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Is it all in my head?

Okay, sad to admit it but I just did an a/b comparison, granted it was only on one dubbed cd, between my musical fidelity a3.2 cd players dac and my new parasound z dac and could hear absolutely no difference. When I got my dac a few days ago I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but spank me and call me sally, I can't for the life of me distinguish between the two. I hooked it up such that I could go between the two on the fly with a press of a button. Hmmmm... I could hear a difference between my denon dvd 2900 and the musical fidelity a3.2 but no dice between the a3.2 and z dac. I can also hear slight, slight differences between i.c.'s and speaker cables so I dunno. I think I may be spitting the kool-aid out if it doesn't give me a buzz anymore, or else I'm gonna buy some of those ufo thingies to put on my windows (sorry G).

Doh...
128x128b_limo
mezmo
516 posts
 
Not for nothin, but the last three exchanges totally made my night. Yea. Cheers.
b_limo's avatar
b_limo OP
2,274 posts
 
To update the thread, I can now hear a difference. Cd player with z dac sounds best, followed by streaming spotify with wadia 170 using z dac, followed by cd player using its own internal dac. Don't know if the dac opened up as it broke in or if now I can just hear a difference, or both, but I can definately tell a difference now...
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,199 posts
 
My experience has been that no two pieces of gear sound exactly the same, but differences can run the scale from little or no or insignificant difference to major difference.

Usually the biggest differences can be attributed to major differences in design and approach between two units being compared.

Published specs may be useful but do not tell the whole story, even if accurate.

Test bench measures by an independent and unbiased source like those in mags like Stereophile for example, are more helpful for painting a better picture of what to expect, but still do not tell the whole story for that device much less overall performance of any system it is used in.

In the end, your ears are the ultimate test. Time and patience is needed in order to have any chance of sorting through it all in a meaningful fashion.

One of my favorite quotes as it relates to high end audio:

"A difference that makes no difference is no difference."
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Subtle differences usually take some time to fully grasp. Don't believe the hype that the glossy rags spew, not every difference is jaw-dropping. Enjoy the music.
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