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This is so peak audiophile: $1600 DAC Wildly overpriced, check. Wildly overengineered in the wrong ways like avoiding op-amps, no negative feedback, class-A discrete amps for driving headphones, huge linear power supplies, check. Garbage performance, why I never.
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Mar 25, 2018 01:38
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And that’s the direct from China price too. Put an American name and address on, and they’d probably want $5,000.
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Mar 25, 2018 01:57
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What is negative feedback supposed to be doing that is so awful? The only thing I can think is that it appeals to people who think the simplest circuit is always the best. I can see the appeal of the idea but O Lord does that not hold up in electronics
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Mar 25, 2018 04:08
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It lets the pure audio signal through unmolested by negative waves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyh-JpWdGmQ
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Mar 25, 2018 04:20
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Palladium posted:This is so peak audiophile: $1600 DAC That revew is a good, if unintentional, critique of audiophilia. Not only do you have an incredibly overpriced bit of gear that outputs total garbage (by modern standards) when measured objectively, but: quote:I could detect no difference in bass or mid-frequencies. In high-frequencies though, there was a subtle difference. They were a bit more emphasized in Audio-gd which gave a slightly more airy and open sound to Audio-gd. But as I focused on them, I realized the high notes are being distorted with the highs having a "sizzle" to them. That exaggerated their presence which could be to some people's liking. For me, as I focused on the same in Topping DX7s, I realized they were very clean and well defined whereas they were "blown" on the Audio-gd NFB-27.38 leading me to prefer the Topping version better. This thing is pumping out distortion and noise at levels way higher (THD+N hovered around -50db) than where the the differences audiophiles obsess over usually are, and he could still only barely hear a difference when he was specifically looking for it.
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Mar 25, 2018 05:54
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Panty Saluter posted:What is negative feedback supposed to be doing that is so awful? The only thing I can think is that it appeals to people who think the simplest circuit is always the best. I can see the appeal of the idea but O Lord does that not hold up in electronics Audiophiles claim makes the sound "harsh and sterile and digital", and because it isn't instant (feedback is delayed a few nanoseconds), they claim it causes timing errors. What it actually does is lower distortion and raise the damping factor, both of which are good. That cleans up the low-end, which easily gets bloated and woolly on amps with low damping factor, such as single-ended triode amps and tube amps with output transformers. That just means you need speakers with actual low end, instead of faking it like a lot of audiophile darling designs. That video of Mr. Qvortrup from Audio Note claiming his speakers with 8" woofers put speakers with multiple 15" woofers to shame, you just have to put them in a corner? That's exactly this same delusion, and people who've never heard good bass will believe it, because boomy bass sounds huge and impressive, and it probably isn't too bad with something like a jazz quartet. But play anything complicated and it just becomes a mess. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Mar 25, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 11:32
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KozmoNaut posted:That video of Mr. Qvortrup from Audio Note claiming his speakers with 8" woofers put speakers with multiple 15" woofers to shame, you just have to put them in a corner? That's exactly this same delusion, and people who've never heard good bass will believe it, because boomy bass sounds huge and impressive, and it probably isn't too bad with something like a jazz quartet. But play anything complicated and it just becomes a mess. so, a good jazz quartet? 
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Mar 25, 2018 14:25
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Considering the boring dreck most audiophiles listen to, yeah But I was think something extremely layered and dense and crowded, unlike typically sparse jazz arrangements.
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Mar 25, 2018 15:31
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KozmoNaut posted:Considering the boring dreck most audiophiles listen to, yeah Good jazz are flawless technical masterpieces yet somehow utterly boring to listen to IMO. *runs away*.
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Mar 26, 2018 05:29
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Palladium posted:Good jazz are flawless technical masterpieces yet somehow utterly boring to listen to IMO. you're not alone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96UXGj6NMBI
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Mar 26, 2018 05:53
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audiophiles really do have terrible music taste tho *buys $10k + setup* *listens to foo fighters*
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Mar 26, 2018 05:58
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Foo Fighters? That's a new one. I always thought the audophile standard was Dark Side of the Moon and Test Record #14. I know it's been said so many times already, but audiophiles don't listen to music, they listen to equipment
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Mar 26, 2018 06:28
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5-HT posted:audiophiles really do have terrible music taste tho No. Hell no. I need an expensive setup to really let the snare drum in this masterpiece ring clear and bright. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9yoebrgzYA
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Mar 26, 2018 08:19
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 I clicked on a couple other of their videos and that's actually how he has his snare
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Mar 26, 2018 08:38
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It's a brutal slamming death metal thing, *~*you wouldn't understand*~*.
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Mar 26, 2018 09:01
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1000 Brown M and Ms posted:Dark Side of the Moon I'm a middle-aged dad -- fight me! You'll be dissing Led Zeppelin next...
