[US Blues]

Never mind, I was doing other things and misread a statement.

I had an issue with a phono pre-amp and a shorted tube turned out to be the culprit. Relief washed all over me when I found no damage done to equipment.

When will you be holding services for the tube?

 

[StimpyWan]

To paraphrase Dr. Neal DeGrasse Tyson, science does not care what you believe. But as I said before, it doesn't matter "why." If you like it then you are winning.

I was lucky enough to work in audio mastering, for almost 2 decades. As such, you have to develop an ear, that is capable of hearing differences in quick A/B comparisons. So, when I hear differences in gear, or burn in, or levels, or whatever, it's usually something to it. Especially since I could capture and compare samples of audio, in my workstation, and invert one sample, to hear if the 2 combined wave files cancel each other or not? If not, there was a true difference, regardless if the difference could be explained or not? Client's hated that too, especially if their clamed differences turned out to be listening differences between their own set up's, and their mastering engineer's. Nothing we did during replication.

 

[Paladin79]

When will you be holding services for the tube?

Most likely it will become another toy for Finnegan or I could send it back to Cowen and ask for a replacement.

 

[OldRoadToad]

I'm right there with ya except I believe capacitors do break-in and could affect sound...

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/capacitor-burn-in-break-in.81355/

Except, of course, the Flux Capacitor...Which makes time travel possible...'n' Schiit.

ORT

 

[Rensek]

I know this is just an observation from a layman.... but while a DAC or Amp may not have moving products, there is something moving through them like a river delta with many paths as long as the gate is open.

Ever see videos of a piece of wood sitting between two points in an electric circuit? All those components are going through various electrical and electromagnetic processes to produce the sound we all love....

I believe in burn in, to an extent, and I believe in our ears adjusting to the sound over time. But I also believe in Science and God (or some higher power/being many call God)... So to some people I could seem to be a man of many contradictions....

 

[valiant66]

Three years? That's nothing.

I saw someone on YouTube refer to the Massdrop HD6xx headphones as "old" having been around for "a really long time", and I had to roll my eyes. I was a part of the initial drop, serial number in the 600's (I just missed that low serial number special edition) so I bought them when they first came out, and it still feels like I "just got them".

Well, in all fairness, if you roll the original Sennheiser HD650s into the mix, that model has been around for a really long time - since the early 2000's? They were Sen's top of the range for a long time (read: most expensive), and were the audiophile headphone model pretty much all others were compared against (my beloved Wharfdale Isodynamics had too many compromises and too little distribution to ever be in the running). When they came out they were pretty much the most expensive headphones normal people might encounter at around $400-500, and well out of my budget at the time. In production for 20 years, of course Gen-Zs think they are old.

They were an aspirational goal for me, so I jumped on the Massdrop HD6XXs when they came out in 2017, especially because the economy was such that the US$200 was closer to par with the CAD$. They are still my daily drivers (although the ear pads are getting pretty manky after all this time).

I get it, perception of time can be really funny, but to me, anything less than 10 years ago might as well have been 10 days ago. It feels super recent.

COVID has really messed with my sense of time passing too...
.

 

[corndog71]

Client's hated that too, especially if their clamed differences turned out to be listening differences between their own set up's, and their mastering engineer's. Nothing we did during replication.

This comes as no surprise as most of the musicians I’ve known do not have great playback gear. Some even check their recordings in their basic car stereo as a reference.

 

[StimpyWan]

This comes as no surprise as most of the musicians I’ve known do not have great playback gear. Some even check their recordings in their basic car stereo as a reference.

I had a client that complained that her reference test press sample didn't sound good on her Bose Wave Radio...! I didn't know how to respond, because I didn't know if she was joking or not...? One of the reasons that I would check the final mix in my car too...!

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I had a client that complained that her reference test press sample didn't sound good on her Bose Wave Radio...! I didn't know how to respond, because I didn't know if she was joking or not...? One of the reasons that I would check the final mix in my car too...!

At least three (actual and professional) studios I worked with in the past did their final mastering on a pair of Yamaha HS8, insisting that those would be The Ultimate in studio monitor technology, delivering The Most neutral and realistic representation imaginable, and nothing better could be had, neither for love nor money.

But whaddayagonnado, some people are just too far gone to be helped… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To your client's credit: At least she tested her sample in a real-world environment, meaning on a playback device that roughly resembles what most people actually use to listen to their music with.
I cringe every time someone holds their phone, tablet, or notebook up to me, telling me with all the sincerity in the world that I should check out how great it sounds.
Worse, whenever I then invite someone to my house to have a listen to some of my finer audio gear, a good lot of them just ends up sitting there, looking at me with pained and questioning eyes as if they wouldn't be able to tell the god-damned difference.

 

[corndog71]

Meanwhile, at Abbey Road Studios…

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Meanwhile, at Abbey Road Studios…

"So, where's that auto-tune button…"

 

[Ableza]

I was lucky enough to work in audio mastering, for almost 2 decades. As such, you have to develop an ear, that is capable of hearing differences in quick A/B comparisons. So, when I hear differences in gear, or burn in, or levels, or whatever, it's usually something to it. Especially since I could capture and compare samples of audio, in my workstation, and invert one sample, to hear if the 2 combined wave files cancel each other or not? If not, there was a true difference, regardless if the difference could be explained or not? Client's hated that too, especially if their clamed differences turned out to be listening differences between their own set up's, and their mastering engineer's. Nothing we did during replication.

Yep, good ears are essential. Back in the late 80's I did a lot of engineer work in several small recording studios in the SF Bay Area. We always had five or six different loudspeaker setups to test mixes on a variety of systems, and the only thing we used measurements for was to keep the levels from going too far into the red. One producer I liked working with would burn a quick cassette of whatever we were mixing and go out to listen to it in his car. He'd almost always come back with a few tweaks that needed done. I also knew a guy with genuine "golden ears" who could stop a recording session with, "The rhythm guitarist's E string is slightly sharp" or some such comment. He'd always be right.

 

[ScottFree]

"So, where's that auto-tune button…"

It's a damn shame Google retired the 'Inside Abbey Road' interactive experience. Spent quite a few happy hours on that site. Still hoping they'll introduce an updated version that has the three new studios they recently built. Would also love an 'Inside AIR Studios' experience.

 

[Ableza]

I had a client that complained that her reference test press sample didn't sound good on her Bose Wave Radio...! I didn't know how to respond, because I didn't know if she was joking or not...? One of the reasons that I would check the final mix in my car too...!

You didn't have Auratones in the studio?

 

[KoshNaranek]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...-quitting-spotify-to-save-their-love-of-music

I have to admit, I never found new music that I like on streaming.