Cafe Sceptico: The Objectivist Cafe - Page 17

He does not like it when someone else points out  that the headphone he just gave a good review is really a crappy one(as heard by others) and when confirmed with measurements, is quick to dismiss them and says, its "all about preferences".

Quote:

Originally Posted by firev1 

He does not like it when someone else points out  that the headphone he just gave a good review is really a crappy one(as heard by others) and when confirmed with measurements, is quick to dismiss them and says, its "all about preferences".

Remember Guttenberg amongst other things has publicly reported hearing differences between FLAC and WAV files and describing in great detail the sonic differences between them, this should be a hint.....

I asked him to explain that on this arena... http://www.head-fi.org/t/589057/emotiva-pro-airmotiv4-loudspeakers-review#post_8033336

silence was the stern reply

Quote:

Originally Posted by nick_charles 

 

Remember Guttenberg amongst other things has publicly reported hearing differences between FLAC and WAV files and describing in great detail the sonic differences between them, this should be a hint.....

It would be great if you can provide a link to the article....I would love to read it for myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by proton007 

 

It would be great if you can provide a link to the article....I would love to read it for myself.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20029913-47.html

Here's what he said:

"I think FLAC or Apple Lossless sound perfectly fine, just not on par with a CD, when played on a high-end audio system."

The only difference I can see is the CD player itself, it won't play FLAC or ALAC, and so, you're actually testing two different systems than file formats. Completely different than the argument made.

Its all about preferences...so guess what, I prefer not to listen to steve.

Okay......http://positive-feedback.com/Issue64/dbpoweramp.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by firev1 

Okay......http://positive-feedback.com/Issue64/dbpoweramp.htm

I could not find any mention of a DBT or other rigorous comparison in that article ?

I'm a firm believer in objectivity but you really can't (or shouldn't) base all your choices just on that. Headphone "A" will have the same measurements no matter who is listening to it, but what each listener hears is almost always at least slightly different. The shape of the earphone cup, the angle, clamping force, open vs closed, and many more things come into play. Ultimately I think a frequency response is a good place to start but actual listening should be the final decision point. 

If you enjoy the sound of a particular headphone but it doesn't measure well, so what?

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadcykler 

I'm a firm believer in objectivity but you really can't (or shouldn't) base all your choices just on that. Headphone "A" will have the same measurements no matter who is listening to it, but what each listener hears is almost always at least slightly different. The shape of the earphone cup, the angle, clamping force, open vs closed, and many more things come into play. Ultimately I think a frequency response is a good place to start but actual listening should be the final decision point. 

 

If you enjoy the sound of a particular headphone but it doesn't measure well, so what?

Exactly BECAUSE everyone has different ears and taste is why you need objectivity. Since someone used to a bright signature will report a neutral pair as 'warm' or 'bassy', you can never be sure unless a well-plotted graph shows you.

And of course listening should be your ultimate decider, but often people from, let's say, luckier countries in terms of opportunities to try gear forget that in the Old Continent it's more complicated. To give an example, there is only one store in Lisbon selling anything from Grado, and I doubt there are any outside the capital. So for those who can't try gear, which are a lot, they are left with 2 choices: believe in subjective impressions or in objective measurements. I read a lot of reviews with lots of prose, but give it the weight it deserves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LizardKing1 

Exactly BECAUSE everyone has different ears and taste is why you need objectivity. Since someone used to a bright signature will report a neutral pair as 'warm' or 'bassy', you can never be sure unless a well-plotted graph shows you.

And of course listening should be your ultimate decider, but often people from, let's say, luckier countries in terms of opportunities to try gear forget that in the Old Continent it's more complicated. To give an example, there is only one store in Lisbon selling anything from Grado, and I doubt there are any outside the capital. So for those who can't try gear, which are a lot, they are left with 2 choices: believe in subjective impressions or in objective measurements. I read a lot of reviews with lots of prose, but give it the weight it deserves.

I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with what roadcykler said...

Anyone with a bit of a clue knows that FLAC is being decoded to uncompressed PCM (wav files usually contain the same), and that the output is bit-identical to the source file. Hence the term lossless, which I'm surprised many don't seem to understand.

Those who don't shouldn't talk about digital audio, let alone do reviews...

Quote:

Originally Posted by manveru 

I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with what roadcykler said...

Re-read it, and it still makes sense. He mentioned a series of variables that would make the headphones sound different from person to person and I said exactly because of those variables we need objectivity. Then I went on a rant about lack of testing gear, because I'm still mad that I'm not going to enjoy any of Amazon's Black Friday because they almost always don't ship to my country.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnor 

Those who don't shouldn't talk about digital audio, let alone do reviews...

...or be one of the top audio reviewers in the world.