I have no idea what makes people choose the gadgets they buy and I'm determined to remain in my blissful ignorance. Isolating yourself with tech during the commute is merely the modern equivalent of reading the newspaper and serves to avoid contact with familiar strangers.
So that means you can change it at will just like sound. Could you make a youtube video of the color and meniscus switching back and forth?
We'll have to agree to disagree, as my threshold for loudness is pretty low and I hate losing awareness of my surroundings. 🙂 The only time that I get caught unaware sound wise is at my desk at work where I hope I shan't be run over!
What I meant was that if you play well recorded symphonic music on a train using ibuds or in a car you are forever gain riding as the quiet sections are inaudible. raising them makes the fff parts intolerably loud. My etymotics make this sort of music listenable but they block out everything so are arguably dangerous when outside of a train/bus.
Richard, I am glad that you have a definitive opinion about the OPPO. This gives me hope that better is possible without too much extra cost. Of course many people here on diy could have told you that tweaks and mods on the 105 and other models improved the sound quality.
Of course, the chief engineer at OPPO was all for measurements, not absolute sound quality. He resisted one of my suggestions just because it could have reduced a noise spec if not done carefully, and he didn't care if it would potentially improve the sound quality. This seems to be about the same opinion of many here who do not strive for the 'best' but instead the most convenient and cost effective products.
Yes, but it takes 5 minutes or so to develop, 30+ mins is better, I haven't tried longer term experiments for a while.
Previous experiments say that the wine slowly reverts when removed from influence.`
I will try to take pics/video record it for you sometime.
Dan.
I assume the reference is aerated for the same 30min. in an "untreated" glass. Not holding my breath, so to speak, of course. 😀
Although it was a few years ago, I used headphones when I auditioned the OPPO digital out feeding the Auralic Vega against the analog output of the OPPO. Even though I live in a rural area, ambient noises mask noise floor issues. If I am remembering correctly, the OPPO's noise floor was not as clean as the Vega's. Playing the Denon test disc orchestral music at -70dB I could hear a difference between the two: compared to the Vega the OPPO's analog output was more grainy as if the dither was high or there was more non-linearity in the lower bits. Of course the Vega cost over three times that of the OPPO, and although in the audiophile world this is often not indicative of superior performance, in this case it was.
Granted these tests are all to listen for artifacts well below normal listening level. For me that is important, I do a good portion of my listening through headphones when my wife is sleeping.
Incidentally John, since I know you trust them, the Auralic Vega has a A+ rating from Stereophile and is a bargain compared to most of the other DACs in that category, highly recommended. I can also recommend their service, the USB input of my Vega failed and they replaced the board and returned it quickly.
Cheers,
Howie
Two glasses cleansed and polished, one glass treated as described, both glasses poured in stages to attempt sameness, glasses on kitchen counter top separated by 12" or so, 5 minutes before first sampling.
I do try to make the experiments valid, and I believe my methods are vigorous enough.
The friend I mentioned phoned yesterday and we recalled the experiment on him, in his Sri Lankan accent which makes it even funnier he exclaimed "Ow mye gawd, I gott sutch a shock " (at the 'downgrade' difference).
I did the same comparison test on his wines to a home presentation wine salesman once.....I heard a few weeks later that he tossed in the job lol.
Dan.
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Thanks Howie, I'm sure that you heard the difference. Incidentally, it was the very same headphone amp that I was hired to evaluate that I found subjectively wanting, and that could be improved by less loading of the IC's or by adding a buffer. Increasing the resistor values would have reduced the loading, perhaps acceptably, BUT it would have reduced the S/N slightly. I don't think that they ever tried my suggestions.
This is becoming a subjective choice, again. I, personally, do not like LM4562 and their derivatives, do not like their (EMI) behavior and do not like their sound. You liked and used them in your designs. I prefer JFET input opamps.
At $2800 I'll stick with my $300 TT and DIY circuits, it's a box of IC's I can't get myself to believe there is real cost in implementing these circuits. I wish someone would show me what they are hearing that I could not live without.
Errr, what field was examined or measured to support such claim? When none was made then your guess is as good as any, it could be harmful radioactivity.
You could of course live without recorded music at all. Maybe you could lower the bar for us a little?
How about this, I could offer you dac you might like within your price range. And you can have fun with a DIY project at the same time!
Ah. I gave up on symphonic music for public transportation, but would still love if there were some FCC regulations that put a kibosh on some of the sillier levels of compression that is shoved down our throat.
The compression problem seems to be being addressed by the streaming music sites. They now penalize excessive compression, sometimes lowering the perceived volume level to less than much more modestly compressed music. The reason they can do that is because there are perceptual loudness metering standards that can reasonably be applied, and needed loudness adjustments can be automated.
Unfortunately, if you use any of the freebie streaming, ads are off the charts loud. But I agree, Mark, they're definitely applying some sort of normalization for loudness.
On the minus side, streaming services want small files, which brings us right back to compression. 🙁
On the minus side, streaming services want small files, which brings us right back to compression. 🙁
Small files is a different kind of compression in another dimensional space. It is lossy compression mostly done by throwing away small, low-value details. Spotify may be the worst at 128kbps. Most of the others allow 192kbps.
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Of course any of us could live without tweaky audio electronics. n The Vega is in the same price class as the Benchmark DAC3, but I was fortunate to find one used at half price. I'm sure $300 and careful design in your expert hands would net as good or superior results. I don't have the time or expertise to make and tweak a DAC, so I needed something off the shelf.
The OPPO itself was no bargain, and at $600 it is interesting that it had these (albeit minor) issues in it's audio path when OPPO claims audio perfection (whatever that means!). I do like that the Vega seems to be designed and manufactured with an eye for care in design and parts selection. It does feature an all discrete balanced architecture in the analog section and has 4.7 ohm output impedance driving the XLRs. As I have dwelled on here, inter-chassis potentials contaminating unbalanced signal transport can bedevil systems, so I preferentially use balanced interconnects when moving signals between chassis.
Not to start an interconnect war, but I have found low driving impedance and accurate balancing at the receive end virtually eliminate the cable from creating any sonic effects. The trick is the receive end balance which is difficult to maintain over a broad frequency range without careful design...or a transformer!
Just my own solution to specifying a good DAC.
Cheers,
Howie
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