[theveterans]

The Headamp GS-X Mini looks promising, it's also bigger than my A90 Discreet.

I really liked how the gsx-mini sounded with the Aeon 2 Noire and Aeon 2 Open BTW. Haven't tried that with Stealth though

 

[Currawong]

So I'll trust you over everyone else because you're REALLY convinced you're right and order a GS-X Mini to compare against my A90 Discreet using my DCA Stealth.
Maybe everyone else is wrong?

I'd see if you can borrow one first, given the cost, especially since the resolution of your DAC may be a limiting factor in getting any significant improvement. However, (and I mean this as an observation, not an attack) I think that you're so attached to your biases that, no matter how much better any other amp or DAC actually is you will hear whatever it is you believe you will when you try anything more expensive, so I'd just stick to your Topping devices and be done with it.

There's much I could also address in your post, but as every time Topping and SMSL release products, the number of zeros on their THD numbers seem to fluctuate from day-to-day (not kidding here, they pad the zeros, after which APOS and HiFiGo have to change the images to remove the blatant errors), the measurements we see don't show the analyser settings most of the time, and it's trivially easy to tweak settings to make things look better or worse, the dishonesty is not where you think it is.

 

[PointyFox]

I'd see if you can borrow one first, given the cost, especially since the resolution of your DAC may be a limiting factor in getting any significant improvement. However, (and I mean this as an observation, not an attack) I think that you're so attached to your biases that, no matter how much better any other amp or DAC actually is you will hear whatever it is you believe you will when you try anything more expensive, so I'd just stick to your Topping devices and be done with it.

There's much I could also address in your post, but as every time Topping and SMSL release products, the number of zeros on their THD numbers seem to fluctuate from day-to-day (not kidding here, they pad the zeros, after which APOS and HiFiGo have to change the images to remove the blatant errors), the measurements we see don't show the analyser settings most of the time, and it's trivially easy to tweak settings to make things look better or worse, the dishonesty is not where you think it is.

It's not that I'm biased, it's that I have experience that matches what pretty much everyone not on Head-fi has also experienced. I've even performed *banned sciency thing* with others to confirm. My willingness to be wrong should be apparent by how much I've spent and how many DACs and amps I've owned. I WANT to be wrong. I wish there was a DAC, amp, or even headphone cable or magic rock that could improve sound in some way.

 

[801evan]

It's not that I'm biased, it's that I have experience that matches what pretty much everyone not on Head-fi has also experienced. I've even performed *banned sciency thing* with others to confirm. My willingness to be wrong should be apparent by how much I've spent and how many DACs and amps I've owned. I don't even want to be right. I do wish there was a DAC, amp, or even headphone cable or magic rock that could improve sound in some way.

Well....first step is to get out of using a PC as a transport. It's the #1 reason most ppl don't hear a difference when changing other stuff down the chain.

 

[PointyFox]

Well....first step is to get out of using a PC as a transport. It's the #1 reason most ppl don't hear a difference when changing other stuff down the chain.

And why is that? I'm an engineer and need to understand things or at least determine that they're plausible before I'll put some faith in it.

 

[801evan]

And why is that?

Transport is always king. Yet no one invests in one.

 

[PointyFox]

Transport is always king. Yet no one invests in one.

""

Ok, that makes perfect sense.

 

[theveterans]

Well....first step is to get out of using a PC as a transport. It's the #1 reason most ppl don't hear a difference when changing other stuff down the chain.

For different folks, zeros and ones are transferred perfectly from whatever source to DAC as shown by their J-test and as such all streamers that have OXCO reclocker or have overengineered power supplies are you already know the term of course. I've experienced just getting rid of PC directly from the chain to elevate a NOS DAC's sonics pretty noticeably even if the Jitter test shows spikes way down low to -120 dBFS on an analyzer when A/Bed a streamer vs a laptop direct

 

[801evan]

For different folks, zeros and ones are transferred perfectly from whatever source to DAC as shown by their J-test and as such all streamers that have OXCO reclocker or have overengineered power supplies are you already know the term of course. I've experienced just getting rid of PC directly from the chain to elevate a NOS DAC's sonics pretty noticeably even if the Jitter test shows spikes way down low to -120 dBFS on an analyzer when A/Bed a streamer vs a laptop direct

Most measurements by YT personalities exists just to shoot down competitors when such metrics has ZERO correlation to SQ.

 

[Arniesb]

Most measurements by YT personalities exists just to shoot down competitors when such metrics has ZERO correlation to SQ.

"ZERO correlation to SQ"
Yet most manufacuturers that are advanced are focusing on numbers.
Can you read thread of this topic? These headphones have best thd ever by the way! Why they bother with metamaterial to improve linearity and distortion?
Every amp, dac or headphone that are higher class have better measurements lol.

 

[801evan]

Can you read thread of this topic?

Can you read what I said? Measurements by YT personalities...

 

[DarginMahkum]

There was a discussion about SD cards. Some HeadFier found an industrial level SD card that has ECC and claimed that this improves the sound because it fixes the errors in the audio files that occur during reading. Many people bought that much more expensive card and "confirmed" that it sounds better. They claimed even the internal storage was producing error and because it is without ECC, there are errors and it sounds worse.

I explained to these people that is an impossibility, as there is an whole level of operating system (file system, drivers, user level) and application layer that is on top of the storage devices, plus the media files are packed, and if the internal storage is making bit errors while reading, the operating system would not start, as it is also stored there.

But no. I received a whole a lot of yelling that I don't understand anything, whereas anyone that has done a slight bit of HW and SW development would know that what they are claiming is garbage.

I would be careful about taking any hyped discussion seriously here on HeadFi.

Oh, and any multi thousand dollar DAC that is susceptible to any form of USB / optical input issues (assuming that they are possible) is also a piece of garbage that doesn't deserve its asking price.

 

[801evan]

Well... SD cards all do sound different but ECC is not part of the solution in my tests. Rather a minimum of 110mbps helps and formating and cluster size is the factor that changes SQ. ECC will possibly worsen the sound actually due to extra processing but maybe that card in particular does have some SQ benefits.

 

[PointyFox]

Well... SD cards all do sound different but ECC is not part of the solution in my tests. Rather a minimum of 110mbps helps and formating and cluster size is the factor that changes SQ. ECC will possibly worsen the sound actually due to extra processing but maybe that card in particular does have some SQ benefits.

Was it just you listening?

Why not digitally capture the outputs and compare them?

Also on what basis are you claiming formatting and cluster size affect SQ?

Wait...how did you get so far off topic? No one even brought this up.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Oh, and any multi thousand dollar DAC that is susceptible to any form of USB / optical input issues (assuming that they are possible) is also a piece of garbage that doesn't deserve its asking price.

Gotta fix that!