Comparing systems through phone recordings

To hear the basics of the amp - speaker - room integration.

Yes well that one's a lot harder. The thing of it is, its all about comparison. Even in our own rooms with our own systems we can't meaningfully compare if we change several things at once. If for example I change the amp, interconnect, and power cord to a different amp, interconnect and power cord, and hear a difference, then I have no idea what did what. Which if that seems funny someone actually did exactly that here just the other day.

Now if instead of 3 components it was just the one then a valid comparison could have been made- and here's the thing- regardless of whether it was by listening in the room or a recording made by anything and played back on anything. Because as long as we have just the one change then we know whatever difference there was, it was just that one thing.
You see where this is going, right? With all those other things it doesn't matter at all who recorded what. But with your room integration now all of a sudden its the only thing that matters. Because when everything changes- and not only all the equipment but even the room itself- then the one thing that must not change is the recording equipment. And technique.

Otherwise, even a tiny change in something as small as which direction the phone is pointed can easily overwhelm whatever differences there might actually have been.

So yeah we're thinking in the same direction. Its just never forget the first commandment of comparing: thou shalt not change more than one thing at a time.

Yesterday I watched OCD hifi guys latest video posted . It was comparing a song from his cd player , streamed through Tidal , And over his server . I watched the video on my main rig . The recording equipment he uses must be pretty good because what I heard was almost like I had played the track through my front end . It was stunning !! 

This could be an interesting thread although I smell blood in the water and the sharks are coming (you better brace yourself @o_holter ). I told the OP that haters got to hate, BTW is funny as I mentioned some names to the OP before reading the post, your name Millercarbon was thrown as a low probability detractor (not a hater), for the record I follow your posts and 99% of the time I do agree with you, and you stated your opinion in the most respectful way possible.
As a matter of fact I do agree with your comment on no auditioning systems via Youtube (for purchasing or decision making purposes)

The OP is not trying that (from my understanding), he just happens to have a system kind of similar to mine and we exchanged recordings of the same songs. He was just simply trying to compare the sonic signature of similar (or dissimilar) systems.
Yes we know there are many variables who make this impossible, for starters the room reflections, the device used to record phone or otherwise, speakers toed in, position of the recording device, power (electricity), power cables and interconnect, 50Hz or 60Hz AC, AC regeneration or not, digital or analog, PCM vs DSD, vinyl mastered from digital or from good master tapes, tubes russian Svetlana's vs American RCAs
Yet with all that we were able to compare three different systems and evaluate bass, midrange from the recordings, I have to say and the OP might agree or not I don't know that highs were extremely hard to evaluate from the recording, most likely because of highly dependable on positioning, yet we had fun and we came at the end with an approximate idea of what else will we tweak or change. For example the OP not following manufacturer recommendations changed his toed in to his preference, so did following on his steps and I and found that his (the OP) speaker toed in might be better suited that what I had before.
IOW, even though stupid recordings made with a phone of highly costly and sophisticated systems could give us a hint on certain parameters without having to travel to the location, heresy? well yes :-) but fun and instructive? that also.


 

Yes well that one's a lot harder. The thing of it is, its all about comparison. Even in our own rooms with our own systems we can't meaningfully compare if we change several things at once

Yes that is true of course and we are in agreement, the intention is not to AB systems remotely or audition a system that way (sharpen the pitchforks !!)
Just getting a glimpse of the sonics or comparing lightly to a similar system.

Its just never forget the first commandment of comparing: thou shalt not change more than one thing at a time.

I have sinned, I have broken that commandment several times, like a friend of mine told me once I did several changes "Luis, you are banned from the audiophile club membership this month, what were you thinking"But yeah if you are serious you should change things one at a time and possibly let these settled for some time before changing anything else.

Yesterday I watched OCD hifi guys latest video posted . It was comparing a song from his cd player ,

Mike has a very good rig but he has done AB comparison polls on his YouTube channel and people have posted results, he commented on the OP exact opinion how bizarre you could get an idea of good sonics on phone recordings, now he is using I think a more sophisticated recorder not just the a phone.