The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Mather said:
I knowwww I was being partially facetious. I just think they spend far too much time worrying about measurements and numbers that ultimately are so miniscule that it means nothing in terms of how that unit actually sounds. Math has a place in music reproduction, but in my opinion it's no where near as important as they make it out to be. It's a lot of numbers that ignore the notes.
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I think it also places a form of distortion free ultra accuracy on an underserved plinth of ultimate importance. Forgetting that harmonic distortions can often add to the presentation and are often added by engineers at all stages of the recording and mastering processes. There’s a reason many acts still favour tube amplifiers on stage and why mixing, mastering and cutting engineers still often use tube driven gear.

I have a feeling that if I put together a system of asr top recommendations that it would be incredibly fatiguing and unenjoyable to listen to.
 
Joe Mac said:
I think it also places a form of distortion free ultra accuracy on an underserved plinth of ultimate importance. Forgetting that harmonic distortions can often add to the presentation and are often added by engineers at all stages of the recording and mastering processes. There’s a reason many acts still favour tube amplifiers on stage and why mixing, mastering and cutting engineers still often use tube driven gear.

I have a feeling that if I put together a system of asr top recommendations that it would be incredibly fatiguing and unenjoyable to listen to.
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Exactly, you said it better than me. Numbers don't tell the story of how something actually sounds. I mean isn't "warmth" basically just distortion? Like it's actually desired in many cases.
 
There are just a ton of people who live and die by the ASR reviews and numbers. It's like the sports fans who rely ONLY on advanced stats to analyze players and teams. The ASR stuff is meant to be taken as one piece of the puzzle and as others have said, you can have stuff that measures really well and sounds bad to you based on any number of factors. You gotta hear stuff to make a proper judgment and I have found that many people on ASR definitively dismiss gear without actually hearing it, which is wild.
 
MikeH said:
There are just a ton of people who live and die by the ASR reviews and numbers. It's like the sports fans who rely ONLY on advanced stats to analyze players and teams. The ASR stuff is meant to be taken as one piece of the puzzle and as others have said, you can have stuff that measures really well and sounds bad to you based on any number of factors. You gotta hear stuff to make a proper judgment and I have found that many people on ASR definitively dismiss gear without actually hearing it, which is wild.
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I also hate statistical analysis of sport, it’s s joyless and so often nonsense…
 
MikeH said:
There are just a ton of people who live and die by the ASR reviews and numbers. It's like the sports fans who rely ONLY on advanced stats to analyze players and teams. The ASR stuff is meant to be taken as one piece of the puzzle and as others have said, you can have stuff that measures really well and sounds bad to you based on any number of factors. You gotta hear stuff to make a proper judgment and I have found that many people on ASR definitively dismiss gear without actually hearing it, which is wild.
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I mean that happens everywhere. People are biased and let that rule their decisions.

I don’t necessarily want to hear another ortofon. I am biased against audio-technica tables. But I would check them out at a show.

Lots of people want to write off my NAD because it’s digital, but it sounds pretty damn good to me.

I think it is healthy to recognize you bias, I think it is unhealthy to be ruled by bias.
 
Lee Newman said:
I mean that happens everywhere. People are biased and let that rule their decisions. I don’t necessarily want to hear another ortofon. I am biased against aufiotechnica tables. But I would check them out at a show.

Lots of people want to write of my NAD because it’s digital, but it sounds pretty damn good to me.

I think is healthy to recognize you bias, I think it is unhealthy to be ruled by bias.
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I mostly agree with at apart from the LP5. Whenever I’ve seen or heard that table I’ve been pleasantly surprised by its solidness and how good it sounds given it’s a below €400 direct drive table with a plastic shell.
 
