[Jimthecoffeeguy]

NP guys. This all sounds like the same landscape circa 2008-2017. Just be careful experimenting with cables, power and accessories to call out the BS....because I was exactly that guy once.

I've already had people dismiss my Stealth/susvara + Chord claims in public, blocked me, only to buy a conditioner down the line and start having praising posts that sounds like me. So....I'm happy to educate.

I love to learn especially if it can make stuff sound better
Please tell me your hypothesis, give me your testing and recorded data including links along with your conclusion.
Genuinely interested if you can back your claims up.

 

[801evan]

You can back read all my posts activities and it'll give you a clue to fundamental chain building.

And here's some wisdom over the years:
1. After many demo and tests, manufacturer claims and published specs are more true than what measurebator reviewers posts. While published specs is not consistent to what reviewer post on their measuring device, the audible performance and 'you get what you pay for' ethos applies more often than not.

2. My short sentiments of ASR is, his HP analysis is super accurate in my book to my surprise. I'm more surprised he can hear the performance of the Stealth and have the same praise as I do as we have completely opposite approach to a setup. The rest of his measurements, I find incongruence with real world listening.

3. Most YT reviewers have a poor understanding of punch/slam on the bass. It shouldn't slap the ear. If that's your thing, cool, but it's not a barometer of good performance. Quite the opposite. To ask for a certain bass quantity on TOTL HP is a very contradicting thing.

4. It's cool to give a negative review to come off as honest. But I become annoying to these people because I simply say they are blaming the wrong things. Most of my post the past couple months is counterbalancing the narrative of influencers. For example, Stealth and Susvara isn't hard to drive (compared to what ppl think but spec wise they are the harder ones, yes). And I've explained it's a chain issue, not the HP's seemingly lack of promised performance. I concur what they hear is underwhelming but it's not the HP or the amplifier to blame. It comes down to a good transport (annoyingly), good digital chain and everything having good power. This provides a lower noise floor to hear faithful bass with accurate tonal density. This also explain why people aren't having the same headphone experience even with the same HP dac amp combo. Also: the lower the distortion and the smoother the HP, the trickier it is to build a chain. The quick way out IS to get a beefy amp that gives a lot of color and harmonic distortion but my advice is to not ruin all the hard work and money of trying to create a transparent chain only to color it in the end. Its fine if you do and it will comparatively sound better but....not transparent.

5. DACs sound different mostly due to the supplied psu than the chosen dac chip architecture.

 

[Jimthecoffeeguy]

You can back read all my posts activities and it'll give you a clue to fundamental chain building.

And here's some wisdom over the years:
1. After many demo and tests, manufacturer claims and published specs are more true than what measurebator reviewers posts. While published specs is not consistent to what reviewer post on their measuring device, the audible performance and 'you get what you pay for' ethos applies more often than not.

Not here for wisdom. I'm here for facts and reproducible data.

2. My short sentiments of ASR is, his HP analysis is super accurate in my book to my surprise. I'm more surprised he can hear the performance of the Stealth and have the same praise as I do as we have completely opposite approach to a setup. The rest of his measurements, I find incongruence with real world listening.

Asr is good, but not everything. He presents Info data and facts that are reproducible.
However measurments are only one part to consider in this hobby.

3. Most YT reviewers have a poor understanding of punch/slam on the bass. It shouldn't slap the ear. If that's your thing, cool, but it's not a barometer of good performance. Quite the opposite. To ask for a certain bass quantity on TOTL HP is a very contradicting thing.

I go to yt for subjective opinions. I get many on the same topic and then form a generalized opinion of my own that I can test and hopefully confirm.
I don't see how this point was relevent however.

4. It's cool to give a negative review to come off as honest. But I become annoying to these people because I simply say they are blaming the wrong things. Most of my post the past couple months is counterbalancing the narrative of influencers. For example, Stealth and Susvara isn't hard to drive (compared to what ppl think but spec wise they are the harder ones, yes). And I've explained it's a chain issue, not the HP's seemingly lack of promised performance. I concur what they hear is underwhelming but it's not the HP or the amplifier to blame. It comes down to a good transport (annoyingly), good digital chain and everything having good power. This provides a lower noise floor to hear faithful bass with accurate tonal density. This also explain why people aren't having the same headphone experience even with the same HP dac amp combo. Also: the lower the distortion and the smoother the HP, the trickier it is to build a chain. The quick way out IS to get a beefy amp that gives a lot of color and harmonic distortion but my advice is to not ruin all the hard work and money of trying to create a transparent chain only to color it in the end. Its fine if you do and it will comparatively sound better but....not transparent.

