The post in which Darko basically tells anyone who isn't a rich rube to ignore him and audiophilia in general

[Thomas savage]

Tbh I'm glad to derail this thread and all of these negative, bitchin threads .

Darko is doing what he's doing , the aim is getting hits , causing a bit of a controversy and instigating other people expressing their opinion is part of his job . Any person creating debate and bringing light to audio should be thanked by us .

Now if we want to influence the discussion we must present our argument in the most inclusive way , that's a challenge as @Dmitri eluded to up stream of this .

These kind of threads where we all get superior and have a circle jerk over how stupid and corrupt everyone else is doesn't really help that goal . It just makes us look salty and easier to ignore.

We all enjoy music , we don't want to be ripped off , thats something almost every person has in common so I think we should focus on that along with a enthusiasm for audio electronics in general, without any tribal nonsense.

We do that , keep the technical integrity, there's no reason ASR can't crossover and be a major influence and resource.

 

[Lbstyling]

What I need to known is if my hard drive is 2/3 full of porn with it affect the sound of my DAC ?

I would expect it to sound a little harder.

Depends on the porn.

 

[watchnerd]

I would expect it to sound a little harder.

Depends on the porn.

Vintage Dutch and Swedish porn adds a nice bit of euphonic hairiness to the trailing notes.

 

[Thomas savage]

euphonic hairiness

Floss and go , who said men couldn't multitask.

 

[watchnerd]

That's the sort of excuse the FBI would flag you for, as believable as talking about Salisbury cathedral being great.

Hey, I liked the clock display.

Although they place where the Magna Carta was shown was a bit dumpy. I expected something snazzier.

 

[watchnerd]

Floss and go , who said men couldn't multitask.

I was shocked to learn that about a Sussex girl.

 

[Soniclife]

Hey, I liked the clock display

You were trained well.

 

[Jimbob54]

Tbh I'm glad to derail this thread and all of these negative, bitchin threads .

Darko is doing what he's doing , the aim is getting hits , causing a bit of a controversy and instigating other people expressing their opinion is part of his job . Any person creating debate and bringing light to audio should be thanked by us .

Now if we want to influence the discussion we must present our argument in the most inclusive way , that's a challenge as @Dmitri eluded to up stream of this .

These kind of threads where we all get superior and have a circle jerk over how stupid and corrupt everyone else is doesn't really help that goal . It just makes us look salty and easier to ignore.

We all enjoy music , we don't want to be ripped off , thats something almost every person has in common so I think we should focus on that along with a enthusiasm for audio electronics in general, without any tribal nonsense.

We do that , keep the technical integrity, there's no reason ASR can't crossover and be a major influence and resource.

No more Darko threads, promise.

 

[KaiserSoze]

Confirmation bias exists at all levels of intelligence.

Human beings are irrational animals.

Even smart human beings.

Okay, we're going to reject the argument that Fremer knows that he lies, on the basis that human beings are not often fully rational.

Obviously I cannot prove that Fremer knows that he lies. This is inherently unprovable unless at some point he comes out and openly admits that he's lying and knew it all along. I am just not inclined to think it possible for someone in the prominent position he is in to fail to realize, eventually and in the face of an overwhelming body of evidence, that the claims he has been making are lies.

Perhaps he has stopped claiming that CD is flawed and sonically inferior to vinyl. The last time I checked, admittedly many years ago, he was claiming outright that CD is sonically inferior to vinyl. Did he do this because he believed it, or because there was an unfilled niche in catering to people who were nostalgic for vinyl days, which, if the magazine did not respond to, would mean that the magazine-corporation was leaving money of the table?

For the record I have no issue at all with that sort of nostalgia, and am somewhat drawn to it. I just don't like Machiavellian personalities who expound lies in a very public way, for reasons that are purely selfish. And I don't think that the nostalgic appeal of vinyl has any bearing whatsoever on the question of whether Fremer knows that he lies.

 

[Jimbob54]

Hey, I liked the clock display.

Although they place where the Magna Carta was shown was a bit dumpy. I expected something snazzier.

We have a more flexible and less reverential view of our core constitutional documents

 

[mansr]

We have a more flexible and less reverential view of our core constitutional documents

As recently as last month, the Michigan Supreme Court referenced the Magna Carta in a decision:

Drawing on Sir William Blackstone, Justice Cooley further recognized that the Magna Carta “guaranteed” the protection of private property against government overreach. Just as the Magna Carta guaranteed property owners due process of law, so too did the sacred text limit the King’s ability to take his subject’s property, real or personal, under principles of eminent domain.

 

[Jimbob54]

As recently as last month, the Michigan Supreme Court referenced the Magna Carta in a decision:

It probably gets referenced in a fair few judgements here too.

 

[magicscreen]

No more Darko threads, promise.

Why?
He is great and has good advice.
Here everybody has entry level audio equipments.
So we need no expensive usb cables, magic fuses, trinkets and baubles, et cetera.

 

[Sonny1]

Probably safer if you didn’t.

You realize of course that this probably the only thread in this entire damned forum I can actually contribute anything of remote value. IE. Plucky source of the occasional chuckle, but otherwise clueless.

Yeah, I’m the big dumb looking guy, the one who bought lots of audio equipment thanks to all those wonderful subjective reviews...Ya know, the one’s that people with average brains can understand. Ultimately, that’s it. The objective approach is simply not accessible to Joe or Josephine regular folk.

I hang out, because I’m fascinated...but for the most part this shite is way over my head. I’m working on it, but in general...if a review doesn’t include language that requires a thesaurus to say the same BS. over and over in multiple ways, but instead includes graphs and conversation way above most people’s desire to even put the effort in to understand, objectivism will have little influence. Sad but true...ASR’s a nitch. It’s worth it for me...I value the learning experience, but most won’t bother.

