[Ghoostknight]

Hello

im kinda a huge fan of sound comparison/listening tests on youtube (with good, accoustic treated listening spaces)
this doesnt give you a absolute view of the sound quality but im my expierences it definitely lets you compare performances relative between devices/changes
Alpha Audio does some big comparisons, and if you search a bit there are a ton of other sound demos on youtube... with better or worse quality

My Idea was to create a channel to do ONLY comparisons... without me talking or anything... maybe some text to introduce things and showing comparisons, would you watch something like this if the topic is in interest to you?
Youtube Codec is definitely one thing.... i might look into getting the videos published also somewhere else in flac quality if possible

some test beside usual device comparisons on my list are definitely:
HQPlayer Settings
DAC Reconstruction Filters
AC Power Polarity
Grounding Boxes/Crystals
Chinese Super Capacitor Filters
Different OP AMPS, and not just comparing aftermarket discrete OP AMPS but also compare them to usual contenders like OPA1656
Maybe a full amplifier re-cap
USB Cable Tweaks... TF there must be a way to get cheap good usb audio that can compare to DDC"s
Different Power Supply Topologys (Battery, Switching, Linear, Supercapacitor)
Different Cables, probably also DIY stuff, Tweaks and so on..

Since i dont have huge amounts of money for devices, i will probably focus first on low cost tweaks and stuff but i have to see where this would go

SPECIALLY im interested in YOUR opinion of if youtube (or comparisons like that in general also in flac quality) make sense to you, do you benefit from watching such comparisons?

Best Regards

 

[Whazzzup]

Nifty but sound comparisons within my rig, are all that matters. But your probably on to something

 

[Ghoostknight]

Nifty but sound comparisons within my rig, are all that matters. But your probably on to something

such comparisons might show you things you never tried before and you can try the change in your rig if you liked it in the comparison

im honestly kind of sick of hearing all this bla bla how something sounds (kind of the only thing you get out of forums and usual reviews), is it just me?

tho, i of course need a setup where the changes come trough, atleast i can say that even subtle things (lets take dac reconustruction filters) are audible (for me) on my playback system

im currently looking into a recording setup, and well funny enough from sound comparisons on youtube the Neumann KM184 really sticks out in smoothness and high frequency detail i think, tho a stereo setup would cost 2k x) ... i might go with something like the Rode M5 at first but honestly from what i heared the frequency response is one thing with mics but i get a feeling that all these cheaper ones (under 300-500 dollar) sound kind of like a bad dac vs a good one (KM184 the cheapest i heared that really sticks out in a "good dac way")

 

[Ghoostknight]

bump.



One comparison i liked, so people might get an idea of what im talking about, it kinda baffled me at first how much closer DSD sounds to analog tape, but i can confirm it on my system too that dsd sounds better/closer to analog than pcm (on my Aune X8 ESS dac)

 

[Ghoostknight]

No one? im even happy with people that report they hear no difference at all, youtube definitely makes it harder, google chrome and windows resampling even more so, im not sure how sophisticated people set up their youtube listening, its kinda silly since its not much better than MP3 after all

probably best for this is actually making some kind of cloud storage and offering download links for the raw flac or wav files of the comparisons

----


this one kinda showed me that there is much room left for ADC's ... the motu m4 seems to be one good budget contender (altleast it was the best out of the bunch in the comparison) but no other interface in the comparison comes close to the lavry imo

the comparison is kinda flawed because nothing is level matched... but i think you can still compare them (specially the nearly clipping ones..)

and this one also showed me that i definitely wanna go with external preamps in the end (or non at all if the condenser mics produce a level that can be easly boosted to the final volume digitally)

 

[Ghoostknight]

and one thing i always noticed, specially with such ADC or DAC comparisons.... its not about the frequencyresponse... its about how natural (or some say analog) a recording "feels" imo (if we take a nice flat frequencyresponse to start with)

EDIT: i think the reconstruction filter of the dac or adc play a big role here too, the RME adi-2 pro fs would be one of the cheaper adc's which allow for switching the filter, kinda interesting function

and the guy in the video above is definitely right with transient reponse of higher cost ADC"s ... the transients just sound more natural imo, some say more spikey or whatever

 

[Ghoostknight]

This one actually helped me deciding on keeping my Ifi ACPurifier, the guys in the video are not that impressed but its not a bad contender overall imo (it improves bass response greatly ime), this video also showed me that i wanna try the cheap-ish isotek filter in the future
with alpha audio its kinda hard to stay unbiased since there is all this commentary going on but as usual i was verify some of the claims audibly, but like always i would have probably choose other wording but most of the time i see some correlations
the isotek filter was actually one if not the cheapest one that made the background "the quietest" imo which is the main thing about EMI filters in my expierence (the question is if it robs dynamic range, tho i think this can also be a audible illusion because of the quieter background and less crap going on...)

if you go into highend systems i think there is much value in these comparisons, you cant compare 10 devices, you usually pick 2-3 at most, maybe compare them, send the other 2 back and be happy with the unit you got, without knowing how it compares to other dacs that were not in your "catalog" yet

 

[Ghoostknight]

i wanted to link the long version:

the short version is ok but imo the samples are too short to really compare them reliably (thats also why i think blind AB tests are somewhat flawed)
a sample length of 1-3 minutes each might be a better reveal imo and for quick comparisons you can still quickly switch back and forth with youtube

 

[Ghoostknight]

i received the black lion audio revolution 2x2 interface 2 days ago

honestly? this thing sounds amazing and even beats my aune X8 dac-wise... and i was kinda worried that the Aune would sound better.... the high frequency resolution and "overall smoothness" of the BLA is on another level imo way less listening fatique than the aune too...

i also made a supercap usb filter (something like a ifi isilencer) which im testing since 1 week, which pushes this interface one step further (also did so on the aune but i think because the BLA is purely usb powered i think it really profits from the supercap...)

really curios how the ADC sounds but if you dont care if you got -100db or -120db noisefloor, i think the sound quality shows (and hopefully also in recorded comparisons) and build quality is also excellent, i think it was a good decision to go for the interface from a mod company but we will see how the comparisons go..

 

[Ghoostknight]

I just found the Line Audio CM4 microphone.... looks like a pretty great bargain for 150Euro, i heared a comparison with the CM4 vs Neumann KM184 (my last favourite) .... wow they sound pretty close, i think it just comes down to preference if you like the slight high boost of the KM184 more (which is a negligable fact with recording a hifi setup i think, flat is king here i guess)

the CM4 is one of the flattest measuring microphones even if we go above 500-1000Euro

Cool guy, i have listened to some of his comparisons now


IMO the CM4 has some kind of "smooth" magic going on, specially compared to other low end microphones, this is not so clear with vs KM184 because they seem to nearly sound identical

unfortunaly the CM4 is handmade by one person in sweden, i already asked the german distributor today, if i preorder now i can get 2 in middle of June... i think its worth the wait from what i heared

 

[Ghoostknight]

BTW, thats the dac output routed to adc input of the black lion audio interface (scale is off but it doesnt matter much)

IMO, or more of a guess is that this sounds fantastic "because" of the higher noisefloor... you dont get much distortion with nearly max volume above the noisefloor, this is not visible with amirs measurements at all but i account this to some of the changes i hear with this interface\

basicly -95 to -100db from signal to H3, and around -115db to the noisefloor, at 100khz its around -80 to the noisefloor, for me this still sounds good enough and i dont understand the bashing around this interface, but yea it measures "worse" than others