Recent content by gofishus

A headphone is more than just measurements. You're a fool if you think $22 IEMs will sound the same as a Susvara. It's actually crazy how many people will use Amir's findings like an 'end all be all' type of review when he doesn't say anything about the actual sound quality of the headphone...

Yup, going for it. At the original MRSP $900 I don't think anyone would have touched it but $300 for a headphone with the tuning of a Clear/Elex? It's a steal.

Yeah, and frequency response tells us nothing about the actual detail retrieval/clarity or imaging/soundstage either which are also big factors in sound quality. What it tells us is the general signature of the headphone so I can look at a chart and see if there is a good chance I will like the...

I think we have to keep in mind the Harman target is not necessarily what all audiophiles want. In fact it's not a balanced or reference target at all. Harman response merely means the frequency response that the majority of people prefer. That's not the same thing as the most accurate response...

I have a question, why does this website even accept reviews of tube amps if you know they are all going to measure bad and therefore suck (according to your eyes)? What's the point? When I looked for a review of these tube amps unfortunately this website appears and everyone of course just...

Sound is subjective. Human hearing is subjective. Sorry to break it you... but everyone's hearing is different. We don't hear with a bunch of charts. We hear with our ears.

What I get from this thread is that people are not allowed to like cheap low cost tube amps because there can't possibly be any good cheap low cost tube amps. Of course this being audiosciencereview anything that doesn't measure well (i.e tube equipment) must be shunned. That's why I highly...

I see some issues with these tests though, the conclusions and metrics are largely based on power and distortion levels. Understand that people don't buy DAPs just for more power, and especially for IEMs the amp isn't largely important since most phones have enough power to drive them. What's...

Agree to disagree. I have a Shanling UA2 dongle and both me and my friend observed significant differences between using that with our phones than with my AK SE100 and Hiby RS6 (using balanced for each). I mean, how can it be the same? The DACs and architectures are totally different. And ok I'm...

"If a $10 dongle can get me 95% performance of a $1,000 DAP and it takes up 1% of space/weight, I'm not going to go out of my way to make my life more expensive and difficult." If a $10 dongle can do that, I'll be the first one lining to up to buy it. I'm not an idiot who's going to pay 10x the...

Not a good comparison. There's a lot of research already done that proves that upgrading cables has little effect on the audio quality. The same amount of research has NOT been done comparing DAPs vs dongles that prove that dongles always sound better and yet everyone here seems to just accept...

Ok I read (translated) a few articles on there, read the AK SP2000T, Caiyin N6ii, LP P6 Pro, Lotoo PAW Gold Sony DMP-Z1 against the LP W2, Fiio KA3, Caiyin RU6. The general impression that I get is what I already know - USB Dongles have made strides and quickly caught up to even luxury DAPs in...

It's ridiculous to claim that a $1000 or $2000 DAP doesn't offer better sound than a $100 USB dongle. If this were true, the DAP market would never sell. Going by chipsets until recently, dongles topped out at a ESS9038Q2M (AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt, Shanling UA2, FiiO KA3) which any DAP >...

How does it destroy most DAPs? Has anyone here done a comparison? I have a Shanling UA2 which is a great dongle for under $100 but it doesn't destroy my AK SE100 or Hiby RS6 DAPs at all. Even if you go up to the highest end dongles like the Luxury&Precision W2 or Caiyin RU6, they're very...

Several reasons: -DAP can be more convenient than carrying a phone + portable amp/dac combo -DAP has more fine tuned granular volume control and media playback controls -DAP has microSD support (we all know microSD support is dying in the phone business now) -doesn't take up your phones battery...