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The post in which Darko basically tells anyone who isn't a rich rube to ignore him and audiophilia in general

Thomas savage

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So this guy is still hawking $10k usb cables with "audible" differences. No doubt some hard drives impart a more "tube-like" quality to his "Hi-Res" digital files. :p
What I need to known is if my hard drive is 2/3 full of porn with it affect the sound of my DAC ?
 

Racheski

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There is actually some decent advice if you change the title: BEGINNER audiophile? 8 things to IGNORE (until later)!

  1. Ignore expensive "audiophile" USB cables.
  2. Ignore expensive "audiophile" power cables.
  3. Ignore "burn-in". For some reason he calls it "running-in."
  4. Ignore worrying about jitter and noise when buying a DAC. For the most part, this is good advice since we rarely see issues with jitter, and most modern DACs have acceptable SINAD.
  5. Ignore audio formats above 16 bit/44.1 kHz, i.e. don't worry about MQA.
  6. Ignore DAC manufacturers bragging about the ability to handle formats with resolution above 16 bit/44.1 kHz.
  7. Ignore isolation discs for turntables. I have no idea whether this is good advice.
  8. Ignore adding doorstops on top of your DACs.
 

RayDunzl

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Sgt. Ear Ache

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I guess his premise is that "experienced" audiophiles have learned what to listen for or have acquired the necessary "audio palette" to recognize the sort of subtle elements these boutique items add to the quality of sound reproduction. I would so dearly love to see him try to prove that true in some sort of meaningful way. It would bring me great joy to watch Darko or Stevie G or any of these guys try to actually recognize differences between cables or dacs or amps in tests where they weren't able to actually see or know what they were listening to.
 

peanuts

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  1. Ignore adding doorstops on top of your DACs.

"bass notes are deeper and more focused" "the whole soundstage is more focused" "instruments have more precise stage"
"when i remove the weights the sound became more fuzzier"
ROFL
 

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Racheski

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I guess his premise is that "experienced" audiophiles have learned what to listen for or have acquired the necessary "audio palette" to recognize the sort of subtle elements these boutique items add to the quality of sound reproduction. I would so dearly love to see him try to prove that true in some sort of meaningful way. It would bring me great joy to watch Darko or Stevie G or any of these guys try to actually recognize differences between cables or dacs or amps in tests where they weren't able to actually see or know what they were listening to.
Right, notice he cleverly avoids providing any reasons why beginners should ignore these 8 things because he would have to concede that, having mastered the dark arts of audiophilia from studying ancient German artifacts under the Sith Lord Guttenberg, he can hear the difference between USB cables. He also turned comments off.
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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"bass notes are deeper and more focused" "the whole soundstage is more focused" "instruments have more precise stage"
"when i remove the weights the sound became more fuzzier"
ROFL

y'know, I can't even begin to understand these people. It boggles the mind. If I had come up with a notion like the above - that putting a couple weights on top of a device like a dac would somehow cause it to produce a better conversion of digital data - the first thing I'd want to do would be to have a friend lift the weights off and on while I listened with a blindfold on to see if I could tell when they were lifted. Then, if I had proven to myself that I could you better believe I'd be including that test in my youtube vid because that would be a big deal! If otoh I failed to do so, there would be no video.
 
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Jimbob54

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There is actually some decent advice if you change the title: BEGINNER audiophile? 8 things to IGNORE (until later)!

  1. Ignore expensive "audiophile" USB cables.
  2. Ignore expensive "audiophile" power cables.
  3. Ignore "burn-in". For some reason he calls it "running-in."
  4. Ignore worrying about jitter and noise when buying a DAC. For the most part, this is good advice since we rarely see issues with jitter, and most modern DACs have acceptable SINAD.
  5. Ignore audio formats above 16 bit/44.1 kHz, i.e. don't worry about MQA.
  6. Ignore DAC manufacturers bragging about the ability to handle formats with resolution above 16 bit/44.1 kHz.
  7. Ignore isolation discs for turntables. I have no idea whether this is good advice.
  8. Ignore adding doorstops on top of your DACs.
My point exactly
 
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Jimbob54

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amirm

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I don't know how he has confused himself into thinking he has a "high-end" audio system. The high-end audiophiles I know would slash their wrist and jump off a tall building if you took their system away and gave them what Darko has! LS50 speakers? Are you kidding me? A speaker doesn't become "high-end" until it costs north of $25K and ideally , north of $50K or $100K.
 

Fluffy

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So basically, he is willing to admit that the HUUGE (according to Paul McGowan and the likes) differences that snake-oil stuff like cables make - is actually pretty small. From here it's just another tiny leap to admitting that they don't make any difference at all. So maybe there's hope for him after all!
 
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