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Which DAC measurements do you like to see next?

Kane1972

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A member of Gearslutz says he runs blind tests all the time on DAC's and ADC's and can usually hear their differences. He can tell the difference between his Mytek Brooklyn and Mytek Manhattan as well as DAC's by Prism. He says he thinks they all have specs that would suggest they are all totally transparent and yet they sound very distinct to him.

He's considering doing a blind test with someone from ASR, but would prefer to do it in his studio, but he is willing to travel if he's convinced the environment etc would suffice to hear the differences.

He personally does not see that this "experiment" would break any new ground, as he says he and many others he knows do these sorts of tests all the time with positive results and was a bit surprised to hear that on ASR the mantra is "nobody has ever been able to tell the difference in a level matched blind test" etc.

He says he is currently only about 4 hours from Amir, so maybe it will happen.

I'm going to keep plugging away at this from both sides, as I would really like this to take place. I'd find it super interesting.
 

mt196

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There exist people with very good hearing that maybe find shoot some nuances, but the mantra here is that no one listens to his music with that much level of attention to find every minimal difference between two dacs and also that not everyone has golden ears
 

Zek

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@Kane1972 You're on the wrong track. What you are trying to do will never happen in this forum. :rolleyes:
 

mt196

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@Kane1972 You're on the wrong track. What you are trying to do will never happen in this forum. :rolleyes:
Why not? I mean, we all want things to be done properly without biases, but there is no science in saying that something is not possible/end of the story. There exist experiments to prove the theory, the problem is that in the audio world a lot of people do experiments in an uncontrolled environment with a lot of biases making them null, but I cannot be against an ABX DAC comparison if done properly
 

Kane1972

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@Kane1972 You're on the wrong track. What you are trying to do will never happen in this forum. :rolleyes:

So why has there been people offering rewards on here if anyone can demonstrate they can tell the difference between two so called transparent DAC's?

Surely science is about testing and experimenting? Everytime someone says they hear a difference, the answer is "without level matched blind test it's meaningless", now you say these tests would be meaningless too?
 

Kane1972

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Why not? I mean, we all want things to be done properly without biases, but there is no science in saying that something is not possible/end of the story. There exist experiments to prove the theory, the problem is that in the audio world a lot of people do experiments in an uncontrolled environment with a lot of biases making them null, but I cannot be against an ABX DAC comparison if done properly

That’s the spirit!

I don’t know if his ears are any better but his “listening” will be, because his living is made from making adjustments to sound.
 

Zek

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... now you say these tests would be meaningless too?

No, you misunderstood me, I was a little sarcastic - I only said that it would not be possible in this forum because they do not support hearing tests - only what can be measured is important.;)
 

Kane1972

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No, you misunderstood me, I was a little sarcastic - I only said that it would not be possible in this forum because they do not support hearing tests - only what can be measured is important.;)

Ah, ok, got you.
 
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amirm

amirm

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No, you misunderstood me, I was a little sarcastic - I only said that it would not be possible in this forum because they do not support hearing tests - only what can be measured is important.;)
What? That is completely wrong.
 

Kane1972

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I would agree it’s wrong, blind listening tests are always mentioned as valid. However I think he was just making a tongue in cheek comment.
 

Zek

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Blind testing on this forum - where did you can find it? :oops:
 

Kane1972

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Well, I’m hoping to set one up with one or two recording engineers who say they can definitely, reliable hear that converters sound different from one another. Of course the converters need measuring to see if ASR say they should not be able to sound different.
 
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mixsit

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Where is Amir based? Maybe some of these guys live close enough to make it easier? Maybe he could take his gear to their studio to run the tests?
I followed your posts here and over there. Sadly no responses. Hard to know if it was 'wrong corner of the forum, or maybe a 'not this again.
On one hand I realize my ears and I are long past perusing hardware differences like this, the tech side of me is still very interested.
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/mus...yone-want-96khz-31.html?posted=1#post14383014
 

mixsit

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Ooops that was wrong. Now I see there has been more discussion (I didn't see until I posted. Sorry about that.
 
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amirm

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Blind testing on this forum - where did you can find it? :oops:
In many headphone amp listening tests I perform. Anyway, it is off topic for this thread.
 
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