Does a Tube Dac make sense?

I used to bring a headphone amp and headphones to listen to CD players. Most trade show setups are pretty awful and with no familiarity with the speakers and electronics, there is little chance to accurately attribute a sound to any one piece.


You are totally correct, it is a difficult task now, especially with fewer bricks and mortar stores. Even more reason to, as a hobby, put a little more emphasis on removing bias from our reviews that other people may use in their purchase decisions.

@jjss49 

once again - you nailed it 


"you participate on this forum for a while, you realize there are some usernames who are here just to issue blanket dismissals... i suspect they are now pretty much deaf but can still see and can type"

always the sensible one :) 

Totally agree with charles1dad that hobbyists often affiliate with either an "accuracy crowd" or a "musicality crowd," and that members of these different crowds are likely to have very different preferences.
I expect that divide explains some of the preferences on this thread.
Very difficult to see how any discussion of measurements or coloration could resolve that difference of preference -- which doesn't seem like a bad thing to me.

There exist 2 definitions of "accuracy" one is exactitude by numbers the other is  righteousness for the ears...

There exist only one definition of  musicality then and 2 of accuracy...

I will pick the definition of accuracy corresponding with the concept of musicality...

 Anything else is engineer business dealing with pieces of a system....

But we listen and tweak the WHOLE system not the parts separately...

@mahgister,
Wrote,

But we listen and tweak the WHOLE system not the parts separately.

Yes, I completely concur that ultimately this is true. But to reach this stage (Whole system) an audio system has to constructed and this is usually done via acquiring components piece by piece.

So in essence each audio component/product is individually judged or scrutinize before buying and adding to one’s audio system.
I believe that very few people buy a complete system consisting of speakers, source,cables and electronics in a single step.

Once all pieces of the audio system are in place then the tweaking and fine tuning as a whole can be addressed and strategically implemented. This would include room acoustic considerations as needed.
Charles