What makes biggest difference in sound

[thewas]

The largest deviations happen when there is a conversion from the electric to the mechanical domain or the opposite, so most budget and effort should be spent on loudspeakers, room acoustics and if available turntables/cartridges.

 

[JiiPee]

Regarding mediums, what do You think about the vinyl record? It is technically inferior to modern digital mediums, but in practice, can a well produced vinyl LP played with a good quality turntable considered to be good enough in the sense that in a controlled blind test it would be virtually impossible to distinguish it from a digital source?

Would differences in production/mastering of different mediums make such blind tests useless, or...

 

[chips666]

In the end always the room...

 

[sweetsounds]

I'll go old school and say the recording

Also very true. The choice of the sound is done by the recording engineer.

Great interview with Bill Schnee of Steely Dan

It's not about about reality, it's what comes out of speakers and sounds good.

 

[steve59]

When I'm on the jobsite loudness is #1. At home fidelity is first and placing speakers in room optimally is as important as mating them to a suitable amp. Anyone that thinks all amps sound the same is welcome to come over and listen to my 3 integrateds with similar power ratings and agree the differences are there, but could fall into the class of different, not necessarily better, then listen to the final set up and try not to be stunned at the improvement. Sometimes I do wonder if a preamp can be detrimental. I haven't met a single dealer that tried to convince cables made a significant difference. With my Roon nucleus there I have 1 dac I prefer MQA 24/96 to and another dac I prefer the flac 24/96 recording of. ones tidal and the other's qobuz so that's another variable, and the difference could be compared to opening or closing the drapes, so take it as you will.

 

[JayGilb]

My mood.

 

[popej]

Anyone that thinks all amps sound the same is welcome to come over and listen to my 3 integrateds with similar power ratings and agree the differences are there

Shouldn't you offer compensation?
I mean proper tests are time-consuming, boring and tiring and in the end, they do not give positive results.

 

[JiiPee]

How come we have nobody posting that the biggest difference comes from the cables. After all, I have heard countless stories from audiophiles that usually go something like: "When I switched from cable A to cable B, the difference it made was so huge that even my wife could notice it immediately after she came from work and opened her car door at our parking lot, even though our apartment is on the 7th floor and I was listening via headphones!"

 

[solderdude]

I am missing: 'mains power supply quality' .... after all if that is crappy all else must also be crappy ... or does it not work this way ?

 

[Keith_W]

My mood.

Yeah, that is actually a very important and often under-appreciated aspect to sound! Great point, thanks for reminding us.