What electronic audio products you want tested most

[bravomail]

I like to get a gauge of what categories of products I should be testing more (electronics only). So please vote.

Thanks to Amir and his measurements, we discovered:
- good DACs around $100.
- good headphone amps around $100.

We have still to solve $100 or $200 good power amp. Maybe test some lower power IcePower modules? I haven't seen many ready-made in case modules.
And among abysmal AVRs - is there a less abysmal?
Since AVRs not likely to improve any time soon, maybe solution is to have a DSP + poweramp? I haven't seen many DSP reviews either. They seem to be outrageosly priced too.

 

[Nango]

None of them. I want you to test DAP.

 

[bravomail]

None of them. I want you to test DAP.

with HiFi smartphones - there is no market, or reason to exist for DAPs.

 

[Nango]

Well, I like the physical buttons to skip, fwd, etc. the music. And I don't want to waste the phone battery for music.

 

[Snarfie]

Realy like the NAD C370 integrated amp been tested it won in a row (2000 & 2001) best amplifier of the year it drives almost anything. Still i use it beeing quite happy with it. I'm curious how it would held up against the newer Class D amp's. One of these day's it probebely will go so for now i probably will buy a quality D amp but who knows mabey it is worthwill to restore the old NAD.

 

[Matias]

with HiFi smartphones - there is no market, or reason to exist for DAPs.

And with HiFi dongles, there is no reason to exist for HiFi smartphones.

 

[trl]

Yamaha WXC-50. I wonder if the Optical Out or Analogue Out would measure better that I've seen on the WXA-50.

 

[tjf]

https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/il-dsp-headphone-amp

Since it uses a recent low power Cirrus Logic DAC (CS43130) that also seems to incorporate a Head Phone amp in the same LSI, and then the matching low power XCore asynch USB as the USB interface, and lastly Mini DSP EQ...and I still assume all input thru output processing is 96KHZ as typical for Mini DSP...

Amir...any shot at getting your AP rig to sort out one of these $99 devices??

 

[Koeitje]

Thanks to Amir and his measurements, we discovered:
- good DACs around $100.
- good headphone amps around $100.

We have still to solve $100 or $200 good power amp. Maybe test some lower power IcePower modules? I haven't seen many ready-made in case modules.
And among abysmal AVRs - is there a less abysmal?
Since AVRs not likely to improve any time soon, maybe solution is to have a DSP + poweramp? I haven't seen many DSP reviews either. They seem to be outrageosly priced too.

Amplifiers will always be more expensive than headphone amps or DACs due to the power supply needs. Copper for the transformer and a ton of caps. A 450vs toroidal transformer and a case and you already break the $100....

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

I think there’s little point in measuring any more DACs, that problem is clearly solved and we are spoilt for choice. Just take your pick of the vast number in the “best” quartile that Amir has measured.

I voted amplifiers although I’d really like speakers to be on the list (yes I know, far more difficult and expensive)

 

[raistlin65]

Testing subwoofer distortion, would that be possible without the full speaker testing kit?
I think many people would like to find cheap but good subwoofers.
I would like to see the difference between servo-subs from Velodyne and Rythmik etc compared to more conventional subwoofers.
It would also cut down on Amir’s gym bill with all the heavy lifting, so he could stop whining about donations all the time!

Have you seen this: https://data-bass.com/#/systems?_k=uzt8mw For example, click on one of the Rythmik subs to see the extensive data.

Josh Ricci was Audioholics' subwoofer reviewer for several years, and that's the data from his testing for them and on his own.

Since then, Audioholics has had some reviews done by James Larsen. You should check their website.

 

[raistlin65]

It would be interesting to know what the tone controls are doing on the Schiit Loki. Here is what they have listed for specs:

Bands: 20Hz, 400Hz, 2kHz, 8kHz
Adjustment: +/-12dB at 20Hz and 8kHz, +/-6dB at 400Hz and 2kHz

Now I wrote them to ask them if they had any graphs that showed the tone controls in action, and they just threw the specs back at me.

Here's why I'm puzzled and why I wrote them. How useful is a tone control centered at 20hz for a set of headphones? And what kind of Q and slope does that have? Does it boost the midbass, too? Just seems strange.

