Master Review Index

[pozz]

if possible, it would be great to be either see or be able to drill down to the next layer in each category.
For example, if i want to see just subwoofer reviews, i have no way of being able to look at just the sub reviews. I have to sort through all the speaker reviews and know which ones are subs.

Have you tried the various filters? Like Speaker Type:

There's only been one sub review by Amir. If you want to view measurements by others check out the Google sheet here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...base-list-of-audio-databases-resources.10763/

 

[voodooless]

I really think the review indexes are a fantastic piece of tooling with a wealth of information. There is however one major issue that really takes the fun out of it: the performance is exceptionally terrible. It takes several seconds to load, and then another several second when you make any change to the filters. Since it is not that big of a dataset, I would actually expect this stuff to be available almost instantly. Even a tiny bit of speedup would greatly increase usability.

 

[pozz]

I really think the review indexes are a fantastic piece of tooling with a wealth of information. There is however one major issue that really takes the fun out of it: the performance is exceptionally terrible. It takes several seconds to load, and then another several second when you make any change to the filters. Since it is not that big of a dataset, I would actually expect this stuff to be available almost instantly. Even a tiny bit of speedup would greatly increase usability.

Can't argue with you there.

The issue is price and expertise. We are using a free solution with Tableau. The initial attempts were much much simpler and even then the table ran slow. When @RickSanchez got involved and re-engineered everything, appearance, data structure and performance all improved, but as we go adding entries it slows down. Part of this is because of the blackbox-style mechanics of Tableau's database processing. Another part is their target market, individual licensing for companies (certain number of creator/viewer licenses for the organization as a whole). From discussions with Tableau it seems like there is only one enterprise-level solution available for ASR and the price is $70k annually for the kind of hosting support needed here.

I don't work in this area and have no idea what would be the best alternate solution. Is there something commercially available, inexpensive and easy to set up and maintain? Do we have to create something custom from scratch? If so, what kind of skills/expertise are necessary and what should be expected when it comes to integration with the forum software?

 

[voodooless]

From discussions with Tableau it seems like there is only one enterprise-level solution available for ASR and the price is $70k annually for the kind of hosting support needed here.

. Yeah, that was to be expected. And probably that will not even give you the speedup needed without significant effort on ASR's side. I would definitely not go that way.

I don't work in this area and have no idea what would be the best alternate solution. Is there something commercially available, inexpensive and easy to set up and maintain? Do we have to create something custom from scratch? If so, what kind of skills/expertise are necessary and what should be expected when it comes to integration with the forum software?

That totally depends on the way you want to go. There really is no "best" solution here, rather just "options". I would actually highly recommend something like Tableau. It just makes it a lot easier to maintain and alter. If you would make something on your own I'd probably look at something like Dash. That would still make it fairly well maintainable, and you get all the Python data crunching goodness (and that is from somebody that hates Python with a passion ). I wonder what still could be gained with the existing solution though, without throwing more money into it.

 

[pozz]

I wonder what still could be gained with the existing solution though, without throwing more money into it.

We definitely stand to gain from optimizing data structure (Tableau has tools available for this in the paid versions), but that only goes so far and then you hit hosting issues, since the Tableau servers are handling the requests. The simplest review dataset right now is the headphone one. Still takes a few seconds to load and has laggy response. The simplest overall, from a pure data perspective, is the stats dash. Same issues.

Dash looks interesting. If the data manipulation is a strong point it may solve things. As long as that and hosting can be served simultaneously (seems that way, although there will be expenses involved if it's necessary to use something like Azure), it may work.

Worth repeating that this is all volunteer stuff. Anyone else reading this who has direct experience or other suggestions can either post here or PM me and @RickSanchez.

 

[littlebigranch]

One more thank you here. I'm just getting to know the site, and I love the reviews. I went through the index and read 15 or so today. Excellent database.

 

[LtMandella]

I was a database programmer for 25+ years (now retired). Good job on the database implementation, and the search interface! Good job guys! Really makes AudioScienceReview into a top notch site to complement Amir's top notch work!

 

[Racheski]

Pozz/Rick, thanks for putting this together. I do have some individual gripes...

• I want to filter on all in one DAC/Headphone Amps. The only applicable options I see are DAC (Multifunction) and Headphone Amp (Multifunction). Some of the results include Chromecast dongles, the D70 which is a dedicated DAC, Schiit Heresy which is a dedicated HAP, etc...Can you explain these categories a bit more?
• All of the column sort functions appear to be broken.

Cheers!

 

[pozz]

Pozz/Rick, thanks for putting this together. I do have some individual gripes...

• I want to filter on all in one DAC/Headphone Amps. The only applicable options I see are DAC (Multifunction) and Headphone Amp (Multifunction). Some of the results include Chromecast dongles, the D70 which is a dedicated DAC, Schiit Heresy which is a dedicated HAP, etc...Can you explain these categories a bit more?
• All of the column sort functions appear to be broken.

Cheers!

