R2R RIP or Resurrection?

May 2, 2025 at 4:57 PM Post #91 of 220
So, you are doing double blind ABX tests to compare different equipment then? (Otherwise, you would not be trusting your ears but your subjective hearing perception influenced by many, many other things besides the actual sound entering your ears.)

In the early days I did and IME wasted a lot of time. However, I bought most of my gear used so that my expenditure in the hobby was far less than if I purchased the equipment new. I eventually found that I was spending more time listening for specific sounds than I was to the music itself, which detracted from my enjoyment of the hobby.
At that point I stopped chasing gear and began enjoying the music. 😊
 
May 2, 2025 at 5:14 PM Post #92 of 220
So, you are doing double blind ABX tests to compare different equipment then? (Otherwise, you would not be trusting your ears but your subjective hearing perception influenced by many, many other things besides the actual sound entering your ears.)
Let the gaslighting begin.
There is no difference, especially when you hear a massive difference.
Subjective hearing experiences only apply to the other side.

All DACs sound the same. If you hear differences you're not doing ABX tests, or not doing them properly etc etc etc.
 
May 2, 2025 at 5:17 PM Post #93 of 220
This thread seems to be missing a perspective that hopefully I can share. I own an inexpensive chip dac (Topping E50) and an “entry level” R2R (Holo Audio Cyan 2). Both are fantastic, both allow me to get lost in the music. Neither is as impactful as a change in SS/Tube amp or EQ. Why did I buy the Holo? I respect the engineering and it scratches an itch - I like to tinker. It is fun for me to play with HQPlayer setting with my various filters and hardware. I find this fun, just like I enjoy listening to music. I like to see how much easier it is for HQPlayer to run my settings with an overclock. The Holo allows me to tinker more and thus I enjoy it a bi
 
May 2, 2025 at 5:47 PM Post #94 of 220
This thread seems to be missing a perspective that hopefully I can share. I own an inexpensive chip dac (Topping E50) and an “entry level” R2R (Holo Audio Cyan 2). Both are fantastic, both allow me to get lost in the music. Neither is as impactful as a change in SS/Tube amp or EQ. Why did I buy the Holo? I respect the engineering and it scratches an itch - I like to tinker. It is fun for me to play with HQPlayer setting with my various filters and hardware. I find this fun, just like I enjoy listening to music. I like to see how much easier it is for HQPlayer to run my settings with an overclock. The Holo allows me to tinker more and thus I enjoy it a bi
The point is that you're having fun! 👍
 
May 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM Post #95 of 220
The average person untrained in music cannot reliably distinguish one chord from another—let alone subtle nuances in sound. This underscores why generalized studies on human hearing thresholds are irrelevant when assessing the capabilities of trained musicians or seasoned audiophiles.

Decades of deliberate listening and technical practice hone auditory perception to extraordinary levels. For professionals in music and sound, this expertise is not incidental—it is the result of rigorous, intentional development. To dismiss such cultivated skill is akin to disregarding the mastery of a concert pianist or the precision of a symphonic conductor.

Our field demands specialized acuity, forged through years of dedicated effort. Recognizing this distinction isn’t elitism—it’s acknowledging the reality of expertise.

As a trained Musician and an experienced Audiophile......I trust my ears.

To qoute myself for the final time
"If you like graphs, get a chip DAC. (Cheaper the better, so you can feel arrogantly smart on audio science forums)
If you like music however, get a good quality R2R DAC."





Over n out.
 
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May 2, 2025 at 6:16 PM Post #96 of 220
Mr @Diet Kokaine

This is a genuine query, please hear me out.

You are very adamant that your normal listening experiences are a reliable indicator of “differences” in different equipment.

To have that position you must have very different audio perceptual experiences to me.

My perception of audio from one day to another, hour to hour or even moment to moment can vary significantly. That can be to the extent that I can literally go from enjoying music one moment and not the next simply by starting to focus on what I am hearing and what I am enjoying about it. The focus or maybe overthinking results in a change in my perception despite that not a single technical change had occurred.

I can very easily tell that my perception of audio isn’t a reliable indicator of changes or differences. That clearly is not the case for you and that makes me wonder why.

I listen with a number of IEM and headphones and with a variety of different DACs and amps and often listen all working day from my home office. The commonality is my perception and even preferences change frequently. It would be rare to enjoy the listening experience all day even with no change in equipment and even if I revisit the same music.

I can only assume that your perceptual experiences are very different to mine otherwise it would be self evident to you that your perception of audio based on normal listening experiences isn’t reliable.

Can you shed light on what your listening habits and experiences are such that you have no reason to even consider questioning your perception and whether what you believe you hear is in fact real and due only to equipment.
 
