@mastering92 Well, I have to say that from my experience, it’s important to actually do some listening to equipment. In this series of videos, Rob Watts, who designed the Chord line of DACs, talks about how he finds it important to do both measuring tests AND listening tests, because everything you can measure is audible, but there is a lot that is not currently measurable in digital audio that is also audible.
Interview with Chord Electronics’ Rob Watts:
https://youtu.be/k9Sp9KCq1B4
I came to similarly interesting results when comparing power cords. Synergistic Research is another company that produce products that some would call snake oil, but I've been testing four power cables with a Denafrips Ares II DAC (a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty power cable from Home Depot, a $150 Shunyata Venom, a $200 Audience Forte F3, and a $500 Synergistic Research UEF Blue). The Audience cable sounded both harsh and congested. The Shunyata Venom and the $15 Tripp-Lite cable seemed somewhat close in sound quality, but the Synergistic cable was noticeably smoother in sound as well as sounding more detailed. But those differences were perhaps 25% of the sonic improvement of the Supra Cat 8 cable over the the AmazonBasics USB cable.
Interview with Chord Electronics’ Rob Watts:
https://youtu.be/k9Sp9KCq1B4
I came to similarly interesting results when comparing power cords. Synergistic Research is another company that produce products that some would call snake oil, but I've been testing four power cables with a Denafrips Ares II DAC (a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty power cable from Home Depot, a $150 Shunyata Venom, a $200 Audience Forte F3, and a $500 Synergistic Research UEF Blue). The Audience cable sounded both harsh and congested. The Shunyata Venom and the $15 Tripp-Lite cable seemed somewhat close in sound quality, but the Synergistic cable was noticeably smoother in sound as well as sounding more detailed. But those differences were perhaps 25% of the sonic improvement of the Supra Cat 8 cable over the the AmazonBasics USB cable.