Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

@daveyf 

If one has no real life frame of reference as to the sound of 'live' musical instruments in a non-amplified setting, then just relying on measurements might not be a bad idea. 

Hi Dave.  Long time no see.  On your comment, measurements are a great idea no matter what.  Ask any acousticians how to optimize the bass response in a room: they say to measure.  It doesn't matter how much you know some music.  Knowing that you have a peak at 40 and not 50 Hz won't come from that.  It will come from measurements.

And of course, what is on the recoding is not a copy of the live experience.  No microphone can capture what your two ears and a brain do in live music.  And of course that is on top of all the manipulations done in mixing and mastering of music.  It is best to think of a recording as a painting of real life, not a photograph.  In that sense, familiarity with real instruments won't help you.  This is why musicians as a rule are not audiophiles.

@amir_asr ...I am not a paid reporter as to sit there and take copious notes.

...All in all, a few rooms did stand out and one was Dutch and Dutch.

So turns out you don’t need to spend that much money to get superb sound (although $15K is not cheap).

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Thanks for the clarification about your approach and what stood out to you at the PNW audio show.  

Also just to add to my response

@amir-asr

…

 

Sadly for them and you, it didn’t result in better sound:

Nordost Tyr2 Cable Listening Tests
I fed the output of the Topping D70s into Topping A90 Discrete. The latter then drove my Dan Clark Stealth headphone.

 

This is as transparent of a chain as you can get.

And you know this how? Let me guess…you measured transparency of these components? Or determined how transparent they are by the results of your measurements?

Also, you heard no difference between Nordost and generic cables. Well there are two possible reasons as to why…

1. The said Topping audio chain is not as transparent as you thought it was

2. Your ability to detect differences between components and cables is impaired by either your measurements results based bias or your ears just don’t work as well as convince yourself they do.

To my earlier point…. Your testing is flawed on many levels and like I said in one of my earlier posts, your listening tests are too far from a real life scenarios. No one in their right state of mind would be running Nordost Tyr 2 cables with Topping and that goes for the crowd on both sides of the fence.

@amir_asr As a former pro studio musician, I guess I do not fit the mold. LOL.

Nonetheless, as I stated before, if one has little experience with the sound of the ’real’ live instrument in an un-amplified setting, then I guess relying on someone else’s expectation of what the instrument sounds like, and therefore the measurements that are assigned to this sound, is the choice that is left. IMO, if something sounds good and measures poorly, then the measurement device is off, the same applies if something sounds bad to our ears and the measurements are great...then the measuring device is measuring the wrong thing.

Personally, I trust my ears above all else, regardless of what the measurements may or may not be showing me. Same goes for when i pick an instrument to play, my ears ( and well, my hands also) are the final decider, regardless of other ’expert’ opinions as to the instrument quality ( or lack thereof).YMMV.

1. The said Topping audio chain is not as transparent as you thought it was

2. Your ability to detect differences between components and cables is impaired by either your measurements results based bias or your ears just don’t work as well as convince yourself they do.

Ah...the old "the problem is your gear or your ears" refrain from the Golden Ears.

Really...it's the only response they have, which is why you see it over and over and over and over and.....

I can hear angels singing on the Kinda Blue record.  What, it's not measurable and you can't hear them?  Well, it couldn't be my imagination...so it must be your gear isn't resolving enough or your hearing isn't acute enough.

The cozy, unfalsifiable world of the audiophile...