May 2, 2025 at 7:56 PM Post #97 of 220
Subjective hearing experiences only apply to the other side.
Who said such a thing? Why do you keep repeating that nonsense?
Every human being is susceptible to countless biasses. Every human beings perception is a construction of their brains, influenced by many things.
I can make myself hear for example smoother sound if I make myself believe it, easy enough.
 
May 2, 2025 at 8:04 PM Post #98 of 220
Who said such a thing? Why do you keep repeating that nonsense?
Every human being is susceptible to countless biasses. Every human beings perception is a construction of their brains, influenced by many things.
I can make myself hear for example smoother sound if I make myself believe it, easy enough.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: This forum’s echo chamber is palpable. Many here cling to biases so blatant they’d be laughable if they weren’t so corrosive. Is it any wonder this community is relegated to the fringes of the site? Self-awareness isn’t a strong suit here—

If this corner of the internet is your kingdom, so be it. But let’s not pretend it’s anything more than a refuge for those who’d rather preach to the choir than engage with reality.

"Every human being is susceptible to countless biasses".
Especially you.

So you should stop telling other people what they are or aren't hearing.
 
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May 2, 2025 at 8:39 PM Post #100 of 220
The average person untrained in music cannot reliably distinguish one chord from another—let alone subtle nuances in sound. This underscores why generalized studies on human hearing thresholds are irrelevant when assessing the capabilities of trained musicians or seasoned audiophiles.

Decades of deliberate listening and technical practice hone auditory perception to extraordinary levels. For professionals in music and sound, this expertise is not incidental—it is the result of rigorous, intentional development. To dismiss such cultivated skill is akin to disregarding the mastery of a concert pianist or the precision of a symphonic conductor.

Our field demands specialized acuity, forged through years of dedicated effort. Recognizing this distinction isn’t elitism—it’s acknowledging the reality of expertise.

As a trained Musician and an experienced Audiophile......I trust my ears.

To qoute myself for the final time
"If you like graphs, get a chip DAC. (Cheaper the better, so you can feel arrogantly smart on audio science forums)
If you like music however, get a good quality R2R DAC."





Over n out.
For the record, I prefer my R2R dac but have little interest in proving why. It is like having someone prove why the like a different wine or spent money on a more expensive watch - worthless.
Mr @Diet Kokaine

This is a genuine query, please hear me out.

You are very adamant that your normal listening experiences are a reliable indicator of “differences” in different equipment.

To have that position you must have very different audio perceptual experiences to me.

My perception of audio from one day to another, hour to hour or even moment to moment can vary significantly. That can be to the extent that I can literally go from enjoying music one moment and not the next simply by starting to focus on what I am hearing and what I am enjoying about it. The focus or maybe overthinking results in a change in my perception despite that not a single technical change had occurred.

I can very easily tell that my perception of audio isn’t a reliable indicator of changes or differences. That clearly is not the case for you and that makes me wonder why.

I listen with a number of IEM and headphones and with a variety of different DACs and amps and often listen all working day from my home office. The commonality is my perception and even preferences change frequently. It would be rare to enjoy the listening experience all day even with no change in equipment and even if I revisit the same music.

I can only assume that your perceptual experiences are very different to mine otherwise it would be self evident to you that your perception of audio based on normal listening experiences isn’t reliable.

Can you shed light on what your listening habits and experiences are such that you have no reason to even consider questioning your perception and whether what you believe you hear is in fact real and due only to equipment.
This comment resonates with me. My preferences change from day to day, as does my desire to listen to music. I engage in this hobby when I feel like spending the time and allow my mood and preferences to guide the way. I have had times when I thought I wanted to listen to music and it just fell flat despite nothing changing with the gear. Also, there are times when it is not about music at all, but tweaking with gear - replaying the same 30s clip with a few variations of software/hardware (changing HQP filters trying to tease out differnences) That is engaging too. I am an active member of HeadFi/ASR/SBAF and find value in each of the communities, but I am a quant nerd and love measurements!
 
May 2, 2025 at 9:37 PM Post #101 of 220
For the record, I prefer my R2R dac but have little interest in proving why. It is like having someone prove why the like a different wine or spent money on a more expensive watch - worthless.

This comment resonates with me. My preferences change from day to day, as does my desire to listen to music. I engage in this hobby when I feel like spending the time and allow my mood and preferences to guide the way. I have had times when I thought I wanted to listen to music and it just fell flat despite nothing changing with the gear. Also, there are times when it is not about music at all, but tweaking with gear - replaying the same 30s clip with a few variations of software/hardware (changing HQP filters trying to tease out differnences) That is engaging too. I am an active member of HeadFi/ASR/SBAF and find value in each of the communities, but I am a quant nerd and love measurements!

