Fifer;235551 Wrote: > All sources (and amplifiers) add distortion, which is what accounts for > differences in sound. Some forms of distortion are more pleasing to the > human ear than others and some are more sympathetic to particular types > of music, so the sound which is judged as 'best' may not be that which > most accurately reproduces the source.
Agreed. However the levels of distortion produced by digital sources and non-clipping amps tend to be inaudible, so judgements of what's best aren't based on distortion. > > Talking as an erstwhile test and measurement engineer and not an > audiophile (whatever that is ;)), test results are limited to the > attributes being monitored by the test. It's very difficult to measure > every parameter which might influence the sound reaching the ear > simultaneously. I agree with that as well, but we can do more than measure - we can run controlled listening tests. Using the results we can determine the thresholds of human hearing sensitivity, and if people can hear something we don't know how to measure we can isolate it and figure out how to measure it. Most of that work was completed 50 years ago. alekz;235546 Wrote: > Could you please give some examples? If possible, list the other > components of the system(s) in which you compared the sound of the > sources/amplifiers in question. An excellent example is the thread where I, along with two others, compared a stock SB3 to a Transporter in a ~$50,000 system. You can find it if you search. pablolie;235552 Wrote: > > PS: I am a watch collector, and love my collection of a dozen or so > fine watches, but heck no, I will never spend $500k on a watch. Ever. > And there's not a single Rolex in my collection - too recognizable and > predictable. 99.999% of people would never know when I am wearing a > $20k watch - and I don't want them to. But it's the .001% that matters... -- opaqueice ------------------------------------------------------------------------ opaqueice's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4234 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39093 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