 

[trl]

How useful is a tone control centered at 20hz for a set of headphones?

You're not hearing that frequency well anyway and by increasing only the 20Hz will most likely highly increase the distortions. If your headphones are really lacking sub-bass, then check how it measures (rtings or another website), then try to increase with 1...2dBs the 24...32Hz if really needed, but don't forget to lower the output level from the EQ with at least the# of dBs your increasing the bass.

You could also get a VST visual EQ for a better view of the Q-factor, but it all depends on how your headphones really measures.

 

[raistlin65]

You're not hearing that frequency well anyway and by increasing only the 20Hz will most likely highly increase the distortions. If your headphones are really lacking sub-bass, then check how it measures (rtings or another website), then try to increase with 1...2dBs the 24...32Hz if really needed, but don't forget to lower the output level from the EQ with at least the# of dBs your increasing the bass.

You could also get a VST visual EQ for a better view of the Q-factor, but it all depends on how your headphones really measures.

Exactly. A bass boost centered at 20hz seems a bad idea for headphones. In addition to increasing highly distorted bass, with some headphones, I would think the boost would be significantly below tuning and be pretty bad for the driver if someone cranks up to +12db and runs it fairly hard.

The JDS Labs Subjective 3 tone control box does have some measurements: https://jdslabs.com/media/support/downloads/active-products/2019-02-07.17-52-20.ol-eq-curves.pdf The bass tone is centered at 20hz. Not very useful, IMO. And notably, they don't show what it does below 20hz, as if the boost is a shelf. Hopefully, it has a high pass filter at 20hz.

 

[trl]

Now I fully understand your point.
Actually, the main reason why I purchased my Yamaha amp was because the bass was centered at 20Hz instead of completely un-useful 100Hz like other amps, also trebles were centered at 20KHz instead of so not useful 10KHz. Of course, ideally would be to be able to adjust yourself the bass/treble frequency to the left or right, but that almost sounds like DSP.
For a headamp, maybe moving to the right the bass-adjust frequency might help, not sure, but from an EQ perspective I would personally prefer 20Hz instead of 100Hz.

 

[gattaca]

WRT to the request for "Chinese and other AMPS/PowerSupplies/... ", I've looked several smaller (< 7AMP/12V) "linear power supplies" on eBay being sold direct from China. While they look well built, IDK enough about the protection designs to determine if they are "safe" since many of these have no UL or ETL listings.

For me, this is a very real concern. Why? Using these in a commercial setup can create insurance and liability headaches. Using them in your home may also create similar issues. For instance, if it causes a fire or other catastrophe due to poor or inadequate safety designs and your insurer determines these were the root-cause, then you may find yourself not insurable and/or facing the repairs and losses outta your own wallet.

BTW, I don't own one of these.. but topping out at 200lbs... maybe worth a look certainly a basic dolly beats lift and lug? --> https://upcart.com/products/lift-holiday-bundle

 

[raistlin65]

Now I fully understand your point.
Actually, the main reason why I purchased my Yamaha amp was because the bass was centered at 20Hz instead of completely un-useful 100Hz like other amps, also trebles were centered at 20KHz instead of so not useful 10KHz. Of course, ideally would be to be able to adjust yourself the bass/treble frequency to the left or right, but that almost sounds like DSP.
For a headamp, maybe moving to the right the bass-adjust frequency might help, not sure, but from an EQ perspective I would personally prefer 20Hz instead of 100Hz.

Which Yamaha receiver do you have? I would be surprised if it is actually centered at 20hz, unless the bandwidth is very narrow. Otherwise, it would only really be useful for very good sealed subs.

 

[trl]

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/yamaha-a-s701-tear-down-thoughts-about-the-internals-few-measurements.9459/, but AFAIK all Yamahas are centered at 20Hz and 20KHz for the tone controls.

 

[MattHooper]

Amir,

I'd really like to see you test the claims of some high-end AC power cables !!!!

 

[50°F=Hellfire]

I'd like to see more reviews and measurements of DAPs, such as the Lotoo Paw 6000, Sony NW-ZX500, and Cayin N6II.