[bigshot]

I'm sorry. I am really trying to read your posts and communicate with you, but you are flying all over the place and typing stream of consciousness spiels that are impossible to read. Maybe if you only posted one thought at a time and focused on that it would be easier. Can you do that?

 

[whitedragem]

well your 11000+ posts, of which I have now been a target of several, show me that simple is clearly the flavour of the day
 
as I said I am happy to bow out, but to make it clear, and escape what appears now to be intended,butthurt, I will cease replying to the op in a place you can read it, so save yourself the +1 and understand that I understand how to PM somebody..
 (which I won't actually be doing).
 
oh and my stream of consciousness on this is that I started to write (recently) on headfi to keep the site focused on what mattered, and to assist other forum goers.
 
not a problem,"Elvis has left the building".

 

[Xenophon]

Dacs/Amps are not created equal but arguably that has more to do with (sometimes sloppy) design than anything else.  I can easily detect differences between some SS amps, all other things being equal.  
 
With the notable exception of tube amps I prefer everything to be as neutral as possible up to the point where it hits my headphones but try getting there....you'd almost have to subtract the signal coming out of the amp (ideally from a couple of actual music pieces) from the signal going in, using the highest quality equipment available and take a look at the delta but I'm not even sure if that's possible and if it is I certainly haven't seen many examples.

 

[bigshot]

  well your 11000+ posts, of which I have now been a target of several, show me that simple is clearly the flavour of the day

 
I'm sorry, but I don't remember you from Adam. I'm just responding to your points.

 

[ag8908]

  Sorry White, you're expecting more patience from your readers than most people are interested in giving. Slow down and organize your thoughts. The listener is more important than the speaker.

I think white might be from a foreign country. I guess we should appreciate the fact that he took the trouble to learn our language; something I'm too arrogant to do with other languages, since I come from the best and most important country in the world, in world history really.

 

[bigshot]

"One point at a time" crosses all language barriers I think.

 

[ag8908]

deleted

 

[proton007]

  By the way, you guys turned out to be wrong about the importance of cables. Previously, I connected my Objective 2 amplifier to my computer's headphone jack using a $15 thick and fancy looking audiophile cable. I just got my cardas 18" cable (only $30) and the amp is now undoubtedly louder than it was with the old cable. I did experiments and there is absolutely no doubt. Not even close.
 
The cardas cable might not turn out to be an improvement over the HD800 cable, but it was clearly an improvement over the other cable. Very impressive.

 
How do you know the original cable wasn't faulty? Oh, right, you tried a new one and its better.

 

[ag8908]

deleted

 

[ag8908]

Sorry I made a mistake in testing the two cables. The Cardas cable isn't that much louder than the old cable, but it might be a tiny bit louder (actually now I can't tell). The earlier measurements were testing relative to two different headphones with different impedance. (Wishes I could delete posts).

 

[StanD]

 
It might have been. Ironically it cost $15, was advertised as audiophile quality (and looked it; it was very thick and impressive looking) and certainly didn't create any humming or static of any kind.
 
 
 

So one interconnect cable lost gain, it attenuated the signal? No other affect on the sound?

 

[ag8908]

  So one interconnect cable lost gain, it attenuated the signal? No other affect on the sound?

No actually I think it might have done nothing. I completely mismeasured earlier.
 
Glad I cancelled the order for Cardas cables.

 

[StanD]

 
No actually I think it might have done nothing. I completely mismeasured earlier.
 
Glad I cancelled the order for Cardas cables.

Good thing you figured thngs out, it was probably gnawing at you.

 

[wes008]

Haven't been able to read everything since my last post, but as I tried to catch up, I came up with a little phrasing:
 
A DAC is to music files as an amp is to headphones.  Each helps to better present something.  If we could plug our headphones straight into our music, that would be ideal, because the headphones would be the only part in that two-step chain that could muddy up the original music.  But alas, we have to convert our digital music (which a proper DAC helps with) and we have to power our headphones (which a good amp helps with).  
 
I apologize if someone said the exact same thing in the posts I missed.  And perhaps no one cares.  But I thought it was worth throwing out there. 

 

[ratinox]

I apologize if someone said the exact same thing in the posts I missed.  And perhaps no one cares.  But I thought it was worth throwing out there.

No, that's a fair description of what a DAC and an amplifier are, ideally, supposed to do.

The correlations you make don't make sense to me, though. DACs have nothing to do with files. All a digital to analog converter stage cares about is a steady stream of bits coming in and electrical signals going out. Well, that and power to operate. Where those bits originate and where the signals go aren't relevant to the DAC stage though they are of greatest import to the playback system as a whole.