@prof : I am giving you points. Many points. A chance to redeem yourself with Master Amir. You are welcome!
Why HiFi Gear Measurements Are Misleading (yes ASR talking to you…)
About 25 years ago I was inside a large room with an A-frame ceiling and large skylights, during the Perseid Meteor Shower that happens every August. This one time was like no other, for two reasons: 1) There were large, red, fragmenting streaks multiple times a minute with illuminated smoke trails, and 2) I could hear them.
Yes, each meteor produced a sizzling sound, like the sound of a frying pan.
Amazed, I Googled this phenomena and found that many people reported hearing this same sizzling sound associated with meteors streaking across the sky. In response, scientists and astrophysicists said it was all in our heads. That, it was totally impossible. Why? Because of the distance between the meteor and the observer. Physics does not allow sound to travel fast enough to hear the sound at the same time that the meteor streaks across the sky. Case closed.
ASR would have agreed with this sound reasoning based in elementary science.
Fast forward a few decades. The scientists were wrong. Turns out, the sound was caused by radiation emitted by the meteors, traveling at the speed of light, and interacting with metallic objects near the observer, even if the observer is indoors. Producing a sizzling sound. This was actually recorded audibly by researchers along with the recording of the radiation. You can look this up easily and listen to the recordings.
Takeaway - trust your senses! Science doesn’t always measure the right things, in the right ways, to fully explain what we are sensing. Therefore your sensory input comes first. You can try to figure out the science later.
I’m not trying to start an argument or make people upset. Just sharing an experience that reinforces my personal way of thinking. Others of course are free to trust the science over their senses. I know this bothers some but I really couldn’t be bothered by that. The folks at ASR are smart people too.
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Many reasons, independent of sound. They like the support, warranty, good looks, resale value, pride of ownership, features, etc. I replaced my $6000 Mark Levinson DAC with a Topping. Even though the topping is more capable (supports more formats) and has better objective fidelity, I miss the old DAC with its big and beautiful display and enclosure. It is for the same reason I own a Reel to Reel tape deck. It is not because it has better fidelity or cheap (tapes cost hundreds of dollars!). But because I love looking at its reels and looks. Net, net, there is nothing wrong in buying high-end gear that costs a lot of money. Just make sure it doesn't sacrifice fidelity to get there. When they do, like the Chord owner before, they will buy the much cheaper and more performant electronics and happy for it. BTW, there is no $50 DAC that competes with Mola Mola. The highest SINAD ranking DAC in my testing costs US $900. Go ahead and tell me this is for out of work kids with no money. 'cause it sure as heck is not in my book. But yes, a $9 dongle from Apple often outperorms multi-thousand dollar DACs from high-end companies. Shame on them for shortchanging people for performance while they could have done far, far better. Only if they properly tested their ideas of low noise, distortion, etc. before releasing the boxes to you all. |
Sounds like you forgot your elitist argument that only poor people living in their parents home frequent ASR to find cheap Chinese gear. So I post examples of many members sending me a ton of expensive gear indicating they have the means to purchase some. So definitely not poor as you claimed and assumed. And they are precisely our audience. Many send their gear in after coming from your camp and then watching my videos and reviews. They then wonder if they were taken for a ride or if their expensive gear really performs. I do the testing and then they know. In many cases their reaction is "lesson learned" and no longer follow claims by folks like you on fidelity. Or Joe reviewer on youtube. And no, none of his cables were "fake." I post the review of his S/PDIF cable from Nordost. You have a reason to claim it is fake? And that the owner of tens of thousands of dollars in DAC electronics would buy fake $20 cables?
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@amir_asr : thanks for replying to me. I understand your post, and I get your point. Regardless of what this exchange sounds like, I do appreciate what you do, and I mean it. You do you. There is definitely value on what you do |
True. People who have no idea, and don’t know how good sound is like. There are many people like that. See my Original Post.
My camp? You have no clue what “my camp” is. Clue… just my experience. Good enough for me. Again, you do you. There is value on what you do. I am not stupid not to admit this.
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