Audio Science Review = "The better the measurement, the better the sound" philosophy

@prof I don’t really find it hard to acknowledge when someone has expertise that I lack. Well, I believe I have that expertise in listening that you may lack. Other posters find some of your statements so unusual that they cannot respond. I’m sorry that you lack my capabilities after 50+ years hearing high end audio to denote something that is superior from that which is inferior, and I don’t mean on a subtle basis. Dramatic to me is much more than most high end reviewers commonly allocate to something new in the marketplace to sell. I’ve been fooled by subtle differences and mostly avoided costly purchasing errors. I don’t need test measurements to prove my listening results when a DRAMATIC (and positive) change is heard. However, to justify my own results, I have two golden ear friends and other friends and family to listen and approve or disapprove the change. When it is a subtle change, I can get a mixed review, sometimes it’s worse. When it is a dramatic improvement, I only receive accolades. Since I moved into my custom listening room, accolades are the typical reaction-listeners don’t want to leave. Who leaves the last spoonful of gelato in the can without finishing?

Your post is nonsensical. I heard 8 Dacs. 1 sounded shrill in the MR, 7 did not. 2 others did not appeal. I quite liked 5.How cn you say I am wrong when I compared 8?

@fleschler 

Yet again...your replies are just exemplifying all my arguments for me.

Every reply is based on your own infallible hearing.  No other evidence need apply. 

And if for instance I didn't hear a difference between some tweak or cable where you thought you heard a difference, it could never be that I'm hearing what is real and you are wrong.  It must always be you are right.   And since you leave no way at all of adjudicating such questions, or learning if you are wrong, the only retort you leave yourself is to Lord it over anyone who disagrees  - as you are claiming...with zero evidence... to have superior hearing capabilities to me.

Let's see, how plausible is this brag?

Well, I've been an audiophile obsessed with sound for most of my 58 years.  Been a musician too.  I've been obsessed with live vs reproduced sound for so long I've done recordings and comparisons of live vs reproduced.  I have been so obsessed with sound that it became my livelihood - I work in pro sound post production doing sound for film and TV.  I am typically balancing and mixing the audio of up to 60 tracks at a time. I am manipulating sound all day long down to the finest nuance, literally matching the "air tone" of different rooms.  I guarantee you would not be able to pick out many of the things I can pick out in tracks.

I've heard countless super high end systems. I've been an audio reviewer, and have had friends in the industry for decades, still hearing lots of the best of the best stuff. (My friend's system is currently cabled up with about $50,000...just for the cabling!).  My reviewer friends call me to listen because they trust my ears to hear things they will miss.  Etc etc.

But...nope...you have somehow diagnosed that I must have cloth ears compared to your "capabilities."

Well, anyone can claim "capabilities."  I can claim to hear angels singing in the background on Kind Of Blue.  Oh, you can't hear them?  Poor you...you must lack my "capabilities."  I can say that stuff all I want to puff myself up and lord it over you.  Except you'd immediately recognize I haven't given an ounce of evidence for my brag.  So we'd be even ;-)

I've actually been willing to truly put my ears to the test - to see when I can hear differences WITHOUT the knowledge of what I'm hearing.  Apparently this is experience you lack.   And so long as you continue to lack this experience of really putting your claims to a test where you might fail,   then I'm sorry, the claims fail to impress.

Your post is nonsensical. I heard 8 Dacs. 1 sounded shrill in the MR, 7 did not. 2 others did not appeal. I quite liked 5.How cn you say I am wrong when I compared 8?

I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm pointing out you COULD be wrong.  Because people can imagine differences that aren't there.

You aren't Superman.

Do you have ANY idea why blind and double-blind testing is used in scientific studies?

Are you aware AT ALL of the fallibility of human perception?  There's only a billion studies showing this.

This thread like every such thread just shows this inherent personal dogmatism.

People in the "If I hear it it's real" camp simply can not admit they could be wrong. Don't even seem to realize it's a possibility.  It's fairly astonishing to ignore that much about the human condition.

Alright - comparing the 8 I listened to the Topping was unlistenable for me with Callas' Casta Diva compared to the other 7. Happy now?. How can I imagine differences when I did not even know what the fricken Dac was? It was the last on the list by far. I have noticed that ESS Sabre chips are not to my liking.