View attachment 78967

Great post! I’m glad I’m not the only one! I’ve made some mistakes over the years. Bought a couple expensive power conditioners and expensive cords. One of the conditioners actually ruined the sound I was getting by collapsing the soundstage and making it sound very flat. My friend loaned it to me and was selling at a huge discount. I wouldn’t have taken it for free after testing it and I returned it to my friend. I love to see the snake oil consumers getting pissed off at ASR when their chosen brand is exposed. This has quickly become my favorite audio site. Probably the smartest site in audioland even though I don’t always agree with everyone. That’s part of the fun I guess.

Oh, you are sooo right about the meme. Highly inappropriate but funny. I’ll hold off as it would probably offend some of our more sensitive members.

 

[KaiserSoze]

This is a very strange time [almost goes without saying]. I just got a very cheap laptop, Windows. The Acer Aspire 5, $350.00 from Amazon when I bought it two months ago. There's a number of devices I can connect my headphones to, sound quality varies but not all that much. The sound from the headphone "out" of the Acer is about as good as anything else, including the output from a Yamaha AVR, a Schiit Magni 3, a Fiio portable headphone amp. Seems like a lot of gear gets technologically advanced because of simple market forces and Moore's Law. The issue for the so called "High-End" is justifying the high cost when the standard level of expected sound quality is high enough to begin with. Sound quality used to be a real issue back when the income from recordings was meaningful to performers. But now, the recordings really aren't moneymakers, more of a side issue for the larger spectacle. Meanwhile, the sound quality of sources is so much better now than back in the day of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Disco and Punk. Of course the High-End juggernaut is going to keep on rolling, but it's really mostly about conspicuous consumption.

I've been reluctant to let it be known here that I don't own a DAC. Uh oh, now I've done it. No more respect for me.

If you plug your headphones into the headphone jack of your cheap notebook computer and don't ever hear any noise, and if so far as you can tell you never hear distortion except once in a while when you hear a sound that is most likely the sound your headphones make when you try to make them play louder than they want to play, would there be a genuinely good reason for you to go out and buy a DAC?

I need to say something to earn back some respect. I recently bought, from an eBay seller, a mid-80s digital multimeter. Not just any. A Fluke 8060A. It will measure signal level (volts) with very good accuracy as high in frequency as 50 kHz. The norm for the great majority of DMMs that you see in hardware stores and online is 400 Hz, which means that the great majority of DMMs are useless for audio frequency measurements. Most of these older Fluke meters have been beat all to hell, but I lucked into an exceptionally good one that looks and performs like it just came out of the box. I just can't tell you how cool it is. Instead of having the now-ubiquitous rotating knob that visits all the settings you don't want while you move it to the setting you want, it has a row of big sturdy push buttons along one edge. Two of the buttons are used for selecting the function, giving four possible function settings, for current, volts, resistance, and diode test. Another button the same color as those two selects AC vs. DC. The other five buttons are a darker color and they select the range. Direct access to every setting. True RMS readings of course. It also measures frequency of course. It is very, very cool. Every time I pick it up I, well, let's just say that it's a cool toy.

 

[KaiserSoze]

Time to start investigating the audio fidelity in the sound tracks of Japanese washlet toilets.

Damn, that's too complicated. I'd probably have to grab a roll of paper and run out into the woods.

 

[Robin L]

Okay, we're going to reject the argument that Fremer knows that he lies, on the basis that human beings are not often fully rational.

I get the sense that he loves his precious, that he's a vinyl junkie and can't quit. I've 12-stepped myself out of vinyl addiction. But collectors/hoarders really do have habits that stick, and it took quite a bit of effort for me to unload my LPs and turntables. Fremer has been at this for a very long time, it would be foolish to think he's about to wake up to reality. Fantasyland has served him well.

 

[Robin L]

If you plug your headphones into the headphone jack of your cheap notebook computer and don't ever hear any noise, and if so far as you can tell you never hear distortion except once in a while when you hear a sound that is most likely the sound your headphones make when you try to make them play louder than they want to play, would there be a genuinely good reason for you to go out and buy a DAC?

One of my DAPs can also function as a DAC, there's a DAC in the AVR, I plug in directly to the new computer. If one is listening to content provided via internet, one notices a very wide range of audio quality. Right now I'm watching the Frank Sinatra documentary from Netflix, with audio that goes back to the 1930's, sound quality all over the map. I can hear all sorts of different levels of sound quality in that documentary, different kinds of digital de-noising, artifacts that I would never had heard back in the good old days of LPs and cassettes. The quality of digital sources continue to improve. Attempting to get to "The Absolute Sound" has snagged up people into believing that spending a bit more money will get them there, to what "live music" should sound like, ideally. But what I found out is that the better the playback gear, the more the result sounds like a microphone feed, which would in fact be the closest to the source.

 

[KaiserSoze]

Wealthy?

Not from what I've seen. That $100k turntable is on permanent loan.

Uh, if it's on "permanent loan", that means it belongs to him. Most likely there would be no problems with him selling it. I won't hazard a guess as to whether he would likely get away with not reporting the sale to the IRS. According to that article that was in The Audio Critic, reviewers who give positive reviews are gifted expensive gear as routine compensation, and they do with it as they please.

 

[watchnerd]

I am just not inclined to think it possible for someone in the prominent position he is in to fail to realize, eventually and in the face of an overwhelming body of evidence, that the claims he has been making are lies.

Why is this so hard to think is possible?

See organized religion / Creationism in the face of 150 years of post-Darwin science.

That's basically the essence of confirmation bias -- a filtration of facts that match your pre-existing position to avoid cognitive dissonance.