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Mar 26, 2018 09:41
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Clarence posted:I'm a middle-aged dad -- fight me! You'll be dissing Led Zeppelin next... You'll want that $10K stereo to hear the full subtle nuances of Jon Bonham's squeaky pedal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KLe2f0GHzQ
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Mar 26, 2018 10:25
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Clarence posted:I'm a middle-aged dad -- fight me! You'll be dissing Led Zeppelin next... Nah, Dark Side is good. It is ridiculously overplayed though, and I've found people who think it's the best album ever tend to have pretty boring and unadventurous taste in music. These days I like Dub Side of the Moon way more. Led Zeppelin is cool too
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Mar 26, 2018 12:55
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6bkaVGnvpEquote:A client paid for this project as part of his home entertainment system. Following turning, the client immersed the wood in a specially fabricated steel vacuum drum. Instead of using pure tung oil which he thought "too expensive", he decided to save money and used hardware-store spar varnish, a foul-smelling finish, in an attempt to make the wood translucent, similar to Cook Island / Norfolk Pine. It told him the maple would not become translucent but he persisted. The speaker came out with such chemical smell that it was ruined for use in any home. The person that paid for this project had more money than common sense. He paid me $6000 and gave me an opportunity to stretch my talents as a wood turner.
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Mar 26, 2018 15:40
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Well, that WAS a gorgeous piece of wood.
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Mar 26, 2018 18:22
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The base conceit of audiophiles is their sheer determination that they know better than everyone else, including people who design and manufacture electronics for a living as well as the people who record and mix the music .
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Mar 26, 2018 18:49
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AlexDeGruven posted:Well, that WAS a gorgeous piece of wood. actually it looked like a giant piece of poo poo before and after it was turned. it was basically a big tree tumor and i cant imagine it's inconsistencies in "grain" would do very well for the acoustics either.
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Mar 26, 2018 18:50
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Walnut is an interesting beast. I happen to really like it. I do, however agree that the acoustics are probably inconsistent at best because of the way it grows, but I think the aesthetics would be lovely if the customer wasn't a complete fuckwit.
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Mar 27, 2018 02:11
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qirex posted:The base conceit of audiophiles is their sheer determination that they know better than everyone else, including people who design and manufacture electronics for a living as well as the people who record and mix the music . it seriously is funny when you realize the 3.5mm jack dongle from apple outperforms most other passive dac solutions out there https://kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm
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Mar 27, 2018 10:41
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DACs are also really easy to make if you know what you're doing. All you need is a bunch of resistors.
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Mar 27, 2018 14:21
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Spent $0 on my dac and amp since Amazon hosed up Thanks for a $700 combo unit that measures insanely good Jeff! Of course I end up using airpods 90% of the time.
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Mar 27, 2018 15:08
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5-HT posted:it seriously is funny when you realize the 3.5mm jack dongle from apple outperforms most other passive dac solutions out there Kens not a reliable source, but I hope he’s right about this one.
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Mar 27, 2018 15:18
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The Apple dongle is known to measure pretty well. Back when fancy DACs were more of a thing a good one like a Burr/Brown was ~$20/chip but that was 25 years ago and now you can get an 8 channel DSD monster thing for like 15 cents, maybe $2 if it's some boutique model. I think at this point even Benchmark is like "it doesn't sound different but it measures slightly better so here's a new model." These new companies like Shiit, Audiogd, etc. are eating the market that "true" audiophile companies left behind pricewise. qirex fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Mar 27, 2018 18:15
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Palladium posted:This is so peak audiophile: $1600 DAC $1600 and the manufacturer can't figure out how to make it Class 2 compliant?
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Mar 27, 2018 21:17
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grack posted:$1600 and the manufacturer can't figure out how to make it Class 2 compliant? Class 2 shrinks the Soundstage. If you want builder-grade sound then that's ok for you. Some of us want better.
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Mar 27, 2018 21:35
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Palladium posted:Good jazz are flawless technical masterpieces yet somehow utterly boring to listen to IMO.
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Mar 28, 2018 08:06
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What's sad is I can't really tell if this is an April fool's joke or not.
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Mar 28, 2018 16:21
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What does your heart say
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Mar 28, 2018 16:35
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I bet it improves the soundstage to unprecedented levels just by sitting there.
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Mar 28, 2018 17:25
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Apparently it's legit and the announcement date is just bad timing. I'm sure McIntosh stuff sounds good but I can't get over how ugly it all is. It's like audiophile Oakley. To their credit they apply their awkward typography, glass and neon blue very consistently across their whole product line, though.
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Mar 28, 2018 17:58
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I actually kind of dig the aesthetic. It's Marantz I can't do. I would try a PM6006 if it wasn't so fuckin ugly.
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Mar 28, 2018 18:09
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I wanted to try my hand at building some of these for fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdkyGDqU7xA I have access to some tone wood pretty cheap, so I'm kind of excited to hear what this could sound like.
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Mar 28, 2018 18:23
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:I actually kind of dig the aesthetic. It's Marantz I can't do. I would try a PM6006 if it wasn't so fuckin ugly. Marantz stereo stuff seems pretty unremarkable to me, I hate the tiny "porthole" screen on their A/V receivers, apparently they got so many complaints about it that they added a second, larger screen to their high-end stuff:  I think British* companies like NAD, Cambridge and Naim have great design, also the new Anthem stereo stuff is a nice way to integrate a screen. Their A/V receivers are powerfully ugly, though. The worst stuff is always the crazy high-end 6 figure esoterica  *none British-owned anymore I think
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Mar 28, 2018 18:47
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 *dry heave* The PT cruiser thing is especially shameful because their design used to be so good.  IMO Peachtree has the best design of the high-end companies, even if the internals don't match the build quality.
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Mar 28, 2018 18:59
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qirex posted:What's sad is I can't really tell if this is an April fool's joke or not. My gut tells me they built it in response to customer demand.
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Mar 28, 2018 19:52
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