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Cats have superior hearing to most humans, and would naturally use only audiophile-grade gear
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Jan 14, 2016 19:50
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Oh man, there's an entire thread dedicated to the best "hifi test music" on a forum I'm reading. Literally no one even cares about the music they're discussing, only the mastering 
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Jan 14, 2016 19:52
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Hmmm now I'm thinking you could infuse snake oil garbage with catnip, so your golden-eared cats can display approval of your fine purchases. More expensive than sawdust but hey you need a niche right?
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Jan 14, 2016 19:54
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KozmoNaut posted:Oh man, there's an entire thread dedicated to the best "hifi test music" on a forum I'm reading. Literally no one even cares about the music they're discussing, only the mastering Has anybody suggested James Newton Howard & Friends - She yet? It is a lovely recording but gently caress me is it a noodly piece of music. I play it at concerts over huge PAs to wind the crew up.
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Jan 15, 2016 03:09
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baka kaba posted:Hmmm now I'm thinking you could infuse snake oil garbage with catnip, so your golden-eared cats can display approval of your fine purchases. More expensive than sawdust but hey you need a niche right? You'll get found out.  http://gizmodo.com/371536/300-audiophile-grade-power-cable-is-really-worth-15 Regarding hifi test music, join the conversation talking about how logarithmic sine sweeps make you feel compared to pink and white noises.
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Jan 15, 2016 03:17
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I've long said if human hearing were really that good we wouldn't be wasting all this time arguing about which rattling box sounds best.
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Jan 15, 2016 03:20
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I betcha those semicon design engineers must be slapping themselves stupid by spending so much effort to make a perfect opamp to sell for 50 cents each when they could be out there ripping people off with a piece of lovely metal in insulation for $10K a pop.
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Jan 15, 2016 03:32
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Musical differences heard between chipsets, Firewire 400/800, USB, SATA, flash drives, SD cards, and network shares. Greetings everyone: It all started because I need more drive storage space for my music library (all Redbook and higher-res in AIFF, some DSD tracks as well). I won't bother with much system/room background--many of you already know my set up or can look at profile album pics--but I will refresh on the computer setup: Headless 2010 Mac mini 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo w/8GB RAM, Mavericks stripped, Audirvana+ 1.5.10 w/custom iZotope SRC settings feeding 176.4/192 (soon to be 352.8/384!) to WaveIO XMOS-based async-USB>I2S interface (mounted inside DAC and not powered at all by USB bus); Rest of DAC is Hovland/Swenson NOS PCM1704 and discrete FET/JFET I/V output stage; multiple Swenson choke-filtered power supplies inside DAC chassis. My general methodology of using my suite of most difficult and nuanced test tracks, changing only one variable, and switching A/B/A/B/A--and allowing for "no difference" as an option--gives me confidence in what I hear. (I request that all the DBT people and sighted-listening naysayers stay away from this post.) Playback was always via A+ playlist, with Integer, Direct, and Exclusive modes all on, Redbook upsampled to 24/176.4. I always loaded the track fully into memory before playback. It is pretty crazy that even with a memory player I could hear all these differences. INTERFACE RANKING AND CONCLUSIONS: ------------------------------------------------ Here is the ranking of the interfaces from worst to best: 7) USB 3.0 -- Just dreadful. All the "sameness" and "getting in the way of the music" confusion of USB2.0, combined with a nasty hashiness. Piano (on the Bromberg and elsewhere) was awful, as were cymbals. 6) USB 2.0 -- It is funny. In some was USB 2.0 was not terrible, and if you have a Firewire DAC then it will likely be a good sounding choice. But horns did not have the right "blattiness" and a lot of timing cues seemed off. Its effect across multiple tracks was of making then sound more the same than different. And the whole "air of the room" sensation I got with the better interfaces could be noticed missing from the first 2 seconds of the track. In my system I could name the USB2.0 sound blind--any day of the eek. 5) Firewire 800 -- Fell far short of the "oh poo poo" grin I get with Firewire 400. Lowest level details missing, but were I really hear it is in the realm I talk about elsewhere: The degree to which the harmonics of the instrument seem separate or together with the playing of the note itself. Once I keyed into that it was easy to tell the difference. At first the FW 800 seemed to have this big and full bass with lots of overtones. But they were too much and not real. Also, the brushes and hits on cymbals revealed differences--and not in the favor of FW800. 4) Firewire 400 -- There is no doubt that for an external hard drive interface for Macs, FW400 is the winner. I think this could have as much to do with the speed and processing required at the computer end. It all seems crazy because we are talking memory play after the track is loaded. But the computer still talks to the drive briefly during playback--just watch the drive light and you will see that some sort of connection "keep alive" signaling is still going on. 3) SATA -- In most ways it was indeed better than the external drives, but there was something about it that bugged me. #1) The big winner for me, and by no small margin, is the SD CARD! Holy cow. I almost could not believe it. So much is so right. All the qualities that kept improving as I moved up the chain through the quieter processing, lower speed interfaces were exactly the nature of the top of the mountain that the SD now sits on. The sound is lightening fast! No hash, infinite detail. I am so smitten! It really is a long way ahead of all that came before it. And the most telling factor, as soon as I started playing music from the SD card, my cat came running in from outside and curled up on my huge 12V/10amp Astron linear power supply. - Superdad
