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What items have you purchased as a result of ASR?

Nango

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Fiio A5, Khadas TB.

Interesting question as well: Which gear did you dismiss AFTER reading about in ASR? I think this list will be substantially longer :) ......
 

KarVi71

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I must admit that none of my current setup is bought because of tests here on ASR.

But ASR has confirmed many of my thoughts about what influenses sound and what does not.

In the not so far future I'll hopefully be building some amps upon Purifi 1et400a's, and that will, in part, be due to the measurements shown here.
 

NoMoFoNo

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Great question! I have gone away from playing records and toward digital after stumbling on ASR. ASR is a great way for the hobbyist to cleanse the goofball aspects of audio out of his/her system.




Fiio A5, Khadas TB.

Interesting question as well: Which gear did you dismiss AFTER reading about in ASR? I think this list will be substantially longer :) ......
 

BDWoody

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ASR is a great way for the hobbyist to cleanse the goofball aspects of audio out of his/her system.

Hmmm...

That almost sounds like an audiophool enema. :eek:o_O:cool:
 

bravomail

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I had Schiit Magni 2 and AKG K7xx - massdrop and Zeus influence. I also have Hifime 9018 (good), SMSL M3 (turned out bad), SMSL M6 (was so disappointed with driver issues - threw it away, now regret). I also have Yamaha AVR+Elac B6+subwoofer for home theater needs - works reasonably well, I'm not ready to dump a lot of money there.
Due to ASR I had Modi 3 (good), Smsl Idea (trash), Speaka USB DAC (trash), Apple USB-C audio dongle (good).
What I'm saying is - having ASR is good, but there r so many products, and ASR cannot review them all.
 

bunnyfuzz

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The Apple USB-C Dongle. Thanks!
Screenshot of Safari (10-03-2020, 19-26-01) copy.jpg
 
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Honken

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Hello everyone, just registered after lurking around here for a while! Thanks for all the insights given, so far! I'm sure there's a lot more to be learned from you all!

I've bought a Topping D70 and a pair of NC400 monos (from Audiophonics) after browsing around here. I was looking for neutral sound, a balanced pathway, and finally something that would be more or less objectively endgame in terms of quality. They seem to deliver fine in all three regards - for a lot less than some of the alternatives I looked at! My audiophile nevrosa is telling me to open up the NC400s to double check the construction quality though - but they sound fine to me so I better not to I suppose.

I'm using these to power a pair of Klipsch RP-8000F, which sound good to me. I think that Klipsch carries a (well deserved?) negative rep around here, but these speakers sound fine to me, they do not sound bright/harsh at all which is something that I am usually sensitive to. I bought them after auditioning them in a busy store and reading the review at Audioholics. Compared to some of the other speakers mentioned in that same review, these were less than half the price here.

I've ordered an UMIK-1, with it I guess I'll be able to tell how wrong I am for liking how this setup sounds. With the UMIK-1 I'll also be to fiddle around with positioning the speakers, which is going to be tricky as there is no back wall where I want to place them (the room is essentially U-shaped, and full of odd geometry with hard surfaces). Hopefully I can pick up some new insights on how to approach this from this forum, but even now I'm happy with how this system performs. If anyone has any tips for integrating adjustments from REW with PulseAudio / MPD on Linux - that'd be very welcome!

I'm also looking at integrating subs into this system, my end goal being a 2.2 system. If there is something I feel could be better as of now, it is the low end. I unfortunately missed the speaker reviews here until after I had pulled the trigger on the NC400s and speakers, and I had unjustifiably dismissed powered speakers. So, to undo some of my mistakes here, I'm looking at maybe buying some Genelec subs as they seem to take neutrality seriously, as opposed to simply being loud. A pair would cost more than my entire current system combined however.

I also recently upgraded my O2 revB to an Element 2 that I bought after double checking that it measured OK here. I mostly wanted it for that big volume knob. Now that I own the Element 2, I hardly ever adjust the volume knob after setting it to where I want it. At least it looks cool, I guess.
 

Duckeenie

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Topping d10 - Awesome sauce.
XtremPro - Good value for money, doesn't really excite me though. Perhaps I need to upgrade my M40X's.
Behringer A800 - In transit.

Sold: Schiit Modi 2, Ultimately I probably didn't need to replace it but peace of mind got the better of me.

Agree with what others have said before me, wouldn't buy anything that hasn't been independently tested again. Something for manufacturers to think about perhaps.
 

flaviowolff

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Topping d10 - Awesome sauce.
XtremPro - Good value for money, doesn't really excite me though. Perhaps I need to upgrade my M40X's.
Behringer A800 - In transit.

Sold: Schiit Modi 2, Ultimately I probably didn't need to replace it but peace of mind got the better of me.

Agree with what others have said before me, wouldn't buy anything that hasn't been independently tested again. Something for manufacturers to think about perhaps.

One of the biggest lessons from reading ASR is that dac/amps don't "excite", they just do what they have to do: sound transparent and provide enough headroom.
 

Duckeenie

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One of the biggest lessons from reading ASR is that dac/amps don't "excite", they just do what they have to do: sound transparent and provide enough headroom.

Applying science to EVERYTHING one says is obsessive.

DACs and amps sound the same if they are engineered to the same level. Clearly they all aren't otherwise, why are we here?
 
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GD Fan

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I bought a car with all the money I saved by not spending it on expensive gear. ASR is going to change the hifi market eventually. In the end only subjectivists who eat organic food and cure themselves with homeopathy will buy the expensive gear and that is not enough for the hifi market to survive.
So you deem that diet lesser than blindly swallowing uninformed cow patties? Good to know.
 

majingotan

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Just bought my first AKM DAC chip (AK4499EQ) in a form of a DAP since ASR has influenced me to get a good performing DAC but I wanted a DAP instead. It has decent THD+N for a DAP at around 0.0005% or 106 dB SINAD but still falls short of good performing desktop DACs. I now have a total of 5 different DAC brands in my collection with AK4499EQ DAC chip leading the pack in performance :)
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