Another day at Head-Fi, another gross violation of the Transitive Property of Inequalities

Its a good indicator of who's advice to listen to if nothing else.
If you can filter through the BS you can find some solid info.

BTW, WIN, and thanks for the new signature.

conclusion... You have to buy and try them all til youre satisfied.

It's reasonable to judge people on what they've posted relative to gear you've heard, and use that to base your judgement of their reviews later...

personally, there are some members who I've come to the conclusion must be deaf. Or at least incapable of hearing anything under 100hz and over 14khz. Maybe 12khz.

yup.

Took the words right out of my mouth there, Jimmy.

My thoughts exactly.

BTW, I also want to add that the OP should pay more attention to those members who have more experience under their belt. Headphoneaddict has been around for a while and has tried or owned more headphones than most people even get to touch in their lifetimes.

Right, I don't think it's a violation of the Transitive Property of Inequalities, so much as an example of the Inequality Property of Transitory Reviews.

Sometimes there are also people with low post counts with lots of audio experience so take note of references to other things they have listened to and ultimately like some posters already mentioned, the equipment that you've heard in common with them. Take note if you can agree with their impressions of those pieces of equipment that you've also heard yourself.

The timing of this thread couldn't be more appropriate as I just posted a review myself. While trying to complete it a couple of nights ago, I felt something was missing. Indeed, it was the importance of emphasising how my impressions relate to my own music preferences and how, no doubt, I had adapted to certain types of headphones (and away from others) and how those things have influenced my impressions. Not to mention how such things as the tonal balance (frequency response) of the headphones I was using influenced them. I believe this is important so that people reading the review have a better understanding of where I'm coming from and, ultimately, if they are thinking of buying, can make a wiser choice about whether or not they should, not just get carried away in the nice things I have to say.

It might be worth noting though that HeadphoneAddict has a Sigma 11 power supply for his Apogee Mini-DAC, which, according to him (yeah yeah I know) improves it considerably. I bought a Pico DAC recently too (I'm looking to set up a transportable rig) and I'm not as impressed by it as I hoped I would be. Not saying it's bad though, that I am not as impressed by it as I want to be.

I had realised some time ago that I had to be very careful to determine WTF was the actual cause of my feelings or impressions regarding any gear I tried, before I starte d spewing them forth on the forums to other people. Much of it comes down to the tonal balance, or rather, frequency response of any piece of gear or combination of components and that, overall, of the music being listened to. As well, my mood, time of day, faulty audio memory, changing feelings about what I like and listen to etc. I can think of a number of reasons for my feelings about the Pico DAC and, importantly, how they might have been different if I'd bought it a year, or two years or, or had different gear, or a host of other factors.

I feel there does need to be more in the way of measurements and dissemination of proper knowledge about gear, especially to clear up the gross misunderstandings about many aspects of audio gear such as "tube sound", jitter and the like. Hopefully Tyll's new efforts in that direction will help, especially so that we can understand the reasons, as I have been trying to, of our feelings and impressions of headphones, amps, DACs and other gear. I remember commenting to a very knowledgeable and experienced Head-fi'er about something I liked the sound of. His reply was to the effect of "(That) doesn't measure well. Maybe you like the sound of it's distortion better." Gave me pause to think.

Overall, I believe and live by the thought that, if you can't seriously evaluate your own limitations, how can you seriously evaluate the limitations of anyone or anything else?

The transitive property only works in some mathematics functions. It doesn't apply to things like this.

There have been some very funny "applications" of the transitive property as it relates to college football, based on teams that beat other teams, and by the time you are done, Division III NorthSouthEastern Podunk State is better than both Florida and Alabama. Just doesn't work that way. And at least that's based on an objective measure - actual wins and losses. Here, when we're talking about subjective opinions - transitive property = FAIL.

Rob I can not help it but agree with you. Maybe I am one of those who can not hear notes under 100 Hz or above 12 KHz! I also agree with donunus that you have to listen to a particular piece of gear to know how it sounds.

Let me add another analogy as to why one has to listen to a piece of equipment and not just guess how it sounds by reading reviews... Lets just say one was to describe how being "drunk" feels to a person that has never had any alcohol beverages in his/her life. You can describe the symptoms and try to describe what it feels like all you want. All the explanations won't make a difference unless one has actually tried drinking firsthand.

Just be picky, extremely picky... Sometimes a gamble pays off though...