Lot of buzzwords in there but very little substance from My perspective sorry.

5. DACs sound different mostly due to the supplied psu than the chosen dac chip architecture.

I seriously doubt that, the primary reason is actually the electronic design of the entire dac, coupled with the dac chips "natural/default" sound. Won't go into detail but it's the architectural design and layout of the whole device INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO any power sections.


Sadly you didn't give any actual data. Just loose opinions.

I have not been educated, only mildly amused.

Since you failed to supply any of my requested information I am forced to dismiss the majority of your claims, sadly.

If you have and can verify any trade skills or qualifications in power supply design, electrical engineering or digital/analogue signal work I'd be happy to reconsider your ideas and withdraw my previous statements.


Otherwise, thankyou for the entertainment. It's been a highlight during a particularly bad work day.

 

[801evan]

Besides, showing such never changed anyone's mind

Like I said...

 

[Jimthecoffeeguy]

It could change mine. But You flat out refuse to provide any evidence to back up your claims.

Like I said...

On another note...



Sounds great on stealth, even better when paired with a power conditioner, graphine coated nano silver oxide turbo unicorn mane braided cables and a toslink converter.
Oh, and don't forget to disable all other electrical and mechanical devices within a 500 meter radius for optimum soundoligy performance.

Promise it's true. I tested it. I'd never lie, but I'll never tell you the results coz you wouldn't believe it.

 

[ThanatosVI]

To ask for a certain bass quantity on TOTL HP is a very contradicting thing.

And why would that be?

Sound preference and Bass quantity are very subjective things. There is no "factual right" amount.

So why would asking for a certain Bass quantity in a ToTL headphone be contradicting?

Would that be limited to Bass or would asking for a certain treble quantity be contradicting as well?

 

[Jimthecoffeeguy]

And why would that be?

Sound preference and Bass quantity are very subjective things. There is no "factual right" amount.

So why would asking for a certain Bass quantity in a ToTL headphone be contradicting?

Would that be limited to Bass or would asking for a certain treble quantity be contradicting as well?

 

[ThanatosVI]

Made my day!

 

[deuter]

After over 200 pages of Stealth discussion the bass aspect of the headphone is always a conversation piece.
We all agree the Bass is presented quite differently to what we consider normal.
Let’s move on and let it’s bass be.

 

[Jimthecoffeeguy]

After over 200 pages of Stealth discussion the bass aspect of the headphone is always a conversation piece.
We all agree the Bass is presented quite differently to what we consider normal.
Let’s move on and let it’s bass be.

I like stealth bass. I. Cranked "encoder" by pendulum recently and just melted into my chair. Granted it's more sub-bass mabey? But jesus lord almighty how low does stealth go? I'm amazed I can hear some of those frequency's. And my ears are pretty good for my age (somehow)
Limbo contest winner for sure!

 

[801evan]

Astrud Gilberto - Parade bass shocked me.
A older recording that doesn't sound vintage anymore on my chain like how it used to be. The marching band bass drum hit really low with this room rattling quality. Yet, it's not as low as electro drum kits, and has a presentation that's a bit distant but clear. While it doesn't have the expected quantity to shake the room, the presentation will give that perception that it would still shake the room if played on floorstanders because of the harmonics on the sustain and decay.

 

[caustic386]

You can back read all my posts activities and it'll give you a clue to fundamental chain building.


but it's not the HP or the amplifier to blame. It comes down to a good transport (annoyingly), good digital chain and everything having good power. This provides a lower noise floor to hear faithful bass with accurate tonal density. This also explain why people aren't having the same headphone experience even with the same HP dac amp combo. Also: the lower the distortion and the smoother the HP, the trickier it is to build a chain. The quick way out IS to get a beefy amp that gives a lot of color and harmonic distortion but my advice is to not ruin all the hard work and money of trying to create a transparent chain only to color it in the end. Its fine if you do and it will comparatively sound better but....not transparent.
.

