Audio Science Review = Rebuttal and Further Thoughts


@crymeanaudioriver @amir_asr You are sitting there worrying if this or that other useless tweak like a cable makes a sonic difference.

I don’t worry about my equipment unless it fails. I never worry about tweaks or cables. The last time I had to choose a cable was after I purchased my first DAC and transport in 2019.  I auditioned six and chose one, the Synergistic Research Atmosphere X Euphoria. Why would someone with as fulfilling a life as me worry about cables or tweaks and it is in YOUR mind that they are USELESS.

@prof "would it be safe to say you are not an electrical designer or electrical engineer? If so, under what authority do you make the following comment" - concerning creating a high end DAC out of a mediocre DAC.

Well, I have such a DAC, built by a manufacturer of equipment and cables for his and my use. It beat out a $9,000 COS Engineering D1v and $5,000 D2v by a longshot. It is comparable to an $23,000 Meridian Ultradac. Because I tried all the latter three in comparison I say this with some authority, the authority of a recording engineer (me), a manufacturer (friend) and many audiophiles who have heard the same and came to the same conclusion.

Another DAC with excellent design engineer and inferior execution is the Emotiva XDA-2. No new audio board but 7! audiophile quality regulators instead of the computer grade junk inside, similar high end power and filter caps, resistors, etc. to make this into a high end DAC on the very cheap ($400 new plus about the same in added parts).

@russ69 We must be neighbors. I frequented Woodland Hills Audio Center back in the 70s and 80s. I heard several of Arnie’s speakers including a the large Infinity speakers in a home.

fleschler

Yup. Stare on those graphs, and you will know exactly how it will sound. This way, one can “audition” and compare dozens of DACs from the comfort of their home without lifting a finger or spending any money 🙄🤦‍♂️

Pretty much… if we see a spray of harmonics it tells us a lot.
We may not know how good it will sound, but it can certainly tell us how bad it should sound.

Do you find it perplexing that most of the equipment that many seem to like listening to have a similar harmonic structure, and that the harmonics are generally low… and that they also measure pretty good?

Or why is there a correlation?

Is it just luck?

 

@thyname We can compare this to praying, versus going to the doctor.
Most people still go to the doctor… so maybe the lord works in mysterious ways both in medicine as well as in electronics.

It is not like the sound comes from magic. There is some engineering that people have done to reveal the things we call refer to secularly as theory.

It is not a parallel universe, or tribal thing, unless we make it so. The science and the listening pleasure seem largely correlated and causal.

But there is also the psychological element of knowing that <high buck item> should sound better than some other <low buck> item.

Not understanding graphs and measurement is OK. One can avoid them, and there is no reason to hate them or find contempt/disgust in people that find them useful.

@kota1 :

too funny :)🤣

Not a joke. This is exactly how those people operate. To the dot. See comments above

 

 

Well...you could actually point out the flaw in the reasoning that makes it so funny.

But if that's too much to ask and you want to keep it to an inside joke....sorry for replying.  I thought this forum was about conversations and not just snark.

@thyname I know it is an accurate assessment, I can visualize an online shopper looking at graphs and clicking the Buy Now button without even knowing anything else. Think of the paradigm shift, manufacturers quickly figure out the cheapest way to make a graph look good because their market will convince themselves it sounds good because of the graph, no matter what.

@kota1

Think of the paradigm shift, manufacturers quickly figure out the cheapest way to make a graph look good because their market will convince themselves it sounds good because of the graph, no matter what.

Topping, surely. Sanctified by Mejidimehr-Al-Sinad, cheap enough to impulse buy with a click.