Anti-ASR gear

[scott wurcer]

+1

given the limitations of a particular recording, are the loudspeakers—not the electronics, not the cables, not anything else.

I would add that the current top amps/DAC's seem to be low order 2nd's and 3rd's dominated just like most speakers, considering the 2 or more orders of magnitude difference in SINAD I imagine any controlled listening test would show the speaker masking completely the amp or DAC performance.

 

[ahofer]

I don't get what I'm reading.

Reaction to a post showing an RME DAC and March Audio amp powering Harbeth SHL5+AE speakers on tontrager stands. Hence $2k of electronics vs (actually) $8k in speakers/stands. He thought that ratio of electronics to speakers was way too low.

 

[Juhazi]

I bet that in blind test 99,999% of "hifi'sts" would love the sound of eg. Revel Salon2 driven by Google dongle and a 2x50W classD amp board costing total of 50€. At least I would!

 

[Fluffy]

@Sal1950 Peter Aczel, bless him in heaven. One of my observations is there is a preference among many audiophiles to own modestly priced speakers coupled with far more expensive electronics. It might be like photographers who buy low end camera bodies and really expensive lenses. When asked, they say the resale value on glass is better.

Along with loudspeakers being the key, we have room acoustics and space limitations.

I don't know what's your knowledge level in photography, so I apologize in advance for maybe sounding disrespectful.

The analogy for lenses couldn’t be any further from the truth. Digital cameras today are insanely good even at low prices, and it's very easy to get a high quality picture with one – given you have the proper glass. Lenses being the actual optical element that shapes the light hitting the sensor, are very important. On high end cameras, cheap lenses can be the bottleneck keeping the camera from reaching its full potential. And on low end cameras, a good lens will upgrade your possibilities a lot more than switching to a camera that cost twice as much. Of course, like in any profession, that requires you to know how to utilize the abilities of the lens.

 

[Sal1950]

Modestly priced speakers are pretty damn good these days and the quality gap between mid-price and high-end is narrower than it used to be.

This is very true, there are lots of very good inexpensive speakers out there and the gap can be narrow. At last Feb's Tampa audio show I listened to speakers ranging from $500 to $50,000 each and in no room did I hear a sound that I thought was bad, nor did I hear one that openned the heavens. Outside of freq response, the major differences I heard was in inner detail. It's so hard to judge speakers unless you have a spin-o-rama deal like Harman to hear them in the same room side by side.

 

[pwjazz]

Nothing 'Anti ASR' about liking certain distortions especially if that's recognised and accepted for what it is.

Iv a pair of Bose earphones that I Bluetooth connect to when working out, 320 files from my phone and it sounds great , as dose my similarly driven JBL boom box at work. I dance about and feel emotionally connected to the music via both . Maybe the fact they master music to suit these replay methods plays a roll in it being so good.

Burn me.

I have little Oontz Angle bluetooth speaker that I occasionally use for sheer convenience and I always enjoy it. I'm sure the bass distortion is outrageous but I don't care.

 

[Sal1950]

I don't get what I'm reading.

Neither did I?

Reaction to a post showing an RME DAC and March Audio amp powering Harbeth SHL5+AE speakers on tontrager stands. Hence $2k of electronics vs (actually) $8k in speakers/stands. He thought that ratio of electronics to speakers was way too low.

So then he doesn't believe the RME/March combo to be fully transparent and up to the quality of the speakers???
Sounds like more of the same ole high end marketing spin you read in the audio print and web publications, More $ = better sound.
BLAH

 

[Ron Texas]

I don't know what's your knowledge level in photography, so I apologize in advance for maybe sounding disrespectful.

I obviously don't know anything, but I get 30,000 views a day on flickr. I shoot Nikon FX and don't own any of the 3 kings. My style requires being on the ball. There is no time to put the camera on a tripod, and I don't own one of those either. Besides, relatively cheap primes are sharper than zooms, especially 24-70's and shorter. Don't mistake expensive for better is the moral of the story.

 

[Ron Texas]

@Sal1950 so sorry the heavens did not open for you.

 

[watchnerd]

Reaction to a post showing an RME DAC and March Audio amp powering Harbeth SHL5+AE speakers on tontrager stands. Hence $2k of electronics vs (actually) $8k in speakers/stands. He thought that ratio of electronics to speakers was way too low.

Okay, but who is he (Alessandro)?

 

[splattened]

Reaction to a post showing an RME DAC and March Audio amp powering Harbeth SHL5+AE speakers on tontrager stands. Hence $2k of electronics vs (actually) $8k in speakers/stands. He thought that ratio of electronics to speakers was way too low.

So then he doesn't believe the RME/March combo to be fully transparent and up to the quality of the speakers???
Sounds like more of the same ole high end marketing spin you read in the audio print and web publications, More $ = better sound.
BLAH

Meanwhile everyone else on the internet says to spend most of your money on speakers. That’s the fun with Hi-Fi, you always find the contrarians that ensure nobody ever feels fully comfortable with their audiophile ideology and thus the need to constantly tweak and spend more money to satisfy arbitrary ratios of investment in equipment and other magical properties.

 

[watchnerd]

Meanwhile everyone else on the internet says to spend most of your money on speakers.

Unless you're into vinyl, then the capital allocation rules get all screwball...

 

[yikky900]

I'd say anything Grado labs is a best fit for this.

 

[PierreV]

I obviously don't know anything, but I get 30,000 views a day on flickr. I shoot Nikon FX and don't own any of the 3 kings. My style requires being on the ball. There is no time to put the camera on a tripod, and I don't own one of those either. Besides, relatively cheap primes are sharper than zooms, especially 24-70's and shorter. Don't mistake expensive for better is the moral of the story.

50mm 1.4 FTW!

 

[Ron Texas]

50mm 1.4 FTW!

I get a lot of use out of my 50mm f/1.4. My other favorite is the AFP 70-300.

 

[Juhazi]

Ron - link to your Flick account?

 

[digicidal]

Obviously some would disagree, and I totally understand and agree with the speaker covering the much lower distortion of a good DAC/amp to the point it becomes a non-issue. However, for me - as someone who would prefer to purchase gear (electronics that is) once and be done with it... there is a reason to want better than just good enough right now. Conversely there's little to no reason to buy something lacking a critical feature just because it's a SINAD champion.

Similar to the photo analogy... I'll use the glass forever (most likely) so I'd rather have better than necessary now... because a body upgrade down the road might benefit (and usually the cost difference is fairly small). Also I would say that although many primes are indeed cheaper... that's not a simple blanket statement... some are quite pricey indeed. I love my nifty-fifty as well however, and yes, it was a bargain. So was my Tokina 100 which I love for up close and personal shots.

 

[soundwave76]

When I read the title, the first thing that came to my mind was that somebody has designed anti-ASR gear like t-shirts etc

 

[watchnerd]

When I read the title, the first thing that came to my mind was that somebody has designed anti-ASR gear like t-shirts etc

I bet you could set up a booth at an audio show and sell those like hot cakes:

SOUNDS GOOD + MEASURES BAD = IS GOOD

Then a big red circle with a slash around the words "audio science"

 

[digicidal]

Or maybe... Shunyata to the rescue! With a Superman "S" (but lightning bolt of course) and he's flying with a couple of firehose sized power cords.
Actually, they probably already sell those shirts.