Can you hear a difference between 2 solid state preamps?

Can you hear a difference between the two test files

  • I can hear a difference, but have no ABX result

    Votes: 12 50.0%
  • I cannot hear a difference and have no ABX result

    Votes: 6 25.0%
  • I can hear a difference and have an ABX result

    Votes: 4 16.7%
  • I cannot hear a difference and have an ABX result

    Votes: 2 8.3%

  • Total voters
    24
  • Poll closed .
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Could be, but how meaningful might they be?

Well if I were to be building a preamp and were not able to demo them first it might be useful for something like that and if it got to the point where no difference is heard than that would be the null point for my system and it would no longer matter.

Or just to be able to tell EH that two level matched pieces can in fact sound different.......that’s probably most valuable! :D

Or just plain fun......much more so than ‘15 songs’
 
I'm talking about jitter I can hear that you might have trouble measuring. Phase noise in the range of 1Hz to 10Hz offset can be audible. Doesn't have to be deterministic enough to show up on a time averaged FFT.

Uh - huh. I was showing a jitter when I use DAC and ADC 2 different boxes with their own circuitry. Once again, now with jitter test signal shown. Oh and yes, preamp#1 is in the loop.
 

Attachments

  • jittersignal.png
    jittersignal.png
    38 KB · Views: 187
  • jitter.png
    jitter.png
    49.4 KB · Views: 182
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
At the end, where is the interest to have 10 records that sound fantastic, and the other 1000 where the play of the musicians is spoiled by small production defects that underlines your system ?


This part intrigues me as I would personally like to have the base system to get the best out of the best and then be able to switch in modifiers if required to deal with the 99% of recordings that are not perfect. I think I am an outlier in this though.



I have also realised that, despite being a reformed audiophile I still take a strange please in hearing all the little things that we should not. Musicians turning pages , subway rumble etc. Noise gates are a bug bear, as is fading noise out between tracks on old analog recordings, but it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the music.



It is fascinating how differently people listen to the same music. Maybe there is no common ground.
 
Getting personal as usual ;)
OOT:
I confess to having little taste for hunting with hounds, bullfighting and lynching. (see what I mean ;-)

Anyway, I did not think about you or Pavel, writing that. I do not think any of us three have bled Mark4.

My message, probably clumsy, was just a call for more kindness and open minded respect for others in the exchanges.

We are not very numerous to participate in this interesting subject, it's a pity to see someone leave it.
 
This part intrigues me as I would personally like to have the base system to get the best out of the best and then be able to switch in modifiers if required to deal with the 99% of recordings that are not perfect. I think I am an outlier in this though.
You are not an outler, I think. It shoud be perfect and economical. But I believe it is quite impossible. Even in studios, with a lot of tools to modify the sounds in different ways, we are obliged use different speakers to mimic different systems.

It is fascinating how differently people listen to the same music. Maybe there is no common ground.
Yes. Some listen in a vertical way (wall of sounds) others in an horizontal way, focusing/following each instrument lines individually.

Some are sensible to the general atmosphere (what we call "sound stage ?) like wide angles in photography. Some don't care, and prefer sharp télé lenses...
Most of the musicians I know are not in concern with hifi at all. They listen to the plays of the musicians whatever the system, and I imagine they use their brain to reproduce what they cannot hear ?
Our different musical cultures makes all the differences.

BTW: When I listen to the recordings of what out of HIFI systems, and compare with what i was hearing in the same time the recording was done, I always wonder the incredible work our ears+brain is able to do to have made this listening session ... believable and, sometimes, even enjoyable ;-)
 
Last edited:
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
. It shoud be perfect and economical. But I believe it is quite impossible. Even in studios, with a lot of tools to modify the sounds in different ways, we are obliged use different speakers to mimic different systems.


You certainly cannot make a silk purse out of a pig ear. But with the processing power of the humble laptop these days and freely available software it may be possible to improve the personal subjective experience with some music. And experimenting with tweaking in the comfort of one's own home does no harm (except perhaps to personal sanity).



I'm one of the broad vista types. I like to stand back from the canvas and take the whole thing in rather than walk up to it with a microscope. Doesn't mean I can't see the stitches in the patchwork quilt of the mix though :).
 
Pavel suggested a LP filter at 100kHz to smooth poorer recordings through a revealing system
It depends on each speaker's system. More a question of phase curve (group delay) than response curve ?
If you try, comparing filters digital(0 Phase) VS analog, you will have the answer.
The rule, anyway, is to avoid any signal slope too close to the Slew Rate of an amp.
 
... My message, probably clumsy, was just a call for more kindness and open minded respect for others in the exchanges...
Not clumsy, but rather offensive. For some of us DIY is for fun, what did you or Mark find in my comment to be unkind, close minded or disrespectful? His discernment is at professional level, not the amateur level like I and some others here. The preamp listening test here was useful for us and help in our understanding, but clearly unsuitable for listening at differences in DAC he is interested in. I and Bob speak our mind honestly and politely, I do not think Mark should be offended if we did not immediately bow and adopt his view.
 
Last edited:
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.