Joe Mac said:
I mostly agree with at apart from the LP5. Whenever I’ve seen or heard that table I’ve been pleasantly surprised by its solidness and how good it sounds given it’s a below €400 direct drive table with a plastic shell.
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That LPw30 that @bdm105’s buddy is pondering is a pretty nice looking deck.
 
would you consider a dragonfly cobalt to be worth it at 200 bucks... it seems that its gotten what feels like a permanent price drop to there and the only issue i'd have with it is that I wouldn't be able to play any songs that are 192khz, I've heard amazing things about the dragonfly line but maybe there is something better in the portable DAC department (something I can carry around with my laptop), hopefully for under 300 bucks
 
MikeH said:
HDTT is having a 17% off sale if anybody wants some DSD256 downloads...they have some solid titles.

Rare Classical and Jazz music in Audiophile Sound

High Resolution Downloads, Classical Music, Jazz Music, Rare Audiophile, DSD Downloads
www.highdeftapetransfers.ca www.highdeftapetransfers.ca
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I just discovered HDTT this weekend, and then I searched for it here and found this and previous posts. My SACD player also plays native DSD and has USB file input. I have taken some advantage of the file-based function, but not a lot.

Anyway, HDTT is doing 25% off for Black Friday, and I bought 3 ”Pure” DSD256 titles to compare to vinyl on my system. Adderley - Somethin’ Else (to be compared w test pressing of MMJ regular 33rpm), Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up (tbc w Tone Poet), and Getz/Gilberto (tbc w AP 33). As suggested in previous posts. “Pure” to HDTT means mixed in DSD and no PCM involvement.

This review of HDTT’s Somethin’ Else is what motivated me to look at HDTT in the first place. He thinks it’s amazing but is also measured/balanced about it, especially if you have an a vinyl or other digital version that you’re happy with.

I can’t do any real comparing until a night when wife/kids are out, but I did have time to crank all of these purchases for a bit, and I gotta say, Somethin’ Else stands out. I chose the other two bc they’re well reviewed on HDTT, and I have good vinyl to compare them against. All 3 HDTT are really good, but they have different sound characteristics due to different sources.

More on this when I have time to compare.
 
Portland Sheriff said:
I just discovered HDTT this weekend, and then I searched for it here and found this and previous posts. My SACD player also plays native DSD and has USB file input. I have taken some advantage of the file-based function, but not a lot.

Anyway, HDTT is doing 25% off for Black Friday, and I bought 3 ”Pure” DSD256 titles to compare to vinyl on my system. Adderley - Somethin’ Else (to be compared w test pressing of MMJ regular 33rpm), Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up (tbc w Tone Poet), and Getz/Gilberto (tbc w AP 33). As suggested in previous posts. “Pure” to HDTT means mixed in DSD and no PCM involvement.

This review of HDTT’s Somethin’ Else is what motivated me to look at HDTT in the first place. He thinks it’s amazing but is also measured/balanced about it, especially if you have an a vinyl or other digital version that you’re happy with.

I can’t do any real comparing until a night when wife/kids are out, but I did have time to crank all of these purchases for a bit, and I gotta say, Somethin’ Else stands out. I chose the other two bc they’re well reviewed on HDTT, and I have good vinyl to compare them against. All 3 HDTT are really good, but they have different sound characteristics due to different sources.

More on this when I have time to compare.
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Ooh I’ll have to look at the sale…these are the ones I have so far.

IMG_0358.jpeg
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Not sure how I feel about this. I was planning to drop it next year but curious if Samsung will do something with it other than strip it for IP
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I’m unsure myself. I love Roon personally, so I’m a little afraid of Samsung f*cking with it. Which may happen, but I liked the fact that the Roon team is staying and it’ll be handled as a separate entity, as opposed to being swallowed whole and becoming a proprietary “feature” of Samsung and Harmon gear.
 
SnowmaNick said:
I’m unsure myself. I love Roon personally, so I’m a little afraid of Samsung f*cking with it. Which may happen, but I liked the fact that the Roon team is staying and it’ll be handled as a separate entity, as opposed to being swallowed whole and becoming a proprietary “feature” of Samsung and Harmon gear.
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What would you need roon for on your tv or oven?
 
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