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Jan 15, 2016 08:45
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Serve me Mexican for dinner, and I'll give him more "blattiness" and "air of the room" sensation than he could possibly handle. What a colossal waste of time and effort. Audiophiles continue to completely miss the point of digital interfaces, news at 11. E: I found the full post here, it's even more ridiculous: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f...aysayers-18108/ KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Jan 15, 2016 |
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Jan 15, 2016 10:12
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I am disappoint. He didn't mention how good music sounds better with the Northwood Pentium 4 than the current i7 trash because of the 50% better L1 cache latency for less jitter, or how if you have to settle for modern motherboards you will have to recap all the solid caps to electrolytics. And no PWM power for any of the fans either, heck it's better just take out the CPU fan completely then Prime95 the CPU to 100C to bring out the warmth in the sound.
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Jan 15, 2016 10:14
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:You'll get found out. A while back some tester bought a $your-first-born "power conditioner" and cut it open, and it turned out it was literally just a cheap cable going from the inlet to the outlet inside a fancy looking block of wood, with some metal lining to make it feel heavy. Of course audiophiles STILL defended it and claimed it made their setup sound so much better.
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Jan 15, 2016 10:40
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I read a bit into that thread and I feel Superdad and company were this close to suggesting the electrical equivalent to homeopathy as the reason for hearing the differences. It is literally a case of rounder zeroes and straighter ones. Later on in the thread he discovers ramdisks and his head explodes. A Lone Girl Flier fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Jan 15, 2016 |
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Jan 15, 2016 10:46
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:I read a bit into that thread and I feel Superdad and company were this close to suggesting the electrical equivalent to homeopathy as the reason for hearing the differences. It is literally a case of rounder zeroes and straighter ones. All that attention to local computing equipment yet no one questions their ISPs' infrastructure (and by extension the rest of the whole goddamn loving Internet) in their quest for more perfect bits.
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Jan 15, 2016 11:29
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:It is literally a case of rounder zeroes and straighter ones. I am so stealing this.
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Jan 15, 2016 11:47
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Own up: which of you is 'bunny'?quote:I joined the fun too late. Sorry I didn't take the time to read the whole discussion and your original post. I never tried the USB 3.0 for audio. From what I read you said it sounded horrible - harsh, fatiguing, rough sounding etc. Did you turn off the system when you were changing component (USB 3.0 interface and cable)? The sound can change drastically when changing hardware. Usually in the first few days it may sound rough / harsh and have lack of detail. But it will get better as you let it burn-in for days. If the USB 3.0 does require more power / wattage it can introduce more noise and can sound worse. This is logical. I don't know what the power consumption is with the 3.0 vs 2.0 and how much CPU utilization takes place for the 3.0.
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Jan 15, 2016 13:26
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:I read a bit into that thread and I feel Superdad and company were this close to suggesting the electrical equivalent to homeopathy as the reason for hearing the differences. It is literally a case of rounder zeroes and straighter ones. Can you listen to music calculated with double precision? This would literally give you rounder zeroes and more accurate ones.
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Jan 15, 2016 14:12
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Dunno, but I'm a bit of an avid collector so all my mp3s are signed.
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Jan 15, 2016 14:15
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Woolie Wool posted:
I haven't. I keep the source at 99-100%, yeah. I really think it's just the amp, being cheap junk. If their service is exceptional, maybe I can work out a deal on a new Asgard to give the brand another try. I do feel hesitant to buy into another Schitt because of it, and it's the only reason I haven't pulled the trigger on the Asgard 2 yet. Thanks for the good info!
