[gurus]

Quote:

Thanks. I'm not sure that article tells us any thing we didn't already know. That where measurements and a professionally trained and unbiased ear detect significant distortion, some audiophiles (and particularly audiophile reviewers) will instead hear "depth, detail, nuance and resolution".

G

 
So bring on (more) distortion. Audio is to be heard and not to be seen on a test bench otherwise we would be listening with our eyes.
 
 

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

So bring on (more) distortion. Audio is to be heard and not to be seen on a test bench otherwise we would be listening with our eyes.

I'd rather listen to the recording, not the DAC, but that's my preference.

 

[gregorio]

So bring on (more) distortion. Audio is to be heard and not to be seen on a test bench otherwise we would be listening with our eyes.
 

Exactly and as a true audiophile I want to listen to the audio, not to the distortion. You want to be a distortionophile that's your choice but you don't get to call yourself an audiophile.

Please, don't come out with a bunch of BS about measurements or measuring audio.

G

 

[gurus]

Quote:

Thanks. I'm not sure that article tells us any thing we didn't already know. That where measurements and a professionally trained and unbiased ear detect significant distortion, some audiophiles (and particularly audiophile reviewers) will instead hear "depth, detail, nuance and resolution".

G

 


Quote:

Exactly and as a true audiophile I want to listen to the audio, not to the distortion. You want to be a distortionophile that's your choice but you don't get to call yourself an audiophile.

Please, don't come out with a bunch of BS about measurements or measuring audio.

G

Obviously you missed the whole point!  And the sarcasm in it!
 

 

[gregorio]

Obviously you missed the whole point!  And the sarcasm in it!

In that case, sorry, my bad!

G

 

[LostWeekend]

My Octave is an excellent dac that sounds natural.  I can't hear anything I would construe as distortion so if it is there, it doesn't sound like it is and it communicates music to me from within my system.   That's all I ever wanted from it really.  It wouldn't change a thing about my opinion if it was powered by magic chicken bones and positive thought harvested from my brain as I sleep.

 

[gurus]

So I am  going to order one. Gregorio convinced me on that. 
 
Specially if Distortion = "depth, detail, nuance and resolution"   (SIC)
 
Since the Octave is probably an overkill for a computer rig I might just get the Quad - Octave's younger sibling.

 

[bobeau]

 
Quote:

 
Since the Octave is probably an overkill for a computer rig I might just get the Quad - Octave's younger sibling.

Cool... from what I understand the outboard power supplies can be added to an order for the other units if you want to go that way.  
 

 

[K3cT]

Quote:

From the Aussie thread:
 
"The Metrum is back at Casa Kdoot for the weekend. I had to have another listen because I couldn't quite believe my own reaction from earlier in the week. Surely it couldn't be as good as my first impression and write-up made it out to be.

I have listened to a lot of DACs in the past year and a half, and while some of them have been especially good (Level 2 PDX with internal JK HiFace is wonderful, Audio-GD Reference 7 is a standout over-engineered solid-state performer) none of them have had the same kind of utterly compelling effect on me that the Octave has. I used to play a few different instruments and perform a lot of music in my youth, and music has always been something that I've felt more than thought about. The Octave is doing something so uniquely right as it turns these bits into waves that the music just takes over. My foot taps, my head sways, and the performance is everything. No other DAC has done that for me.

I don't give a **** what this thing has inside it. It's made of magic as far as I'm concerned.

Order placed."

If it's from that poster then we probably need to take his opinion with a grain of salt. In fact, we should take any raving opinion like that with a grain of salt... Who knows what he gonna say when a bigger, badder and better DAC comes along in the future? Will he quickly discard this DAC and rave about the new hip thing? 

 

[gregorio]

So I am  going to order one. Gregorio convinced me on that. 
 
Specially if Distortion = "depth, detail, nuance and resolution"   (SIC)

What I actually said was "where measurements and a professionally trained and unbiased ear detect significant distortion, some audiophiles (and particularly audiophile reviewers) will instead hear "depth, detail, nuance and resolution"."

So what will happen with your new DAC is one of two things, either: 1. Your ear will remain untrained and biased, in which case you'll love your DAC forever or 2. Your ear will gradually become more educated and you will gradually become more disenchanted with all your DAC's distortions.

G

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

If it's from that poster then we probably need to take his opinion with a grain of salt. In fact, we should take any raving opinion like that with a grain of salt... Who knows what he gonna say when a bigger, badder and better DAC comes along in the future? Will he quickly discard this DAC and rave about the new hip thing? 

 
FOTM is without a doubt strong in the audiophile world... sometimes it's exuberant hype - I totally get that - and sometimes its just too much good stuff hitting the market.  That said, the guy does have alot of experience with DACs, claims to have a disdain for NOS, and is not back-justifying a purchase.  Regardless of whether he'll fall for something else in a few more months, that he's impressed enough to purchase after having it in his system twice is notable.

 

[LostWeekend]

Quote:

What I actually said was "where measurements and a professionally trained and unbiased ear detect significant distortion, some audiophiles (and particularly audiophile reviewers) will instead hear "depth, detail, nuance and resolution"."

So what will happen with your new DAC is one of two things, either: 1. Your ear will remain untrained and biased, in which case you'll love your DAC forever or 2. Your ear will gradually become more educated and you will gradually become more disenchanted with all your DAC's distortions.

G

  So what exactly is distortion supposed to sound like?

 

[gregorio]

So what exactly is distortion supposed to sound like?

That's a good question. And the right answer would be that it sounds like anything which shouldn't be there. Not much help. A distortion is any alteration in the shape of the waveform. There are many types of distortion: Amplitude distortion, phase distortion, frequency distortion, quantisation distortion and harmonic distortion. Each of these distortion types has at least one and sometimes many different effects on the sound we perceive. This means distortion could be anything from low level noise (hiss), to pops, spurious tones, soundstage problems, frequency imbalances, etc., etc. With listening experience and comparisons between different sound systems the ear becomes more educated.

G

 

[gurus]

Quote:

 

Cool... from what I understand the outboard power supplies can be added to an order for the other units if you want to go that way.  
 

Thanks. That's the only way to go. I am a strong believer in good clean power for audio equipment and more so in DAC's. Power supply is one of the key components that gets overlooked more often than not and that is a bad compromise.

 

[bobeau]

Wow, just arrived, about a month early.  No shipping notice or anything so this took me by surprise - others have mentioned getting notices.  One guy ordered in early July and hasn't gotten his yet.  I ordered August 19th, so they're not keeping their queue well aligned.  
 
Won't be able to try it out till Monday.