I certainly agree with the value of a blind test and thus is why I no longer own the Lavry. It took over a year to test and when I did I was surprised. That said, even when the difference is only in preference, and not real levels of SQ, I've done enough DAC blind tests in groups to know they're quite easily to detect differences. There may be an advantage of the inherent portability of top-tier headphone gear in conducting group tests with equipment well known to individuals in the group, but I'm kinda surprised with everything I've seen there is resistance here that the SB3/C/D (while being undervalued) is still not all that. Admittedly my $5,000+ DAC listens only falls on Emm Labs gear, but since picking out differences at the couple hundred dollars range (as mentioned previously) isn't difficult I doubt it would be higher up.
Reversing it, I don't deny some gear and some ears are unlikely to hear differences. I'd suspect the same with amps, phones and speakers. And there are a lot of things you can do with a DAC besides have it convert signals. ;) Anyway we may be at the no difference between a SB3/C/D and Transporter, 128 kbps MP3 and lossless compression, redbook and SACD, etc. point. Getting off the original question, so I'll now back off. -- blessingx '★' (http://www.last.fm/user/blessingx/) -'this american life' (http://thislife.org/), 'take-away shows' (http://www.blogotheque.net/spip.php?page=cae_all&lang=en), 'jazz profiles' (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10208861), 'streaming soundtracks' (http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/)- nas ))) macbook ))) squeezebox 3x3: ⊗ assemblage dac1 → rudistor nxØ2 sistema → at w1ØØØ / etys er4p/s ⊗ parasound 11ØØ hd #1 → stax srm-ØØ7t → stax lambda sig / lambda pro ⊗ parasound 11ØØ hd #2 → single power extreme platinum → senn hd58Ø ⊗ parasound 11ØØ hd #2 → l stax srm-1/mk2 pro → stax lambda pro / gold ------------------------------------------------------------------------ blessingx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11754 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=52848
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