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Jan 15, 2016 19:41
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I was assuming you guys were trolling, but then I clicked the link and noticed this guy is for real. --ninja edit: I mean the whole loving thread is lollerskates.  --edit: One of these delusional idiots actually links in his sig to the Xiph video about how these morons are actually full of it. Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 02:50
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Came across this gem of a cable quote just nowSome Moron posted:Before the Sound Scientists rejoice that this audiophool has finally come to his senses, I should point out that I felt that the Monoprice was directional, in that it sounded better in one direction than the other.
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Jan 21, 2016 05:41
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Monoprice does actually have directional HDMI cables though... of course this is entirely moot since HDMI is harsh and has a lower soundstage and reduced presence
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Jan 25, 2016 06:23
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Well obviously, if you send the 1's through the wrong way, the pointy bit at the top will snag on the zeroes and cause all kinds of congealed soundstage and lagging attacks.
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Jan 25, 2016 11:51
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E: Eh, wrong thread I guess.
KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 21:36
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A user on another forum just posted this picture: Yes, that is me from way back when I actually had hair. Top text is my name, bottom text translates to "no thank you". It's a ~10 year old and very drunk picture, I have no idea where he found it. He also called me ugly (guilty as charged) and told me to "get well soon"  E: And now his compatriots are getting into it as well, deflecting any criticism with "well, he started it!" 
KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 14:05
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Creepy.
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Jan 30, 2016 15:08
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I wonder if this applies to audiophiles: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3708238
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Jan 30, 2016 16:03
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Once you've been in the echo chamber for long enough, you react violently to having the familiar reassuring echo taken away.
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Jan 30, 2016 16:06
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Why are you arguing with people who are mentally ill?
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Jan 30, 2016 16:09
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They seemed kinda/sorta sane enough at the beginning, apart from the odd audiophile beliefs. And there are are lot of quite sensible users on the same forum, they just aren't nearly as vocal.
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Jan 30, 2016 16:14
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There is nothing sane about audiophilia
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Jan 30, 2016 16:17
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An audiophool and his sanity are soon parted.
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Jan 30, 2016 19:00
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:Creepy. No doubt. I have to respect the doxxing skills (or just pig-headed persistence).
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Jan 31, 2016 03:37
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uhh, do you expect me to believe that a non-beautiful person understands technology? good try dork, i'm gonna go take out a second mortgage to buy homeopathic bass talismans. e: has Impact not made it to the nordic lands? loving amateurs...
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Jan 31, 2016 04:41
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LOVE LOVE SKELETON posted:
The nordic region is home to the spare, ascetic sound of brands like B&O, and their font choices reflect that  I happen to like the B&O house sound
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Jan 31, 2016 04:47
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Panty Saluter posted:No doubt. I have to respect the doxxing skills (or just pig-headed persistence). I'm sure I've put that picture up somewhere, but I can't remember where, and it's not on Facebook. And it doesn't come up if you google my name, so I have no idea where he found it. Pretty weaksauce doxxing though, considering I put it online myself.
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Jan 31, 2016 04:56
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He probably stumbled on it when desperately looking for ammo to fling at you from your posts elsewhere, which is kind of hilarious and sad.
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Jan 31, 2016 12:59
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Here's a veeeery interesting analysis of a video from Home Entertainment promoting Audioquest HDMI cables. The video has been removed, but supposedly it showed a clear and very audible difference between HDMI cables, even in a Youtube video! http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=5540 So that's pretty much as close as you can get to shouting "BULLSHIT!" at the top of your lungs while also holding the most clear-cut and damning evidence possible for all to see. Naturally, Audioquest went into full-on CYA mode: http://www.stereophile.com/content/open-letter-bill-low-audioquest The sheer amount of denial and cognitive dissonance in the comments section is absolutely astounding.
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Jan 31, 2016 16:09
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AudioQuest cables are really pretty though, surely that's worth a few dollars? 
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Jan 31, 2016 17:32
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I can understand why the snake oil people would want to keep people in the dark about HDMI cables, the mark up on them must be fantastic.
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Jan 31, 2016 20:56
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Today I went and auditioned some high-end headphone stuff. In preparation, I brought an extra-special usb cable along for the DACs: mylar shielded and ferrite chokes! Only paid $599. Oh wait, sorry, that's $5.99 #TrippLite4Lyfe
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Feb 1, 2016 00:03
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