Inexpensive, Musical DAC wanted...

[Killingbeans]

Something that "slams"

And lots of these:

 

[Jimbob54]

Something that "slams"

But neutral with good but not bloated bass. Sweet highs and meaty mids. Something that handles transients well. Dynamic but velvety smooth............

 

[Phorize]

Well, make them say it. Then we take it from there. They mustn't just assume I know what they mean.

There is a way to do this. There is no point doing a controlled test where a statistically representative group of listeners perform abx of various devices and complete questionnaires on what they preferred as you can prove on paper that if you are using pretty much any cheap ass dac from Amazon they cannot hear it in the first place.

If it’s really interesting to you, set up a survey on survey monkey and promote it in the YouTube comments section of your favourite audio pundit. Structure the questionnaire properly and you may learn something. Fail to do so however and you will be buried in audiophile word salad.

 

[Phorize]

But neutral with good but not bloated bass. Sweet highs and meaty mids. Something that handles transients well. Dynamic but velvety smooth............

Liquid highs, don’t forget the liquid highs. No point highs being sweet if they aren’t liquid.

 

[Jimbob54]

Liquid highs, don’t forget the liquid highs. No point highs being sweet if they aren’t liquid.

My bad.

I'm surprised we haven't seen mellifluous mids yet.

 

[Zensō]

Whatever. Thing is, what does it mean, what does the person mean by it.

Once you embrace a scientific approach to audio and understand that well-engineered DACs have no sound per se, you realize that these types of descriptions are based upon expectation bias and have little correlation to reality.

So to answer your question, it means nothing.

 

[Katji]

Liquid, I can work with that. Like subgenre Liquid Drum&Bass, I think it implies less emphasis on the pots'n'pans sound.

 

[Katji]

Once you embrace a scientific approach to audio and understand that well-engineered DACs have no sound per se, you realize that these types of descriptions are based upon expectation bias and have little correlation to reality.

So to answer your question, it means nothing.

ok, but they do mean something, it means something to them - presumably, even if they're drunk and babbling. I am not trying to translate/whatever.
I want them to say what they mean, not assume that I play the role, that I particpate in whatever social convention wrt meaning.

 

[Zensō]

ok, but they do mean something, it means something to them - presumably, even if they're drunk and babbling. I am not trying to translate/whatever.
I want them to say what they mean, not assume that I play the role, that I particpate in whatever social convention wrt meaning.

If you’re looking for concrete answers among the morass of vague audiophile terms, I wish you luck.

 

[Katji]

There is a way to do this. There is no point doing a controlled test where a statistically representative group of listeners perform abx of various devices and complete questionnaires on what they preferred as you can prove on paper that if you are using pretty much any cheap ass dac from Amazon they cannot hear it in the first place.

That they can be told, but in the first place I'm not going to accept their assumption that I know what "it" is.

If it’s really interesting to you, set up a survey on survey monkey and promote it in the YouTube comments section of your favourite audio pundit. Structure the questionnaire properly and you may learn something. Fail to do so however and you will be buried in audiophile word salad.

I'll process that. ...First thing that comes to mind is that I might not want to provide them with multiple-choice answers.
Favourite audio pundit Zeos and Darko...? ...I think I'm not that motivated...