I do feel bad that it may seem like people are jumping on you, that is regrettable if you perceive it that way. I would say much like the distinction that exists between a person as an entity and their behaviour that is what the community is responding to. We are not trying to attack you; however, we are pointing out a behaviour, in this case making rather large and difficult to substantiate claims. I do hope you are able to enjoy this community and if you are willing to keep an open mind (and I have no reason to think otherwise about you) you can learn quite a bit here.
I like head-fi, over there I have about 12 000 posts and several years of membership so I also appreciate a subjectivist hobby leaning, but ultimately I find the objective measurement side probably a little more compelling, when they are audible or reasonable to expect as having an effect on audible information.
I don't really feel that anyone's jumping on me, I try to inject a little humor sometimes.
"Come here to have fun, be ready to be teased and not take online life too seriously"
I was at a friends for dinner tonight, his wife and her sister were in the kitchen. I heard one of them say "here, taste this and see if it needs more salt". I couldn't help but start laughing. My friend asked what had me laughing. I said brother, you wouldn't believe me if I told you.
I was imagining his sister saying I can't rule on the degree of salt, not without another pot at the same temperature and the chemical makeup as this one. You won't be able to let me know which pot I am tasting either, sorry for the logistics and total refusal to utilize any of my 40 years of daily cooking level but you know, science first.
The controlled tasting would have no doubt yielded a more definitive answer on the salt issue. But of course she knew immediately if it needed salt or not. As every seasoned cook and chef has for 200 years without fail. She certainly couldn't take away any salt.
I couldn't add or take away any mid-bass from my D90, even though I suspected right away, but refused to accept until a few days later that it didn't like the sound I had known for a long time prior to it being inserted into the chain. As hard as I tried for several weeks after switching every amp, every speaker and position possible in two very different sounding rooms bass-wise, I couldn't pull it's sound any closer to what my other DACs sounded like. And I wanted to get there, believe me. The D90 looked svelte, gorgeous even, dedicated to purpose without even a knob or pesky headphone jack. This was my dCS Vivaldi. I wanted to brag to my fellow audio geeks that I finally had Amirs top measuring DAC (almost) directing my vaunted two channel system. I say that in jest but I'm pretty sure I had the only D90 to Bryston 4bsst2 / Aragon Palladium 1K mono to Magnepan 3.6 / SVS SB4000 rig in the area.
If you have the means I suggest you pick one up.
I have some some friends who swear fancy outboard DACs with expensive(ish) separates sound no different than their bubble gum $400 wi-fi receiver 'driving Polk micro speakers aided by a 20 pound subwoofer from that big box store. The D90 was going to be every bit as convincing to those chuckle heads as was the Topping DX7 Pro, W4S DAC2, SMSL M500 and SMSL SU-8 v2, maybe even slightly more so. Wishful thinking I guess. A lateral move would have been OK given it's cool looks and it lacking the features on the other DACs which I never used anyway.
I think if I still had the D90 and conducted a controlled test but produced the same findings as my garden variety listening it would have met the same caterwauling. The unspoken premise appears to be that I would not have found anything with the test so it's absurd to think I heard anything different without it. If I did I the absolute deviation would be called into question, which of course nullifies the average deviation, etc.
Maybe not.
I've looked for these tests and their results here, no luck. It's either taboo or anyone who did was burned at the stake.
I think some people MAY be in a prison of two ideas. (Pardon the neuroscience)
For these people, an “idea warden” allows the freedom, without remorse, to reflexively dismiss alternative ideas that don’t fit their accepted narrative of what's possible. These narratives become very important in determining how choices are made in all realms of life.
A test in New Zealand was done involving the newspaper containers being left unlocked a few days. Hardly any papers were taken without payment. It was out of fear that it would destroy the system the people relied on.
My take on the D90 was a free newspaper.
if you'd wish to do so.
