi-res streaming. Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly arrives at the Network Bridge II at 48kHz and stays there. Ditto Kraftwerk’s 3-D The Catalogue – 44.1kHz, nothing extra to unpack. The Flaming Lips’ seminal The Soft Bulletin lands at 44.1kHz – nothing extra to unpack. With Tidal or Audirvana+ we only see 96kHz.Īccording to Team MQA and Tidal, the master is sample rate independent. Recent remasters of David Bowie’s early-mid 70s output unpack via the Network Bridge II to 192kHz. The newly updated Network Bridge II gives us both hi-res unfolds. With a computer hooked up to the DirectStream via USB and playing Tidal Master content via Tidal’s own desktop app or Audirvana+, we get only the first unfold, up to a maximum of 96kHz. It is then unfolded by the end-user’s software/streamer/DAC just prior to playback. The MQA Master file travels at 24bit/48kHz (or 44.1kHz) with the hi-res content folded under the noise floor.
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Would-be meddlers are advised to go make a cup of coffee whilst the Network Bridge II update does its thing.įor many listeners, MQA’s main draw card is hi-res audio streaming at a bitrate only marginally higher than CD-quality. The PS Audio update is pulled directly from the Internet and installed upon DAC reboot. How evocative those lyrics.Īs of yesterday, anyone with a Network Bridge II-equipped DirectStream DAC from PS Audio can add support for “full unfold of MQA up to 192 kHz/24 bit” with a single click to the front panel’s touchscreen. Won’t you turn your radio down? Respect the seven second delay we use”. “I’m Lester The Nightfly, Hello Baton Rouge.
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Wikipedia informs us that Clive Young of Pro Sound News called “I.G.Y.” the “Free Bird” of pro audio. The polished-window vibe of The Nightfly’s sound is likely why it became a favourite among audiophiles. Just as I remember it, The Nightfly sounds clean and crisp, perhaps channeling both the Kennedy-era’s optimism and Fagen’s notorious in-studio perfectionism. Hearing The Nightfly played on a Technics SL-1200G fitted with Zu Denon DL-103r in 2017 puts paid to any notion that vinyl (always) sounds rich and warm. I wonder what Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker would’ve made of that. A pair of labels announce the album as a “Digital Recording” – one of the world’s first – and that “Donald Fagen is Steely Dan”. Thirty five years later and my own vinyl copy of The Nightfly wears its heart on its sleeve. This must’ve been how I caught the ‘good sound’ bug, albeit subconsciously. The Nightfly – it reminds me of my teenage years in which my Dad would spin his vinyl copy on a Dual turntable, through a Sansui amplifier and B&W loudspeakers, and talk of how the Donald Fagen solo debut reminded him of his teenage years.