HeadFi just front-page-headlined a review of the Asgard 2, which featured a comparison with the O2, Magni, and Vali. It seems like a prime example of uncontrolled listening tests and the "it's newer/more expensive therefore it must be better" train of thought. Quite frankly, the review is...

The title of this thread is a quote by Professor Dale Purves that appeared in an NPR story.   This came up in another thread regarding "tube sound" as an off-topic aside where I shared this story that appeared on NPR regarding a blind study that was conducted comparing 2 Stradavarius, 1...

Logical fallacies examples: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com Don't be fooled by (and don't employ) these tactics in your debates! Now go forth and spread sanity using welk well reasoned logic in your arguments and discussions! Cheers

Electrical engineers. In theory, if they are employed, they would be reasonably well off enough to buy high-end kilobuck cables. Also, if there is anyone who is trained in understanding the requisite physical principals that govern the supposed electrical advantage of cables which cost a lot of...

There are free course materials from MIT available online here: MIT open courseware   For those of you who aren't aware, MIT is a private school in Massachusetts that is lucky to be decent academically because they aren't known for sports.   For example: a lecture video series on system...

Yes, you read the title correctly. I searched for a HD 280 appreciate thread about  4 years ago and I'm really sad that one still has never been created. I'm fixing that.   I have a pair of HD-280s. I've had them for about 5 years and have logged hundreds and hundreds of hours listening to...

Hi All,   I saw "pono" mentioned a few times in some other threads, and apparently I'm not "with it" enough to know what it was without searching the internet for it. For those who aren't in the know, here is wikipedia's description:   Pono High Definition digital music service, brainchild...

There are some bizarre questions and claims that surface from time to time in head-fi (sometimes right here in Sound Science), and among those topics are USB cables for audio and the supposed benefits of audiophile-grade cables or the use of USB 3.   I thought I might share the thoughts of an...

I got a real kick out of this post in that other side of the forums and i thought mist folks here would also appreciate it! http://www.head-fi.org/t/712596/6-ethernet-cables-compared#post_10414635 Cheers!

Hi all,   I stumbled across this recent paper in the IEEE Transactions on audio, speech, and language processing journal and thought I'd share it because it is a peer-reviewed scientific publication on audio processing techniques (this is the science section of an audio forum, isn't it?).   ...

I'm in the market for a powered sub to add to my powered monitors (and I started an advice thread in that other equipment subforum) and I've just started trying to work out what the important factors are when trying to update a 2.0 setup to a 2.1 setup.   The reason I started this thread to...

I recently received the Samson MediaONE 4a powered monitors as a gift. I have to say that I'm really happy with them, having not personally owned any speakers beyond a few old stereo shelf systems. Right now, I've got them set up in the same room as a Sony STR-K7100 5.1 system, and I think the...

Hi all,   I found this application note from Agilent discussing some of the issues involved with digitizing analog signals with bandwidth-limited instruments. Included in the discussion are the effects of timing errors (e.g., jitter *gasp*) on the interpretation of the digitized waveform.  ...

Hi all,   I was pondering several of the links that live at the top of the sound science forum. For one, the quote at the top is by some guy named Edward de Bono and I had no clue who that was until I looked him up. It seems to me that at worst, he is a controversial figure, and even at...

Hi all,   I was trying to help a fellow head-fier understand digital data transmission and what it meant in regards to their USB cable quality concerns. The original thread is here.   The issue came up that digital signals are really analog signals---to which I disagreed and provided an...

Okay, please excuse the title (but admit it, it did get your attention!). This thread is to discuss the digital audio mantra that "You should always always always leave software volume at 100%". Well suppose you have a powerful amp and sensitive cans, should you lose sleep over using a little...

Hi all, came across this article while procrastinating. My google-fu (or rather head-fi-fu) didn't turn up any obvious posts in the forums, so I thought I might share this link.   http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/aug97/hifitweaks.html   Abstract: "Carbon-fibre cables...

Holy smoke on the water, I just heard Vincent Price [clicky] and it sounds very very purple.   Roger's bass thumps river low and Gillian's still hitting those mountain highs. There's Airy keyboards while the drums keep the Paice and Steve shreds his fingers to the bone like a speed king. The...

Hi all, I was browsing about trying to understand why anybody needs $40k interconnects to hear Aretha Franklin's farts (http://www.amazon.com/review/R33X3TA6E7RIYT) when the scientific grade Ghz bandwidth bnc cables cost in the $10s. It seems to me the weak link should be in the connectors...