Good read: why comparing specifications is pointless

@coralkong , “This will be my last post to you.

You are acting like a petulant child. Go away, I'm not buying your BS, and no how many times you feel the need to get the last word, I don’t agree with you.”

+1 me as well.

@ghdprentice ..."I would not begin to consider evaluating a single new component without listening to it for a couple months. This would be only after being completely familiar with my system without change for months… many months. ...

Exactly.

OMG people... Stop Feeding the Trolls!

@ticat OMG people... Stop Feeding the Trolls!

This thread went south a long time ago.

@kota1 

Almost all reviews include a list of the writers reference system components, the test conditions the equipment was used in, the content played during the review, comparisons to equipment from competitors, and possibly measurements.

When it matters, I do the same: 

The Lyngdorf is the black box sitting on my (unused currently) Mark Levinson No 532 power amplifier. For those of you complaining about the cost of the Lyngdorf TDAI-3400, the 523 costs $20,000 by itself!  Admittedly it has 400 watts using 8 ohm and probably twice as much over 4 ohm so much more powerful than the Lyngdorf. Still, it is just an amplifier.

My everyday amplifiers are the two Mark Levinson No 53 monoblocks flanking the Revel Salon 2 speakers which were used for this testing. Those beasts have 500 watts into 8 ohm and 1000 watts into 4 ohm. In listening tests, the Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 got plenty loud although I had it pretty close to 0 dB at times. Again, this is a huge space so it takes fair bit of power to fill it and shake my seat. 

I test my near-field/desktop products and there, equipment is listed as well:

Iconoclast CLR Cable Listening Tests
I used two setups for listening tests: headphone and main 2-channel system:

Headphone Listening: source was a computer as the streamer using Roon player to RME ADI-2 Pro ($2K) acting as a DAC & headphone amplifier, driving my Dan Clark Stealth headphone ($4K). I started listening with Iconoclast cable. Everything sounded the same as I was used to. I then switched to WBC cable. Immediately I "heard" more air, more detail and better fidelity. This faded in a few seconds though and the sound was just as it was with the Iconoclast.

For my main system, I used a Topping D90SE driving the Topping LA90 which in turn drove my Revel Salon 2 speakers. I picked tracks with superb spatial qualities to judge the usual "soundstage." I again started with Iconoclast XLR TPC cable. I was once again blown away how good my system sounds. 

 I don't get to enjoy it often enough given how much time I spend working at my desk. Anyway, after a while I switched to WBC cable. Once again, immediate reaction was that the sound was more open, bass was a bit more tight, etc. This too passed after a few seconds and everything sounded the same again.

Really, all of these protests could be avoided if you had spent just a few minutes reading how and why I test things.  There is incredibly scrutiny of what I do by members at ASR and industry at large.  You have to be far more prepared to find a criticism that can stick.