The watch analogy falls short in one critical way: If we define a watch *strictly* by its ability to tell time, a $10 Casio and a $10,000 Rolex perform the same core function. The price difference here *is* largely about craftsmanship, heritage, or status—not functional superiority.

But this isn’t true for all analogies. Take wine or audio gear: While a $2 bottle and a $1,000 vintage both "function" as alcohol, their qualitative differences—complexity, aging, terroir—are measurable and perceptible to a trained palate. Similarly, a premium DAC isn’t just a "luxury badge"; its engineering impacts signal accuracy, distortion, and temporal precision in ways that trained or even untrained listeners can discern.

To conflate these examples is overly simplistic. Watches are outliers where price often decouples from functional performance. In other fields—like wine, audio, or even optics—expertise reveals gradients of quality that casual users might overlook. Dismissing nuance as mere "luxury" ignores the reality of mastery in any discipline.
 
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May 2, 2025 at 10:09 PM Post #102 of 220
That is all very lovely but in many other disciplines, take wine for example, the act of self or group assessment of skills is commonplace which cannot be said in audio.

Wine tastings are a good example since that analogy has already been made. People are judged on their ability to discern regions or vintages to test and/or prove skills. When did anyone ever hear of Mr Kokaine or anybody else demonstrating their skills rather than just telling everyone else how skilled and discerning they are via the internet ?

Never, we only have their word for their skills despite that psychology offers a very viable alternate explanation.

That seems to me analogous to doing a wine tasting comparison and never knowing if you chose the right vintage, you just assumed you did because your perception was very convincing and thats good enough, never having proven any level of discernment at all, only self proclaimed skills.
 
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May 3, 2025 at 3:14 AM Post #103 of 220
Let’s address the elephant in the room: This forum’s echo chamber is palpable.
It certainly can look that way since this is a sound science forum and more or less rely on facts established by science. There are off course more controversial topics and I disagree with other people here every now and then.

Many here cling to biases so blatant they’d be laughable if they weren’t so corrosive.
Your opinions aren't biased? It is so easy to call the opinions of others biased as if that made those opinions worthless. Mathematicians say 2+2=4. They are biased, but also right while a person who says 2+2=3 is also biased but wrong.

How are our opinions corrosive? What harm do we do to the society? We are not stopping you to enjoy your expensive R2R DAC. We are only saying a $9 Apple dongle has better specs. How is that corrosive?

Is it any wonder this community is relegated to the fringes of the site? Self-awareness isn’t a strong suit here—
There are money related reasons for that. This site needs ad money and science is an enemy of snake oil marketing. Even you attack us here in the fringes of the site calling our biases corrosive as if we were some kind of terrorists. Why?

If this corner of the internet is your kingdom, so be it. But let’s not pretend it’s anything more than a refuge for those who’d rather preach to the choir than engage with reality.
I think science is the best way to engage with reality. I think science tells most about how the reality works. Without science you would not have your R2R DAC. You are being extremely disrespectful toward science-minded people. We are not stopping you to enjoy your R2R DAC so what is your problem?

"Every human being is susceptible to countless biasses".
Especially you.
Can you prove your claim or do you have countless of biases?

So you should stop telling other people what they are or aren't hearing.
We are not telling what people are hearing. We are saying what people are hearing is a complex subjective thing affected by placebo, expectation bias, etc. You not being willing to learn/understand how our auditory system works doesn't make us wrong. It makes you stubborn and ignorant.
 