2nd item first: the column sort is entirely a Tableau thing. I don't think we can defeat the current function to make it more sensible, the way spreadsheets usually work for example by "remembering" all of the previous sorts. All the Tableau column sorts do is force alphabetical or large/small order referring to some internally defined initial state.

So for the first item: the range of devices that have basic stages like DACs, headphones amps, speaker amps or other things are extremely wide. Let me go through some of the categories you asked about:

• DAC (Dedicated): Just a D/A converter. No other functions.
• DAC (Multifunction): A D/A converter boasting other functions, like an analog preamp or headphone amp.
• DAC (Thumb Drive): A small USB key shaped DAC.
• Headphone Amp (Dedicated): Just an analog headphone amp.
• Headphone Amp (Dongle): Out of these, this is the most misleading, since this is a DAC meant to power headphones. But most people seem to either call these headphone dongles or USB-C headphone converters. Amir calls them dongles too, so that's that. And the name seems to fit since it's a little thing with a dangling flagellum.
• Headphone Amp (Multifunction): Mostly refers to headphones with a analog preamp. In very rare cases some companies advertise that their headphone amps can be outfitted with optional modules, like a phono preamp or DAC.

You see there are a lot of overlaps between DAC and headphone amps even without taking into account AVRs, DAPs, soundcards and such, which have both built in.

What we designed, within the many limitations of Tableau, is that users should select the primary kind of device they want and then use the Tags single dropdown filter to narrow the field.

So, instructions: I would guess that more than 95% of desktop DAC/headphone amp combos would be covered by selecting the DAC (Multifunction) device type and Headphone Amplifier tag. The others would be captured by the inverse, namely Headphone Amp (Multifunction) device type and DAC tag.

You might get weird results since for example the Mola Mola Tambaqui is a DAC with a headphone amp built in. What I've found by looking at all these devices is that what people put on their desk and the device size have no correlation. We could of course add device dimensions and let the sorting flow, but we will hit performance limits quick.

 

[Racheski]

2nd item first: the column sort is entirely a Tableau thing. I don't think we can defeat the current function to make it more sensible, the way spreadsheets usually work for example by "remembering" all of the previous sorts. All the Tableau column sorts do is force alphabetical or large/small order referring to some internally defined initial state.

Thanks for the reply. For the sorting, I should have been more explicit. It's not that it is sorting in an incorrect order, it is literally not sorting at all for me, e.g., I click the A-Z icon, Tableau spins, and nothing happens. Also, Tableau should be able to recognize the data types you import from Excel and sort accordingly, e.g. text, date/time, numerical, etc...

 

[pozz]

Thanks for the reply. For the sorting, I should have been more explicit. It's not that it is sorting in an incorrect order, it is literally not sorting at all for me, e.g., I click the A-Z icon, Tableau spins, and nothing happens. Also, Tableau should be able to recognize the data types you import from Excel and sort accordingly, e.g. text, date/time, numerical, etc...

I just tried it out and the column sorting doesn't appear work in the main electronics index. At this point I can only apologize. Tableau has an incredible number of quirks and, FWIW, it's not worth it to troubleshoot. Right now the focus is to keep updating the database and leave the dashes as is.

 

[Cbdb2]

The page dosnt work on my windows surface. The scroll bars don't work, the search dosnt work. It actually locked up my surface for a while. WTF?

 

[Racheski]

I recommend a review of all entries where the recommendation is "N/A" because a quick review shows several recommended items as "N/A"

• Monolith THX AAA 788 Desktop DAC and balanced headphone amplifier
• MOTU M4
• SMSL M500

 

[pozz]

I recommend a review of all entries where the recommendation is "N/A" because a quick review shows several recommended items as "N/A"

• Monolith THX AAA 788 Desktop DAC and balanced headphone amplifier
• MOTU M4
• SMSL M500

Where does it show N/A? Screenshot please.

 

[Racheski]

 

[pozz]

@Racheski Well, that's one of things the new project will fix.

 

[Racheski]

You can't just update the source data and have the update reflected the next time you refresh the Tableau data?

 

[pozz]

You can't just update the source data and have the update reflected the next time you refresh the Tableau data?

The issue here was that I added the entry before Amir reviewed it (the recommendation will always show N/A for every other reviewer) and forgot to change it once he did. I'm hoping to improve the internal wiring/do a small overhaul.

 

[P_M]

I have one feedback on the master index - I have noticed it automatically refreshes every few seconds or minutes, and when it does that it loses all the selected filters/criteria (like price, recommendation, type of device, etc). You have to select them all over again. It would be good if those selections persist through out the user's session.

 

[pozz]

I have one feedback on the master index - I have noticed it automatically refreshes every few seconds or minutes, and when it does that it loses all the selected filters/criteria (like price, recommendation, type of device, etc). You have to select them all over again. It would be good if those selections persist through out the user's session.

It's a terrible bug.

We started a project for a new dashboard here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eveloper-help-with-review-index-search.22313/

So far @Racheski has volunteered and it's going well.

We need more volunteers for data entry specifically once the framework is in place.