Golden Turkey Awards

[Robin L]

What's the worst price/performance ratio measured here of Dacs, headphone amps or anything else that sticks out from the crowd?

Asking for a friend.

 

[BDWoody]

TotalDac?

 

[BillG]

TotalDac?

Yeah... $13K USD for a distortion/fuzz box has to take it!

 

[BDWoody]

Yeah... $13K USD for a distortion/fuzz box has to take it!

It's kind of become the running joke...it comes up often as an example of how ridiculous it can get.

Cables of all kinds is the other big snake oil pit...

 

[Robin L]

Stereophile re-posted an old "Sam Tellig" review of 4 CD players from back in 1989. Some interesting responses in the "letters", I mentioned this site as the opposite of Analog Planet.

https://www.stereophile.com/comment/587579#comment-587579

 

[Robin L]

It's kind of become the running joke...it comes up often as an example of how ridiculous it can get.

Cables of all kinds is the other big snake oil pit...

. . . but harder to measure [naturally] . . .

 

[BDWoody]

. . . but harder to measure [naturally] . . .

Only when people try to listen to them...
Measuring cables for fundamental competence is a challenge?

 

[Robin L]

Only when people try to listen to them...
Measuring cables for fundamental competence is a challenge?

Hard to find meaningful differences save in those situations where the design is obviously FUBAR.

 

[BDWoody]

Hard to find meaningful differences save in those situations where the design is obviously FUBAR.

Exactly. A heavy dose of snake oil not needed...but often welcomed it seems.
The mind boggles...

 

[rmo]

Yeah... $13K USD for a distortion/fuzz box has to take it!

Lmao

 

[rmo]

Yeah... $13K USD for a distortion/fuzz box has to take it!

It just goes to show that the human ear is a fickle thing !

 

[JJB70]

One of the reasons the hobby is so emotive and we see so much florid language in reviews and transparent shill reviews is that very little of audio gear is actually bad in terms of SQ. It may have mediocre measured performance, be badly made, have dire industrial design, be hideously over priced etc but almost all of it works sufficiently well to provide perfectly listenable SQ.

 

[rmo]

One of the reasons the hobby is so emotive and we see so much florid language in reviews and transparent shill reviews is that very little of audio gear is actually bad in terms of SQ. It may have mediocre measured performance, be badly made, have dire industrial design, be hideously over priced etc but almost all of it works sufficiently well to provide perfectly listenable SQ.

That’s because a lot of listening is casual and not completely focused on the music .

 

[JJB70]

That’s because a lot of listening is casual and not completely focused on the music .

I would reverse that, most listening is about the music, not the equipment. There are soundbars and BT speakers that allow you to listen through the equipment and be immersed in the music.

 

[rmo]

I would reverse that, most listening is about the music, not the equipment. There are soundbars and BT speakers that allow you to listen through the equipment and be immersed in the music.

What I meant is there are so many distractions while listening to music . Your phone , the wife , your cat . You are right , in these instances most music can be rendered adequately and sound fine with lots of equipment, even poorly measured stuff.

 

[BillG]

It just goes to show that the human ear is a fickle thing !

Well, Amir has been saying that the human ear is largely immune to distortion for a while now...

 

[Thomas savage]

Amir's AP machine, I mean it can't even measure stuff properly,, like with music what my ears listen with.

And it don't show how good R2R DACs are ..

 

[Fledermaus]

What I meant is there are so many distractions while listening to music .

IMO, owners of fancy cables and boutique DACs do listen carefully to their stuff, but what they hear has more to do with their high expectations and certitudes about the merits of their new gear than with actual SQ - on top of that, a DAC has to be really broken, and a listener more trained and impartial than most audiophiles, to consistently discern SQ differences.

 

[BDWoody]

It just goes to show that the human ear is a fickle thing !

Fortunately, analyzers are not.

 

[BDWoody]

That’s because a lot of listening is casual and not completely focused on the music .

That's pretty dogmatic...
So, if I really focus on the music...will I be able to hear differences between...say... -100db vs -120 vs -90?
That would be remarkable... I guess I've been doing it all wrong.