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When are you too deep down the rabbit hole?

Rednaxela

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After watching this I must say most if my worries re. giving up control have gone.

 

tmtomh

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SINAD chasing is just ex-subjectivists changing addictions.

Blind tests have even better use case than detecting audibility, detecting "it doesn't really matter"-ibility. If the systems sounds good and you cannot detect any clear faults without comparing side by side to some other equipment then you don't need to buy new stuff or continue tweaking.

This approach is of course only to those whose focus is audio experience: tweaking and buying stuff just because is interesting hobby in itself.

@anphex , I get what you are saying and I largely agree with you. Just keep in mind that SINAD ratings are generally for certain output levels - full 2/4V for most source components and DACs, and 5 watt output for amplifiers. When you get into variable output levels and/or EQ/DSP - and when you think about how much of our listening time is spent with our amps putting out considerably less than 5W - the real-world SINAD of our gear can be lower in practice.

But with that said, yes, even a lot of the gear that lands in Amir's 2nd tier is capable of performance that most of us will experience as 100% audibly transparent in our home listening environments. (I would imagine this is less true for headphone listening, but still generally the case.)

Along these lines, I strongly agree with and echo @bodhi 's point about " 'it doesn't really matter' ibility." I think this is too often overlooked: just because we can hear a difference if we concentrate doesn't mean we can hear that difference when we're relaxing and enjoying. And even if we can hear a difference in normal listening, different does not automatically equate to better or worse.

Personally I'm always going to seek out SINAD and related performance measures that are comfortably in excess of my own hearing threshold, because I want a performance buffer and I want to feel comfortable that the actual SINAD when listening at lower output or volume is still going to exceed my hearing ability.

But there are plenty of options in every product category that meet that standard. So beyond that, I'm far more interested in ensuring that my amp doesn't produce audible hiss from my speakers' tweeters; that my amp has sufficient power, load invariance, and current capacity to properly drive my speakers; that my DAC or processor gives me access to digital room EQ; and that my gear is reasonably well-built, has balanced inputs and outputs, and is not a hassle to use.
 
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Rednaxela

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After watching this I must say most if my worries re. giving up control have gone.

The basic method presented here by @OCA is actually flat out amazing.

If I understand it all correctly, this way Audyssey can easily replace the GEQs en PEQs I now have with my DEQ2496, and with that it could replace the entire component for me.

Unbelievable.
 
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anphex

anphex

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This video is far too long for me to cope with right now. Can somebody TL:DR what he does there and why it's better than just letting XT32 do its thing?
 

Rednaxela

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This video is far too long for me to cope with right now. Can somebody TL:DR what he does there and why it's better than just letting XT32 do its thing?
Tried to express this in a dedicated thread.

 
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