So there are a few things about all this that I find confusing:

1. If your modem/router is coloring your sound in any way whatsoever, it's broken. You would feel this not just across your audio devices but all your devices in terms of increased latency, connecting stability, etc. This is not a debatable issue - if routers don't meet a variety of standardized criteria, they flat out won't work with the rest of your network able devices. How would they?

2. Power availability also doesn't seem to be a debatable issue. You have enough or you don't. There is some wiggle room around things like THD, IMD, filter speed, etc. depending on your age, listening habits, environment. I don't personally feel these things are audible but there's a small argument to be made. But power is not one of them - it's literally a binary choice.

Given we both have Stealth, I would encourage you to play back Max Richter's Cradle to the Grave on your lowest powered device, followed by next highest, and then higher and so on. For me that's the E1DA gen3, then iFi Diablo, then A90. The E1DA soft clips very early on - bass basically stops getting louder. If iFi hard clips because it's a garbage design, and the A90 plays clean shaking my whole face with no added EQ at all. If this isn't a power availability issue, what is it? How would a transport cause this effect?

Finally, what defines "good power" and "tonal density"? If we can't agree on some objective metric, there's no hope of unwrapping the situation accurately

 

[801evan]

So there are a few things about all this that I find confusing:

1. If your modem/router is coloring your sound in any way whatsoever, it's broken. You would feel this not just across your audio devices but all your devices in terms of increased latency, connecting stability, etc. This is not a debatable issue - if routers don't meet a variety of standardized criteria, they flat out won't work with the rest of your network able devices. How would they?

2. Power availability also doesn't seem to be a debatable issue. You have enough or you don't. There is some wiggle room around things like THD, IMD, filter speed, etc. depending on your age, listening habits, environment. I don't personally feel these things are audible but there's a small argument to be made. But power is not one of them - it's literally a binary choice.

Given we both have Stealth, I would encourage you to play back Max Richter's Cradle to the Grave on your lowest powered device, followed by next highest, and then higher and so on. For me that's the E1DA gen3, then iFi Diablo, then A90. The E1DA soft clips very early on - bass basically stops getting louder. If iFi hard clips because it's a garbage design, and the A90 plays clean shaking my whole face with no added EQ at all. If this isn't a power availability issue, what is it? How would a transport cause this effect?

Finally, what defines "good power" and "tonal density"? If we can't agree on some objective metric, there's no hope of unwrapping the situation accurately

I've already done cradle to grave. It doesn't clip on the susvara + stealth on all my DAC/amps played loud. This is due to less transients issues and low noise floor. This is where I say it has the sub-bass of Dolby Atmos. The rumble resides on a lower frequency than what would shake my face/ HP chassis/ pads. It's not about quantity like I've been saying but how it hits lower (extension) on something like this. If the bass frequency was a bit more elevated, it is the type that would vibrate the pads.

I'm not here to convince anyone with the other stuff. It's up to them to exploit the information I give them on their audio journey. In this hobby, only the skeptics lose out. But to be fair, on #1, its about the internal clock on the modem and giving it a more stable voltage will make the clock perform better.

 

[caustic386]

. But to be fair, on #1, its about the internal clock on the modem and giving it a more stable voltage will make the clock perform better.

Can you elaborate? What metric makes a clock better/worse and why doesn't it affect any other routed/switched traffic?

 

[801evan]

Can you elaborate? What metric makes a clock better/worse and why doesn't it affect any other routed/switched traffic?

Oh gosh. You have to Google that one as it'll do a better job and sound more qualified.

To add in cradle to grave. The sub-bass note is so low that if I'm not prepared, it'll spook me like an earthquake is about to happen in the room. We get earthquakes recently. So the subbass has a perception of being distant, yet it's not foggy or veiled. It still sounds pure and dense and slightly out of body because it feels like my ears isn't picking the bass and more like it's coming from the room about to experience an earthquake.