The New King?

[gvl]

Thanks for reporting back gvl

Of course we don't know if the sync mode actually turns off ASRC on the Dx7 Pro, @JohnYang1997 can you confirm?

 

[BenF]

"D90SE": SE meaning "second edition"?

 

[Veri]

"D90SE": SE meaning "second edition"?

I thought that usually SE means "special edition" : revised. Since it is totally different from original D90.

 

[mocenigo]

I really hope it can be bought WITHOUT MQA as well

 

[mocenigo]

It's natural that one wants to get the new hot thing. And for a market it's not a bad thing.
It's when people are persuade to spend much more than they initially expected that it's bad. And especially when the stuff are snakeoil or blatant fraud. Buying a good performing new toy within the budget is probably ok.

Do you know what would REALLY differentiate further a new toy? Having multiple USB and optical inputs. Like 2 x USB and 2 x OPT. Teac provides that. We often attach more sources to a DAC. Even 3 x USB!!!

 

[BenF]

It's nothing personal but I just don't get it, especially from the ASR crowd.
People who already have a perfectly transparent DAC are lining up to buy this as soon as they can.. I kinda expected that behavior on Head-Fi not on ASR.

Well, to put that whole situation into a perspective: I know quite a lot of people that buy every new iPhone generation even if it isn't technically better than the last gen. They already have an iPhone X and then run to buy an iPhone 12 Pro Max as soon as it's available. Why do they do that? I can't figure it out. I'm using a smartphone that's five years old and it does everything I want it to do. But I do buy every two years or so the latest DAC, because I want the latest and greatest DAC there is. People are different. You got a problem with that?

 

[JohnYang1997]

"D90SE": SE meaning "second edition"?

I can mean a lot of things:
Special Edition
Second Edition
Super Edition
D90S-ESS

 

[BenF]

I hope not "stale edition"...

 

[JohnYang1997]

I hope not "stale edition"...

Meh or maybe Stupid Edition.

 

[BenF]

If everything goes as planned, about a week later.

So about a week later than planned. That would be... when exactly?

 

[BenF]

Meh or maybe Stupid Edition.

So, what you're saying is your marketing department has no real clue why this product is named as it is? Interesting.

 

[VeerK]

D90SE looks amazing, but it’s just a spec race at this point. Great for new audiophiles looking for SoTA science and performance, but not too interesting for me as a D90 owner. Would much rather like to see advancements in speaker amplifiers, multichannel, or streamers, preferably while I can still hear up to 19kHz.

 

[Gradius]

"D90SE": SE meaning "second edition"?

Or Special Edition.

 

[gvl]

SE=Sensitive Ears.

 

[linger63]

SE= Sinad Expert

 

[Frgirard]

Super expensive or super exotic or super exciting

 

[deafenears]

Serious Engineering

 

[Lupin]

Well, to put that whole situation into a perspective: I know quite a lot of people that buy every new iPhone generation even if it isn't technically better than the last gen. They already have an iPhone X and then run to buy an iPhone 12 Pro Max as soon as it's available. Why do they do that? I can't figure it out. I'm using a smartphone that's five years old and it does everything I want it to do. But I do buy every two years or so the latest DAC, because I want the latest and greatest DAC there is. People are different. You got a problem with that?

I don't have a problem with you buying a new DAC every two years, buy a new one every year for all I care. As long as you're realistic about what and why you're buying.

What I do have an issue with is persons like the one I quoted.
Transparent is transparent, stating there's no point in buying anything else then this new device is just complete BS. People are getting stuck on numbers without (wanting to) realize that at from a certain point those numbers don't matter anymore besides bragging rights and "feel good status"

So buy if you want to buy, I couldn't care less. Just don't spread wrong information around about how this new device sounds better then device "Y" which was already way deep into transparency territory because that is simply not true.

 

[Lupin]

It's natural that one wants to get the new hot thing. And for a market it's not a bad thing.
It's when people are persuade to spend much more than they initially expected that it's bad. And especially when the stuff are snakeoil or blatant fraud. Buying a good performing new toy within the budget is probably ok.

Of course from a marketing point of view there's nothing wrong with it.
It's our own fault of the audiophile community, we're so easily manipulated and sensitive to numbers. Companies are banking on that and designing their marketing material around that.

Just look at the product page of any popular brand DAC. About every product page will have the DAC chip in a big font on top of the page..
Everyone (should) know that the chip alone doesn't mean anything yet people are lining up to buy this new DAC because now it has a AK4499 instead of the AK4497 in the older model.... The old model with the AK4497 was already completely transparent but now people claim that the background is blacker and the highs airier with this new AK4499 based model.. so tiresome.

I do understand the reasoning for this new model very well, as I said the group of which this device is targeted at is very sensitive to numbers and so it will work and it will sell.

Personally though I wish companies would focus less on the highest SINAD race, in which there is not much, if anything, to gain for the consumer anymore. Instead spend that time, money and effort in standing out in other ways like build quality, features or form factor. Things that are directly and tangible beneficial for the end consumer.

I know it will never happen as the current demographic has no problem spending 200+ more voor a DAC which scores 5 points higher SINAD but will not spend 100 more to get a DAC with better build quality or more features.

One can dream..

 

[solderdude]

Standard Edition.