Everything is the same bar the DAC's. I know where you are coming from. But alas it can't be proven unless you can measure it. Even though you can detect a difference. I've read and re-read lots of reports that the D90SE is a bit harsh in the treble. So at the moment I've not reason to believe mine is any different. So the feedback from this forum is simply: "They will sound identical unless there is a fault as our current testing shows" Which makes me think we are not quite there yet with scientific methods. In the design industry it's always prudent to do listening tests. As you can't guarantee that all the testing in the world might have missed something. Cheers.
In our opinion, you are drawing the wrong conclusions from your observations.
Start here:
Yes I know this article is about amps, not DACs, but the same concerns apply. The whole article is good, but pay special attention to the right-hand column of page 5. Sighted listening is diabolical, even when you don’t think there should be any difference.
Even people who believed that differences in well-measuring amps were
not audible could not help but perceive significant differences between amps. However, once the comparisons were done blind, those differences vanished.
This is an important thing to understand if you’re going to get anywhere with understanding audio. It has far-reaching implications. It’s human nature to detect illusory differences under sighted conditions. You should expect it, and certainly not draw any conclusions about differences from it.
In this case, you have noticed a difference in two DACs with samples that that have both measured transparently here. You have not measured your own devices, you have not properly level-matched, and you have not conducted your test under blind conditions.
Yet you deduce that since you hear a difference, there must be something that ASR does not measure that accounts for these differences. And you express disappointment that we don’t join you in your deduction, considering such attitude “unscientific.”
Yet why do you think that you are any different than the people who heard significant differences in amps under sighted conditions, but were helpless under blind conditions? That’s by far the most parsimonious explanation.
You are not the first to come to us with subjective reports of this kind. For many of us, including me, we have heard differences in our own equipment that went away under blind conditions. You are not coming down from the mountain with a bold and prophetic vision to challenge our orthodoxy. We’ve all been there before. Yet, people here gave you all kinds of advice for how you can record the files, compare the files, and share the files to be analyzed here. Because it’s fun and who knows, maybe someday we’ll get stumped.
So basically what you are saying is there "Is no difference". Well that was very helpful. Thanks.
And they'll make excuses about why controlled blind listening tests are "invalid" or unnecessary. But this is audio SCIENCE review.
