I find the whole cult of Amir on ASR tiresome and slightly suspect. Measurements are interesting but can’t tell you how something sounds.
The whole forum gleefully slags off western companies like ifi and schiit whilst wilfully ignoring the poor service and support of some of the main chi-if companies.
Both the Zen Dac and Can are excellent products. And I prefer the looks over boring black boxes with crappy displays and UI re: smsl et al.
Apologize for creating the conditions for exhausting you. The cult will make a more concerted effort to not tire you out with alternative sources of data while it is dutifully fulfilling its edict. Notably, members of the cult are typically ranked on how often they can get people to troll and say things like “measurements are interesting but can’t tell you how somethings sounds.” (it’s a source of pride.. ) Also notably, I went up three cult ranks of thanks to you. Just passed @boblovesdatamorethanyou. We get mega bonus points if we can get someone to chirp in and say something ridiculously cliché that indicates extreme intellectual prowess like “describing how something sounds with words is like describing how something tastes - I can tell you, but you won’t know until you experience it.”
You could do me a favour and throw that one in there next time.
Also, technically, measurements tell you
exactly how it sounds.. (sigh.. those details…)
They don’t tell you whether you like it or not. For some, this data can be used to inform meaningful decisions on purchases, as they know what their tastes are and can align their preferences with the measurements. These people understand these correlations and use them in an informative, but NOT definitive way. Correlation after all, does != causation. (Where causation is presumed to be directed by measurement…)
I know right??? WHO DOES THAT? I mean….get multiple sources of data... compare value propositions/risks... Just go buy gear in the middle of a pandemic! Stop whining about how you can’t listen to it and test it out… and what’s wrong with all these people wanting data and measurement?? Just get past all that and make a decision based on OTHER single reviewer biases and preferences - especially the ones who declare other reviewers as being "suspect" without contributing anything substantial. What do you mean you don’t have money just sitting around and time to test? You aren’t a professional reviewer? And what’s with all this testing equipment…
Just keep returning it until you find something that works… OR read all the reviews by people who WANT their gear to be the best and just shut up and take their opinion as gospel…
Clearly Amir exists to frustrate people such as yourself…the cult is evidently is evil....
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Sorry,.. you must have fell asleep through that. TL;DR - its data - LIKE EVERY OTHER REVIEW. It isn't out to get you, and can't change your mind any more than you let it.