Great, so have you come back from the dark side now?
JSmith
No.
The darkside? LOL... this is going to be my last post on this subject (for a couple of reasons. )
Look here's the thing. Amir does his tests. Doesn't show a lot of changes. Any changes are inaudible. Yet people who do roll op amps claim to hear a difference.
Not just rubes but people respected in the industry. Even Bruno Putzi told a YTuber to replace the op amps on his board w a Sparkos Op Amp.
So now if Bruno is suggesting this... then the idea that changing the op amps is waste... kinda goes out the windows. I'd say that he knows more about amps and op amps than pretty much everyone here. (I forget the YTuber who did this... he actually had his father do the mods. If memory serves I think the op amp was surface mounted.
Keep in mind, the 'defacto' op amp used is the TI OPA because its $0.50 (per Amir) its far cheaper than a Vivid or Sparkos op amp. For the vendor its about cost optimization and trade offs. (listen to what Amir says in his video.)
Now Danny at GR-Research just dropped a video on op-amp rolling and the Douk Audio unit... which btw NDR had done a video earlier on the same amp along w other YT channels that are well respected. (Granted Danny pitches some of his products hard... e.g. No Rez.)
So no, I'm not going to say that its a fools errand. I'm skeptical but will withhold judgement until I try it.
(I was given some Burson V5s to play with.)
Also consider Geshelli where they sell DACs that can be shipped w different op amps or their stock OPAs (Different prices depending on op amp)
Are these companies all doing this just to separate a guy and his money? (I've got a wife who does that already...)
I am not saying that Amir's testing is wrong.
There's clearly a disconnect between what Amir found in his tests and what people experience when changing the op amp.
Its not snake oil, or psychosomatic. There's a subjective change. ( And No Amir, I don't know how to test for this in a quantitative manner THAT IS PART OF MY QUESTION.)
We can do an ABX testing. Setting up control groups using music that they know so that they can recognize the differences. This would be a subjective test.
The other thing that I thought was intersting... the issue of distortion. I forget where I read it along w listening about it in a video... but that some distortions add color to the music and that's why some prefer Tubes to Class D which is said to be described as clean and pure adding no coloration.
Bottom line. I dont agree w Amir's comments (Rewatch the video) , and I don't know how effective amp rolling is... I haven't tried it.
Assuming that you can hear a difference... this then begs the question... is buying a $75.00 DAC, then spending over $150.00 on a pair of OP Amps really worth it? Why not just spend the money on a better amp? Or is there enough difference in sound to justify the expense? (e.g. Geshelli J3 dac w sparkos over OPAs) The irony... the Douk Audio amp which Amir reviewed w a Golfing Panther... was built specifically to roll amps. (Note: In Amir's test video... he tested the amp w a different op amp in each channel.
But did he actually spend time listening to the amp using the different op amps?) (I don't believe that's his thing, which is ok.)
You can always send me a DM.
The reason I'm not going to respond in these threads is that I end up getting caught in trying to argue w individuals who say that lamp cord is sufficient but use better speaker wires. Or make a joke comment about 7N copper vs 6N and how much better it is... Just not worth my time.
Peace Out!
