Atkinson & Co. also have another advantage over ASR: he and his team actually listen to what they measure.
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
Amir and Blind Testing
Let me start by saying I like watching Amir from ASR, so please let’s not get harsh or the thread will be deleted. Many times, Amir has noted that when we’re inserting a new component in our system, our brains go into (to paraphrase) “analytical mode” and we start hearing imaginary improvements. He has reiterated this many times, saying that when he switched to an expensive cable he heard improvements, but when he switched back to the cheap one, he also heard improvements because the brain switches from “music enjoyment mode” to “analytical mode.” Following this logic, which I agree with, wouldn’t blind testing, or any A/B testing be compromised because our brains are always in analytical mode and therefore feeding us inaccurate data? Seems to me you need to relax for a few hours at least and listen to a variety of music before your brain can accurately assess whether something is an actual improvement. Perhaps A/B testing is a strawman argument, because the human brain is not a spectrum analyzer. We are too affected by our biases to come up with any valid data. Maybe.
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Really? How do you know it's the switch?
Think about this statement ? If it doesn't show up on the output of a DAC, in other words if the DAC shows the same measurement with or without this switch then what exactly is the switch doing that the DAC can't take care of? You can make all the subjective untested wonders of these various devices you like, I'll just file them with all the other subjective untested wonders produced by dubious devices. |
Yes, sometimes he listens. Sometimes he doesn’t. At random, I pulled up this review. There’s no mention at all about how it sounds, but it earns a hearty recommendation just the same: "The Gustard X16 comes in an unassuming package making you think you have bought a mid-priced DAC. But looks are deceiving as it produces some of the best measurements I have seen out of some 350+ DACs I have tested! Talk about getting ready to battle with the best of the best. Yes, there is a hint of ESS IMD Hump but it is not excessive enough for me to worry about it although I hope they look at eliminating this. |
There is a thing about basic mental construction in people. Two basic camps in how minds center, flow and function. One way we tend to think about it is liberal vs conservative The next set of descriptors could be optimistic vs pessimistic the next set of descriptors could be lateral vs linear The next set of descriptors could be open vs closed The next set of descriptors could be explorative vs negative proofing The next set could be adventurous vs safe and traditional The next set of descriptors could be consciousness awareness vs unconscious living Or, Jungian vs Freudian Or... Agnostic/Atheist vs religious Or, the inventors, the bringers of the new.... vs the rote repeat book plodders, as the two basic ways to move through life. Thinking types vs virtue signalers. Chaos vs order. Most folks are a variant/mix of some of each, all mixed up in their mental and physical tum-tum-tummy. Basic patterns of behavior and mindfulness tend to emerge and be the more potent or visible contributor of their essence, that others may witness. We need both to exist, we need chaos moved into some form of order, but the extremes of either is death for all of humanity. Thus we cannot, at this time, exist within the idea of a future, without the strong contribution of each. An important point, is that the lateral, the liberal, the adventurous, and the chaotic, are more expressed in high intelligence than in a given more mundane intelligence. More options can give a more cavalier thinking process about basic safety perceptions in overall factors in life. At the same time we cannot say that conservative behavior is a full indicator of intelligence (even though it is a factor), but that creativity has some weighing in the equation. Conservative types can be highly intelligent, it is just that it is a different form of expression of intelligence. Creatives, for the most part, can’t live without their manifold acts of expression. Literally. Where the conservative types can’t exist without beating such behavior down. Literally. One way to think of ASR is as one of closed thinking, book thinking, rote thinking, safe thinking, judgemental thinking, factual thinking. Which is fine, until you realize that too much of it, will literally kill the future into a static nothingness with no real openness of capacity or intent, direction, or capacity to deal with new challenges. Ultimately.... a closed dead system. As the clash said, ’And there is no future in England’s dreaming’ Where the conservative types, unwillingly (as they don’t want it with just as much life force as the creatives fundamentally must exist their own way), forcefully.. make it work, so it’s stable and has form. Conservatives are 100% necessary to ensure that the now has a form.. and we can then stand in some filled out form of a space, exist in context and reflection... and reach for a new future. Overall, the answer is that this clash with ASR is fundamental and inescapable. As long as humans exist as they do, this schism will exist. The issues come when creatives, who are generally, via a life lived..are aware of this, to some extent, and thus find themselves having to constantly remind the conservative types that this ’extremism’ if you will, is required to exist. Required. 100% necessary. As the closed mind, the book learning as life expression, the negative proofing of the conservative mind -resists the intrusion with all of it’s life force. So the creatives are the ones who get to be hung on the cross. Forever. |
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