Enter the modern hifi world. Try this test.

@knock1 Whatever you are smoking, enjoy it!

@frank009 I don’t smoke anything. I don’t even drink alcohol. 

@knock1 - injury of brain matter may not be from external sources. Could be lack of development

@frank009 Can you convince your wife to sit with you.. 

You’re really clueless as to this hobby. We build our audio chains based on our own subjective personal sonic preferences, which may be beyond your understanding based on your limited/non-existant experience with high-end Sonics. As such, we don’t need vindication from those outside our hobby 

@audphile1 

Seems like you want to play the "tough guy" with your mafia member profile photo. I've seen that guy before on TV, and he's obviously not you. Not even close.

@kennyc 

Another outlandish post from you. Congrats. Goes to show how far you've come with over 2800 posts. You are like @cleeds , although learning from him on how to pontificate like a witness in a courtroom that has no clue and wants nothing more than to establish some narrative.

so BASICALLY what i was saying.... 

was that if you can get a layperson (meaning a non-audiophile) or someone who, has never heard good stereo equipment APPRECIATE your system, then you've done it. If you can make them feel something, smile, you know, get goosebumps and really fall in love with the performance and appreciate music as a form of art, then your system is transparent enough and you've done well.

Sadly, I'm NOT talking about you!

@frank009 Because digital audio has advanced to the point where we are at its limits, 

Simply a baseless opinion 

@frank009 and can shrink down the electronics this small, without sacrificing anything.

Another baseless opinion

@frank009 Just look at how far computers and smartphones have come. Audio reproduction is no different in the digital domain.

and another baseless claim.

It’s such a head scratcher to think that better parts and better engineering leads to nothing. Simple sonic upgrades to linear power supplies or better clocks are ignored. Taken a production audio engineer’s opinion as truth for a completely different discipline of maximizing the sound of recorded music is folly without looking at both sides is a sign of great lacking and laziness. It is not uncommon for high-end audio to reach “fool you it’s real” level, something the OP wouldn’t know unless they went out to demo for themselves. 

The OP is making sonic judgments without listening

The arrogance of thinking that their opinion is truth for all is typical of limited thinking. 

Yes, it is irksome when someone claims we in the hobby are mislead without any proof or any effort for the OP to find out what we doing this hobby. I question the purpose of this thread as there are those who simply like conflict. There’s a high probability that the OP’s self esteem is linked to his being right or wrong. 

@audphile1 

You are the most classless person I’ve ever encountered on a forum. Downright insulting, extremely rude, and pretentious, with an overwhelming desire to have the moral high ground, even though it doesn’t belong to you.

@frank009 that guy’s dead. As dead as your brain cells. 
you must be some lonely schmuck who still lives in his mother’s basement. Alone. Not even the “idiot” wife that “mistakes 10 to 15 mistakes a day” anywhere within the vicinity. Mommy brings you microwaved lunch so you don’t get disrupted from your trolling here  

Real mature. This is not how adults talk. I wonder how you function in every day life at all...  talking about my mother, living in my mom’s basement? Buddy, I am very well off financially. If we ever met in person you would probably run away like a wimp. You seem to hide behind a profile photo that isn’t you and a persona where you are an authority on audio, when you are the polar opposite. I could say life would be pretty lousy living as you, and I’d probably be right.

@kennyc  

You are not living in 2026. You are stuck in the 1970s. I suggest you read textbooks about audio reproduction, and grow up. And... accept the reality that technology has advanced rapidly since you started your audiophile journey vs today. In addition, you seem to have a totally incomplete understanding of audio as a subject of study. I find your responses to be both immature and primitive.

5 MB harddrive being shipped by IBM - 1956. : r/OldSchoolCool

And given how fast computers have evolved (AI, graphics cards, CPUs, storage) you’re telling me that audio electronics has been moving at a turtle’s pace since its inception, and we still can’t get close to perfect audio reproduction? Well then, you are hilariously wrong.

transistors, DAC chips, and other parts have followed the same process -

Miniaturization - Wikipedia

Nyquist Sampling Theorem - GeeksforGeeks

it’s really that simple. The modern world is supported by this; which without we’d still be in the stone age technologically. Have a nice day.