Oops. I misspoke. It was the Transparent OPUS cable ($46000), not MIT. Here is the link.
"And to cut to the chase, Mike could not identify the Monster from the Opus MM with any accuracy (nor the reverse, which also would have been a positive result if he had been consistently wrong) using our testing methodology. We stopped the test a little less than halfway through, I think we got through 8 A/Bs before we gave up."
And there were four total listeners, not three.
@amir_asr - Thank you. I couldn't find a reference to the exact model of Monster cables, but there's a mention of a $1.2k price point. Most likely they may have been the M2.x series or Sigma Retro Gold, which are both thick copper wires with gold terminations. Frankly, this doesn't surprise me as they're comparable, aside from price and a carbon fiber 'vibration dampener.'
This may be shocking to some, but when I lived in a tiny studio apartment in NYC, I experimented with alternatives and ordered Mil-Spec wire meant for spacecraft (silver coated copper in teflon) and appliance wire (12 gauge solid core copper). I ended using the appliance wire with excellent results, although it was an absolute pain to work and didn't look too pleasant. That said, I do enjoy fancy-looking cables and silver solid core for analog signals.
I do think there's some degree of truth to the marketing claims, but they're usually misunderstood and overblown. For example, the recent trend of using gold wires as speaker cables (where gold is preferable for applications where corrosion is a concern, but poorer conductor than copper) or Rhodium plating everything.
When you set the filter to "off," the output level jumps up by some 4 dB. This easily results in better perceived detail, air, etc. This is why it is critical to match levels in such listening test comparisons.
Failing that, you want to pay attention to measurements as it not only tells you about higher volume, it also shows that "off" starts to cut off the output starting from just 5 kHz. There is a whopping 4.5 dB droop by the time you get to 20 kHz! If you had matched levels, you would have hopefully heard the much attenuated high frequency response. Granted, some confuse this with "less digital" which it is not.
I should clarify that I was getting the odd tweeter cut-out across all filters and even when volume was set at -3.0 dB. Admittedly, I don't measure as often as I should, but I think there may have been have been something else at play and possibly some conflict with my speakers' high pass filter and the D1se2's drop off in the higher frequencies. I did cross reference frequency response to troubleshoot and it did go away once volume was set less than -5.0dB. I also get what you're saying and the boost to the more pleasant frequencies may have worked well with my preferences and/or speakers. Overall, it's a great entry into DACs and would recommend. (I picked it up on eBay for $300 and tested in my MBL system with excellent results.)
I guess my point was that measurements are a good baseline, but listening and testing play an often enjoyable, sometimes frustrating role in the hobby. My layperson observation is that people often take measurements as absolutes without diagnosing their own issues within their circuit.
Isn't this similar to audiophile marketing half-truths? I do, however, value the idea of teaching people to think and make their own judgement calls.
