Perhaps the encoding is irredeemably flawed and the DACs that the golden ears
prefer are masking it, taking off the rough edges, the "sharpness". IOW maybe there is nothing to measure.
Power supply will always affect sound quality, especially with chips/circuitry having poor PSRR, but it doesn't affect the unique negative perception the way people (especially those with sensitive hearing) describe.
Hang on, I think I know the answer to this one, in the park in the dark because the policeman forgot to bring his fr*gging torch?
Sure but the Sabre AVCC seems to be a point of weakness in this regard - maybe because it is exposed & people have experimented with power to this chip, we can see this exposed?
The same applies to PCM1794 - there is an Iref pin which is the current ref for the DAC chip output stage current switching function - normally a resistor is used here to provide the current ref but if a CCS is used the sound is audibly improved. Again, the exposure of this function to an external pin allowed experimentation & optimisation
No, Scott, the batteries ran out
Just a pointer about analogies - they are not stories like allegories - they are snippets meant to illustrate a particular point - the point here is that looking in the place that is easiest to examine will not necessarily deliver a result.
Trust your ears. You are either cursed or blessed.
I have lots of experience regarding people who cannot perceive small differences. I have a close friend who teaches music. Showed him two files in FoobarABX where i could easily do 10/10 (or may be 100/100 if i wanted to) but he thought there was no difference. Trained him how/what to hear but negative. People just have different threshold of hearing. If we are in 5% of the population, that's too small to be important for the manufacturers or product designers. The positive side is we could be the 'manufacturer' who addresses this niche 5% market
What do you mean ScottJ? Agree with Bob, it is not as good as current recordings. There are enough good/better musicians, why have an attachment with the oldies?
Trust your ears. You are either cursed or blessed.
I have lots of experience regarding people who cannot perceive small differences. I have a close friend who teaches music. Showed him two files in FoobarABX where i could easily do 10/10 (or may be 100/100 if i wanted to) but he thought there was no difference. Trained him how/what to hear but negative. People just have different threshold of hearing. If we are in 5% of the population, that's too small to be important for the manufacturers or product designers. The positive side is we could be the 'manufacturer' who addresses this niche 5% market
Musicians have perhaps ingrained in themselves a way of listening which is more concerned with performance rather than subtle audible differences & breaking out of that way of listening can be problematic.
There's a good example I read of a recording engineer who describes doing some Foobar ABX test & finds that he can't listen in the way he normally would as he gets a null every time - when he changes his listening habits he gets positive ABX results but he finds it very difficult to do
You might have missed my points. You can improve Sabre by improving the power supply. But it is not related with why a few people do not like Sabre. (Chris, are you sure you can get 100 people?)
Yes, they listen to the music! Not the sound of the music stands squeaking as they turn the pages. I think they have it right!
It is not just a problem of "sighted" tests, but of controlled "blind" tests as well.
I didn't know that you were referring to "sighted" tests that you've done, which comes as a surprise.
Now it seems that your stance on "sighted" listening depends on your liking of the results, doesn't it?
Actually these days a lot of labels play it safe, so conductors and musicians play it safe. Furtwangler was the last of his breed and if you want to enjoy his style you have to listen to his recordings. I love this quote
Also tastes in performance evolve. Being able to enjoy recordings from an earlier age is vital to appreciate where we are today.
In regards to ess based dacs sounding fatiguing, the 9018 started having problems that had to be danced around in implementation and the 9028/9038 had some real issues with imd
at around -40db they even call it the ess ‘hump’ .
Benchmark seems to have figured it out in implementation and maybe others but many just ran with it....op amps are supposedly a way to fix it but this stuff is way above my pay grade!
at around -40db they even call it the ess ‘hump’ .
Benchmark seems to have figured it out in implementation and maybe others but many just ran with it....op amps are supposedly a way to fix it but this stuff is way above my pay grade!
I'm not sure what to think about statements like that.
If nobody would be interested in sound quality we would still listen to edison cylinders.
Musicians playing acoustical instruments are usually quite interested in sound quality, not only the quality of the instruments but in "Tonbildung" (could be sound formation ? ) overall, to get the best out of it.
If it comes to reproduction it is my experience that musicians are as a group as heterogenous as other people too.
Beside that it happens quite often that orchestra musicians are more focussed to the performance of the instrumental group they belong to themselves not so much to the performance overall.
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