[Rensek]

Interesting, but predictable, that even after the guy who builds the Schiit says that if there are audible differences, they are very minor yet people still insist they can hear big differences. Humans.

Nah it's just that people weigh things differently.

If you have an old pickup it might burn a half quart of oil every time you fill it up. To me that doesn't seem like that much.

If my 2016 traverse burns a half qt of oil every 6 thousand miles I would wonder what the hell is going on.
Probably better analogies but it's all I got. Also different styles of music are affected differently. I can say that to me, a hair metal song from the 80s doesn't sound that different from Dac to Dac. You put some well recorded classical on the same dacs and you're opinion is likely to change, if you appreciate and listen to classical. If you hate classical you're not going to be able to hear much difference.

Also consider this. Jason classically undersells everything. He lets us hype the stuff. Imagine if he overhyped yggy and then has to say later it got beat in a blind test by modi 3.

 

[Zojokkeli]

I've starting drinking coffee since joining this thread. (Wife won't agree to a cat.)

How about a cat-sized dog then?
(Our dog trying to befriend my girlfriend’s family’s cat.)

 

[tincanear]

Interesting, but predictable, that even after the guy who builds the Schiit says that if there are audible differences, they are very minor yet people still insist they can hear big differences. Humans.

The pricing roughly doubles or triples between tiers, so of course there is an EXPECTATION of BIG DIFFERENCES in AUDIBLE performance based on price.

Note that in Schiit's case, moving up the tiers gets you bigger and better internals (e.g. Bill of Materials cost) commensurate with the price jump.

However, in audio, the laws of diminishing returns applies (e.g. it takes a 10x improvement in Signal-to-Noise (S/N) to make the distortions sound half as loud as before).

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Each time I go from one amp to another my brain tells me "hey this amp is really good!". Then after the 4-5 days, I change and a new amp is used, and I again hear my brain telling me the same thing. "hey this amp is really good!"...

I kind of do the same, with headphones. I don't rotate them as often as you do and neither do I own as many headphones as you own (tube) amps, but I still switch between headphones that I own regularly, and have the same reactions as you do... "Hey, this headphone is really great!"... to eventually... "This headphone sounds so boring, doesnt' do this or that well at all, let me put on the other pair, they're so much better!"... And back again.

 

[darkarn]

Everything is relative but you have a better chance of the same model of headphones being more alike than when you compare them to other brands. Now if you take that same set of headphones and plug them into five different headphone amps you best know output impedance. Some OTL amps require 250 ohm impedance or higher, try to use 13 ohm Dan Clark Audio (Mrspeakers) and you will be disappointed.

Which is why, when we do blind listening with headphones, we stick with a single headphone, and match the output of the amp under test with the headphone load attached, with an Avermetrics analyzer. This way, it is truly level-matched, barring any differences caused by headphone impedance variation interacting with amp output impedance over the frequency response range.

Thank you guys, it's clearer now

 

[Ifalna]

That was a very fun read!

I definitely recognize some of the arguments of both sides. Your approach seems like a lot of fun, I envy the folks that get the chance to take part in it.
Keep the results coming, it's always fun to assess hypothesis, no matter if they are proven correct or not.

Arglebargle X2000!

I expect a TOTL product to be released with that name now.

 

[FLTWS]

Well, if @FLTWS doesn't answer, I'd absolutely love your opinion as well . If you had for instance a Tidal/Spotify/Qobuz playlist, that would be much appreciated!

I sent you a PM.
I'm CD only. As for what's available to download or stream, I had a hard time finding availability of my wants. I guess that's why I never bothered with downloads streaming, etc., and at my age and with over 2,500 CD's (probably closer to 3,000 presently) I'm not really interested in alternate formats, especially as I've never been wow'd with Hi-Res or other special recording types. You might have better success than I tracking what's available down. But I can send you some info with specific suggestions I put together for @Palladin79.

 

[Paladin79]

I sent you a PM.
I'm CD only. As for what's available to download or stream, I had a hard time finding availability of my wants. I guess that's why I never bothered with downloads streaming, etc., and at my age and with over 2,500 CD's (probably closer to 3,000 presently) I'm not really interested in alternate formats, especially as I've never been wow'd with Hi-Res or other special recording types. You might have better success than I tracking what's available down. But I can send you some info with specific suggestions I put together for @Palladin79.

Now if you want to go to the other end of the musical spectrum, perhaps @bcowen can make some suggestions. I am not so sure his choices fall into any specific genre but if I had to classify them I would say they are "bizarre", "even more bizarre", and "are you sure this is even music?"

 

[Ripper2860]

If 'Crap' were a genre, @bcowen 's music preferences would certainly fall into the category!

 

[FLTWS]

LOL at both you guys!

 

[yonson]

If 'Crap' were a genre, @bcowen 's music preferences would certainly fall into the group!

I probably fall into this group as well... But I can find enjoyment in pretty much any music.

 

[KoshNaranek]

Given the group of highly intelligent and diverse personalities in this forum, I would be surprised if the musical tastes were anything BUT eclectic. (That said @bcowen is clearly more than 5 standard deviations from the mean)

 

[golfbravobravo]

If 'Crap' were a genre, @bcowen 's music preferences would certainly fall into the category!

It IS a genre, it's that well known combination of country music and rap.

 

[ev666il]

@bcowen 's profile says he likes rock, blues, and classical; how's any of that out of ordinary? Or what am I missing?

 

[Paladin79]

@bcowen 's profile says he likes rock, blues, and classical; how's any of that out of ordinary? Or what am I missing?

We are kidding, mostly.