[Vincent_Amsterdam]

And there she is first impression: desperately in need of burn-in time lets give it min 100 hrs for first critical listening session.

 

[project86]

Looks great in black!

 

[Lucus]

Again: Forget the "burn in time"; this is absolutely audiophyle b...t and has never been proven by any means.... On the contrary, let the first impressions dictate your evaluation

 

[FOUNDERZERO]

The black one looks awesome!

 

[Vincent_Amsterdam]

Again: Forget the "burn in time"; this is absolutely audiophyle b...t and has never been proven by any means.... On the contrary, let the first impressions dictate your evaluation

The first 8hrs of playing already had a great impact on the SQ, so no b…t here. Do trust your ears my friend.

 

[project86]

Which would you rather trust - your ears, or some random person on a forum who tells you to forget about what you (think you) hear?

 

[Lucus]

Your ears hear what you want to hear...Read a bit about psycho bias and you will understand quite well ! This has nothing to do with technics or internet, but with psychology and the human brain..and the feedbacks in HighEnd fora are a gold mine of psycho bias experience...
You want to hear it, so you hear it....

 

[Lucus]

...and I am the first one to fall into the trap, but I try to do that knowingly and in full awareness !

 

[rootsd]

But the opposite of your bias is not a bias as well? Instead of being forums messias better listen open minded and reflect what you hear.

 

[alekc]

And there she is first impression: desperately in need of burn-in time lets give it min 100 hrs for first critical listening session.

@Vincent_Amsterdam congrats mate! Looks like a hell of great fun

Do I read correctly dac display that you are upsampling from PCM to DSD1024?

 

[rootsd]

@project86 thx a lot for sharing and writing about your journey to dsdac 1.0. A lot of very helpful thoughts.

 

[project86]

Your ears hear what you want to hear...Read a bit about psycho bias and you will understand quite well ! This has nothing to do with technics or internet, but with psychology and the human brain..and the feedbacks in HighEnd fora are a gold mine of psycho bias experience...
You want to hear it, so you hear it....

If we follow this line of thinking, aren't we then simply describing the same result through a different mechanism?

Let's say my new favorite DAC doesn't actually sound objectively better than my old DAC... actually let's say it doesn't sound different at all, so no objective or subjective differences. But based on the higher price, fancier appearance, interesting design philosophy, brand prestige, etc it manages to trick my brain into thinking it sounds better.

Is not the end result still an increase in musical enjoyment by upgrading to the new DAC? Isn't it thus doing exactly what I hoped it would do - improving my listening experience? In which case, does the mechanism by which it accomplished the task even matter?

I don't actually subscribe to the theory that everything sounds the same and any differences we experience are "psycho bias". But I'm left wondering why it even matters, if we end up in the same place at the end.

@Vincent_Amsterdam congrats mate! Looks like a hell of great fun

Do I read correctly dac display that you are upsampling from PCM to DSD1024?

Yes, that's a key function of this DAC. You can choose DSD128, DSD256, DSD512, or DSD1024, regardless of what the original format and sample rate may have been.

@project86 thx a lot for sharing and writing about your journey to dsdac 1.0. A lot of very helpful thoughts.

You are welcome, glad it was helpful or at least enjoyable.

 

[ArthurPower]

I will not deny that psychology can play a big part when purchasing new audio gear. However, I am in a unique position of being a distributor and I often have two of the exact same pieces of gear side by side. One brand new out of the box and one that I sent out to several reviewers that has accumulated hundreds of hours of use. There is usually a discernible difference. Sometimes it's minor and sometimes it's quite dramatic.

Electrolytic capacitors in particular take time to break in and actually measure differently after they have been used for a period of time. Driver elements in headphones and speakers physically loosen up and become more efficient and their frequency response changes. The dielectric properties of various insulators can change with temperature and environment. All of these things can be measured.

Somethings cannot be measured; at least not with our current means of measuring sound. However, they still very much exist. We can measure the presence of frequencies, but not necessarily the audible qualities of those frequencies. Music is more than just frequency response. How closely or smoothly does the reproduced music mimic or sound like an analog sine wave even though the overall measured frequency response is still the same between two pieces of gear? What about phase inconsistencies that cause fatigue when listening? Phase can also affect frequency response because some frequencies tend to cancel each other out. Then there is ringing and oscillations caused by the design and topology of an amplifier. Also harmonics, which are mostly talked about with tube gear and class D amplifiers, but are part of music itself.

Only small changes in the measurement of components can have an effect on what we are hearing even though the changes we are hearing can be difficult to measure because of the complexity of music. However, we hear the small details and changes and it effects our perception of whether or not the music is enjoyable to listen to.

 

[Vincent_Amsterdam]

I will not deny that psychology can play a big part when purchasing new audio gear. However, I am in a unique position of being a distributor and I often have two of the exact same pieces of gear side by side. One brand new out of the box and one that I sent out to several reviewers that has accumulated hundreds of hours of use. There is usually a discernible difference. Sometimes it's minor and sometimes it's quite dramatic.

Electrolytic capacitors in particular take time to break in and actually measure differently after they have been used for a period of time. Driver elements in headphones and speakers physically loosen up and become more efficient and their frequency response changes. The dielectric properties of various insulators can change with temperature and environment. All of these things can be measured.

Somethings cannot be measured; at least not with our current means of measuring sound. However, they still very much exist. We can measure the presence of frequencies, but not necessarily the audible qualities of those frequencies. Music is more than just frequency response. How closely or smoothly does the reproduced music mimic or sound like an analog sine wave even though the overall measured frequency response is still the same between two pieces of gear? What about phase inconsistencies that cause fatigue when listening? Phase can also affect frequency response because some frequencies tend to cancel each other out. Then there is ringing and oscillations caused by the design and topology of an amplifier. Also harmonics, which are mostly talked about with tube gear and class D amplifiers, but are part of music itself.

Only small changes in the measurement of components can have an effect on what we are hearing even though the changes we are hearing can be difficult to measure because of the complexity of music. However, we hear the small details and changes and it effects our perception of whether or not the music is enjoyable to listen to.

https://alpha-audio.net/background/our-best-measuring-tool-our-own-ears/

 

[ArthurPower]

https://alpha-audio.net/background/our-best-measuring-tool-our-own-ears/

Thanks for the link. That was an insightful (or should I say earful) read.