Message to golden-eared audiophiles posting at ASR for the first time...

[magicscreen]

Well, everyone, I just got the boot from the Computer Audiophile website. In fact, a special pile-on thread was created in my "honor" so everyone could join into insulting and name-calling. And why? Because I ridiculed the notion of spending huge amounts on "audiophile" USB cables and SSDs, reminding people that zeroes and ones don't change as a function of the media in which they reside and migrate.

Fun times. I had actually thought the head guy over there had more integrity than to condone that sort of nonsense. Sadly I was mistaken.

You are only a troll. Shame on you!

 

[audio2design]

I surfed it a bit and found a thread where a major contributor said

"Amending this comment made before discovering how good Audio Linux is as source solution OS. SSD's tend to be bright and irritating for sound when using Audio Linux, a hard drive sounds more natural but does lose some high frequency sparkle. I find myself preferring class 10 SDXC storage media as the best compromise between the two and in all cases external USB3 attached to allow independent power supply for the drive sounded better than internal SATA attached."

Dumbfounded.

You should be careful around such high levels of stupidity. That stuff can be dangerous in large doses.

 

[Enkay25]

Many years ago after spending too much time adjusting my eq to perfection, I noticed the bypass button was engaged and realized that my mind was much more powerful than my ears.

The lesson was learned...

You sir, made my day Thanks fo sharing this experience.

 

[pkane]

Many years ago after spending too much time adjusting my eq to perfection, I noticed the bypass button was engaged and realized that my mind was much more powerful than my ears.

The lesson was learned...

Same exact experience

 

[Freeway]

Same exact experience

Many years ago after spending too much time adjusting my eq to perfection, I noticed the bypass button was engaged and realized that my mind was much more powerful than my ears.
The lesson was learned...

You sir, made my day Thanks fo sharing this experience.

Just last night was listening via Qobuz, which lists all the drivers on your computer, I decide to change to the generic ASIO driver from the Rotel ASIO driver so I clicked on it.
I sat there listening thinking well that is interesting and different. There is some nice details not there before.
Then I look and noticed the driver hadn't changed at all.
The last sound heard was my forehead slamming down on the desk.

 

[BluesDaddy]

Changes make you focus harder on the music.

 

[Freeway]

Changes make you focus harder on the music.

Listening bias confirmed.
Heck, after getting the oil changed in my car (once a year whether it needs it or not) sure drives soooo much smoother. Like a rebuilt engine.

 

[gsp1971]

Listening bias confirmed.
Heck, after getting the oil changed in my car (once a year whether it needs it or not) sure drives soooo much smoother. Like a rebuilt engine.

It should. Oil change does make the engine run smoother.
It's not the same argument as "the car drives better after it has been washed".

 

[audio2design]

It should. Oil change does make the engine run smoother.
It's not the same argument as "the car drives better after it has been washed".

I did a custom contract once for an acoustic analyzer for a lubricants company. Actual differences in acoustic signature with better oil in a car engine.

 

[rdenney]

Same exact experience

Me, too.

More than once.

Rick "I hate when that happens" Denney

 

[Freeway]

I did a custom contract once for an acoustic analyzer for a lubricants company. Actual differences in acoustic signature with better oil in a car engine.

Me, too.
More than once.
Rick "I hate when that happens" Denney

You mean all this time it wasn't my imagination. Well I'll be danged.
Makes me wonder if there is an acoustic signature for snake oil? Not!

 

[richard12511]

I surfed it a bit and found a thread where a major contributor said

"Amending this comment made before discovering how good Audio Linux is as source solution OS. SSD's tend to be bright and irritating for sound when using Audio Linux, a hard drive sounds more natural but does lose some high frequency sparkle. I find myself preferring class 10 SDXC storage media as the best compromise between the two and in all cases external USB3 attached to allow independent power supply for the drive sounded better than internal SATA attached."

Dumbfounded.

Hahaha. Legitimately made me laugh out loud.

 

[Leiker535]

Many years ago after spending too much time adjusting my eq to perfection, I noticed the bypass button was engaged and realized that my mind was much more powerful than my ears.

The lesson was learned...

I decided to actually "downgrade" my LD MkIII tube amp to use with only the 600ohm DT 880 because of a situation exactly like this. I was comparing the ultimate pure tube sound (it is an OTL) with the HD 650s while switching to the Loxjie D30 internal amp; got distracted by something else and started to actually casually listen to the music. Thought to myself "hmm yeah that holographic imaging and soundstage sure is something else", only to look at my side and realize it was plugged to the good measuring, "dull and flat", SS the whole time.

After that episode I got the Topping L30 and use it at the vinyl rig; in sighted a/b comparisons I also prefer it over the Little Dot because of the (much) better channel matching and practicality (no more waiting for the valves to warm up and stop buzzing), and I also find it "cleaner" and with more "blackness" as verbose people call it, but that also might be my mind playing tricks.

 

[3dbinCanada]

Hahaha. Legitimately made me laugh out loud.

Yeah me too!! Ive been IT for 25+ years and I never knew there was an " audio linux"

Somehow it reminds me of the "masses deciding if a peasant girl is a witch" from Monty Python 's Holy Grail

 

[egellings]

I agree with Ron Texas' post. Once the specs are good enough, making them better doesn't get you anything, sonically. It may well matter for better pairs of ears, however. Might make you feel better, though, and maybe that's what's operating there.

 

[Raindog123]

Ive been IT for 25+ years and I never knew there was an " audio linux"

Well, to be a devil’s advocate. There is/was an RT-Linux… then WindRiver’s WR-Linux… and PREEMPT_RT kernel modes. Distributions to both make the kernel more real-time (more deterministic and less jittery) and to RT-enhance IO/device drivers and network stack…

 

[Jim Matthews]

Might make you feel better, though, and maybe that's what's operating there.

It keeps people with a strong work ethic and nothing else to do off the streets.

 

[Anton S]

I agree with Ron Texas' post. Once the specs are good enough, making them better doesn't get you anything, sonically. It may well matter for better pairs of ears, however. Might make you feel better, though, and maybe that's what's operating there.

Decent audio electronics have been so good for so long that the whole scene has degenerated into a numbers game. No one in the entire known universe is going to hear the difference between a 100dB S/N and 120dB S/N or between 0.003% and 0.0003% distortion. The background noise level of an anechoic chamber is typically 20 to 30dB, and it's more like 40 to 50dB in the average home listening environment. You don't need a PhD in mathematics to calculate how loud the musical peaks would need to be in order to make the noise floor in your electronics audible.

Transducers - mics, phono cartridges, and speakers, for example - are an entirely different matter. Transducers are always the limiting factors in any system, because their noise and distortion levels are thousands of times greater than the levels in their associated electronics. Improvement in transducer technology and performance represents the final frontier in the world of audio.

Many companies claim to have discovered the magic bullet in reducing transducer noise and distortion, but the truth of the matter is than none of them has. New designs, esoteric material choices, and novel manufacturing techniques over the last few decades have have not yielded significant improvements in fidelity. If they had, every manufacturer would be following suit, and speakers would begin to sound more and more alike as their costs increase. This is not the case. There is no convergence in the upper price range of transducers.

 

[3dbinCanada]

Well, to be a devil’s advocate. There is/was an RT-Linux… then WindRiver’s WR-Linux… and PREEMPT_RT kernel modes. Distributions to both make the kernel more real-time (more deterministic and less jittery) and to RT-enhance IO/device drivers and network stack…

And this was measured and documented?

 

[Raindog123]

And this was measured and documented?

Pardon me? What was measured for what?