I bought the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition and have been happy with it until I read this review (I know this isn't the headphone edition review). My whole experience with this was subjective. I listened to this by chance when auditioning the HE1000SE and I was blown away by it coming from the older Monoprice THX dac/amp and mojo 2. This was before I knew about ASR.
I'm a bit lost now, as I still don't understand what makes a good amp or dac other than what I hear subjectively, so I rely on reviews. To add to that, it's very difficult to test out equipment on this hobby before buying it.
So I guess my question is for those who know better than me, can you actually hear the difference in dac/amps that measure better? If so, what would be the best dac or amp to get at this price?
Honestly man it works by thresholds. I love objective analysis of products, but the thing is once you understand high fidelity audio it’s difficult to go back.
You are absolutely not missing a whole lot, but there’s clearly a difference. When you’re there you know it. Especially when things are not changing too much, in your accompanying equipment.
The only thing I always say is the difference between a super clean system with your flavor of sound/synergy and one that measures horribly is not as bad as one would imagine.
I say this because I have 4 stereo systems in my home. The one in the kitchen is by far the worst in every aspect. But when it comes to my subjective take and actually sitting down and tuning in even with the bad performance it’s not god awful. No where near my reference system, which measures impeccable.
Some may tell me well how are you so sure, well my entire home is connected by streamers. I can sit in my reference room and listen to a track and then walk into my kitchen and switch to that system if it’s powered on and go back and forth.
****My only gripe with this product is it’s far too expensive for the performance. For 50% off plus the all in one functionality I would give it a pass. If you paid full price there’s no justification for that. If you scroll up I’ve got detailed responses on this paragraphs topic.***
I consistently say you must have a baseline to be truly objective and to comprehend objectivity and how extreme you should be about the matter. I’m not asking people to go buy a -50 db dac and -35 db amp and some cheap speakers. But that’s the only way to comprehend what the “worst” sounds like for yourself.
With this in mind, the unfortunate truth is this how audio companies for decades have been selling mid grade and poorly implemented products for super high prices because noticing the difference is far more difficult when you move up the scale. IE: going from -70 db to a system that’s -110. Hegel is a great example of this fraudulent activity. They merely sell you what you enjoy, like a musical presentation that’s relaxed but at the price there has to be some level of competence otherwise the product must be far cheaper or they’re scamming