May 3, 2025 at 5:05 AM Post #104 of 220
Let the gaslighting begin.
Why do you have to begin the gaslighting again, it’s just trolling!
There is no difference, especially when you hear a massive difference.
The first part of that sentence is a lie that you just endlessly repeat and the second part; if you hear “a massive difference” then it should be trivially easy to demonstrate that fact in a controlled listening test and if you can’t, that too is a lie.
Subjective hearing experiences only apply to the other side.
Correct and when you work out what “the other side” is, then you won’t make such a fool of yourself. Here’s a hint: The “other side” (as any rational adult should be able to work out) is us, human beings. It is not DACs, amps, cables and other audio components, which cannot have any “subjective hearing experiences”, hence why “subjective hearing experiences” are not included in measurements of these components!
So you should stop telling other people what they are or aren't hearing.
Science discovered what sound is hundreds of years ago and that sound is what people are hearing, it also discovered the thresholds of human hearing a century and more ago and therefore what people cannot hear. So according to you, we should “stop telling other people” what science has proved in a science discussion forum. What do you think would be acceptable to tell other people in a science discussion forum, if not the proven science? Do you have any shred of sanity?
But let’s not pretend it’s anything more than a refuge for those who’d rather preach to the choir than engage with reality.
Sure, science doesn’t engage with reality, which is obviously why digital audio and DACs don’t exist in reality. Thanks for your expertise!
The average person untrained in music cannot reliably distinguish one chord from another—let alone subtle nuances in sound.
Sure, the average untrained person cannot distinguish one chord from another; so all chords must sound the same to them, they cannot perceive chord progressions and harmony is something only trained musicians can perceive. How much ridiculous nonsense can one person think up?
This underscores why generalized studies on human hearing thresholds are irrelevant when assessing the capabilities of trained musicians or seasoned audiophiles.
So, either you’re asserting that of the millions of people who’ve had their hearing tested over the last 140 years or so, not one of them was a trained musician or an audiophile (and therefore the ascertained human hearing thresholds do not include these people) or you’re asserting that trained musicians and audiophiles are not human (and therefore are not subject to human hearing thresholds)? Which is it?
Decades of deliberate listening and technical practice hone auditory perception to extraordinary levels. For professionals in music and sound, this expertise is not incidental—it is the result of rigorous, intentional development. To dismiss such cultivated skill is akin to disregarding the mastery of a concert pianist or the precision of a symphonic conductor.
And again, you just cannot grasp even the most fundamental basics! Professional musicians and and sound engineers spend years “honing their auditory perception”, their listening skills, in classes unsurprisingly called “Listening Skills” but they spend absolutely no time at all honing their hearing thresholds because hearing thresholds cannot be honed. You really don’t even understand the difference between listening skills and hearing thresholds?
Our field demands specialized acuity, forged through years of dedicated effort. Recognizing this distinction isn’t elitism—it’s acknowledging the reality of expertise. … As a trained Musician and an experienced Audiophile......I trust my ears.
What do you mean “our fields”, what is your field? You’re obviously NOT a trained musician because a trained musician should know the difference between listening skills and hearing thresholds and they would definitely know that “the average person untrained in music” can distinguish differences between chords! Why does music contain chord progressions/harmony if the average untrained person couldn’t perceive it, is harmonic music only written/composed for other trained professional musicians to listen to? How would even a beginner musician not know this, let alone a trained/professional musician? You’re lying, you’re not a trained/professional musician, just another amongst all your other lies!

You state “it’s acknowledging the reality of expertise” but demonstrate the exact opposite, you cannot even recognise, let alone acknowledge expertise! You dismiss and are ignorant of the expertise of both science and engineering, you can’t even answer the most basic questions (such as what DAC stands for or what it does), you clearly don’t know what expertise as a trained musician means and you have no idea of the expertise of those you’re arguing with.

Why all the lies, you’re not a trained/professional musician, you’re arguing with those who are (in fact very highly formally trained) and can therefore spot a bullsh*tter! Is it even possible to be so deluded that you’ll make-up so much BS and so many lies regardless of how obvious? Maybe it’s not just extreme delusion and trolling, maybe you’re continuing to waste your time making-up BS and lies, despite being called out at every turn, because you’re being paid to and the “our field” to which you referred is being a shill? That’s the only thing that would make any rational sense at this point!

G
 
May 3, 2025 at 6:04 AM Post #105 of 220
As a trained Musician and an experienced Audiophile......I trust my ears.
You clearly don’t trust your ears, you trust your faulty perception.

To qoute myself for the final time
"If you like graphs, get a chip DAC. (Cheaper the better, so you can feel arrogantly smart on audio science forums)
If you like music however, get a good quality R2R DAC."
I still have no clue what this is supposed to mean.

Many here cling to biases so blatant they’d be laughable if they weren’t so corrosive.
Stop being such a hypocrite.

Is it any wonder this community is relegated to the fringes of the site?
It’s because audiophiles refuse to accept science and instead embrace snake oil and BS marketing.

If this corner of the internet is your kingdom, so be it. But let’s not pretend it’s anything more than a refuge for those who’d rather preach to the choir than engage with reality.
It’s the other way round. The rest of Head-Fi is truly a cult because they refuse to accept the proven facts and instead believe that their perception is 100% reality, no matter what. They’re the ones preaching to the choir, we’re engaging with reality.

"Every human being is susceptible to countless biasses".
Especially you.
Uh huh.

So you should stop telling other people what they are or aren't hearing.
We can’t tell you what you can hear but we can definitely tell you what you can’t hear.

The straw man is slowly but surely turning to dust.
 
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