Quote:
From fredpb:
I got the shock of my life. Stuff DOES sound different. As far a those who say "it ain't in the book", that's their opinion. It is quite possible they don't have the hearing ability or desire to hear a difference. |
Hehe, I feel like I've read a couple books worth of discussion on these topics, and found an abundance of people on both sides of the argument. There are people who'll swear on their mother's grave that the difference is as clear as night and day, black and white. Meanwhile, others would happily take the same oath that nobody could tell the difference under controlled, blind-test conditions. Maddeningly, it doesn't even look like things are converging upon a more universal view anytime soon.
While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, as you do admit, I feel that statements like "It is quite possible they don't have the hearing ability or desire to hear a difference" and "If you can't tell the difference, it's cheaper that way, and you can always buy your equipment at Radio Shack" are a little unfair. They remind me of the not-so-subtle routines used by some of my coarser friends in college...you know...."That's okay, you don't
have to do another shot of tequila...only
real men will be drinking this round."
I'm absolutely sure you feel there is a difference. And, in the absence of any proof more substantial than your feeling, I'm more than happy to allow the possibility that there really was a significant change in the sound, if you'll allow the possiblity that your sense of change was caused (in part, perhaps) by other factors, whether they be psychoacoustic, familiarity, or just time. When I stated earlier that "I never heard anything in class...", it certainly wasn't meant to imply that I am incapable of believing something that wasn't in one of my textbooks (otherwise I'd be ignorant indeed...). Rather, I said it because it's my opinion that, given the less-than-iron-clad evidence from either the "yes it does" or the "no it doesn't" camps, one could do worse than apply what rational knowledge that one has to arrive at a starting point for further contemplation.
You should understand that for those of us (like myself, or presumably Leo, who asked the original question in this thread) who are relatively new to this whole arena, its kind of frustrating to be looking for an answer and be presented with such a wealth of vehemently held, yet diametrically opposed answers.
Personally, I try hard to keep an open mind on the whole subject, and in fact I'm all excited about having the day off tomorrow, so I can head over to the one store I've found in my local area so far that actually carries some decent headphone gear, and check out my ER-4Ps through some of their amps, sources and cables, so I can try to isolate what effects the various higher-end components do for the sound.
Quote:
from briano:
Has anyone ever ABX'd a new component? I'd like to see a post from someone who had both a new component and a component broken in for 72 hours side by side and could tell the difference in a blind test... |
Well, briano, if you were attempting to rise to the challenge and find a topic more controversial than burn-ins, you did a great job!
I don't know for sure, although I've been trying to find good ABX materials on the web, and haven't run across anything like that just yet. You might want to ask on rec.audio.high-end or rec.audio.opinion, I've observed that some of the original ABX proponents are active on those groups (ironically, still duking it out with the same original anti-ABXers...they've been going at it for 20 years now!)
As for your suggestion as to how to use PCABX to do a test....well....as much as I'd love to see some ABX testing done along-side the more subjective reviewing that goes on (not in place of it, of course), I'm obliged to point out to you that I'm quite confident that your idea wouldn't work in this case. Unfortunately, hearing the effects of the burn-in period on the DAC and buffering circuitry in a CD player can't be effectively done if you're taking that output, re-digitizing it into a WAV file (using the computer's ADC circuits), then playing it back later through different DAC circuits and amplification... As far as I know, the PCABX tester was designed for, and is pretty much limited to, testing software like mp3/mp3pro/wma/ogg encoding and or decoding algorithms.
-Nadim