I like faithful reproduction, never quite got into the whole tube thing, and i was glad when i got rid of my turntable. :-)
i also think one can indeed measure many things quite well and that they provide a reliable indication of the design intent of the engineers, which for me ideally is quite a linear response across frequencies and loads... but we also all know that the *ideal* response can not be achieved yet, even though several designs come quite close. i thoroughly agree a bit is a bit, and jitter discussions over USB or Toslink focus on the wrong side of the issue. when it comes to the analogue side, even within the DAC, more so in amplification, and especially with loudspeakers, wow, there are quite a bit of elements at work. one of the reasons i think one day active loudspeakers will rule the world is because it eliminates a lot of guesswork with matching stuff up. sometimes components don't mix well even when they are all well designed and on paper look like they should sound awesome. analogue is treacherous, and manufacturing tolerances can add up to the point where something is audible even when it comes to 2 amplifiers of the same kind (i did so with MusicalFidelity M1PWR, one clearly noisier than the other, but i would have never known if i'd only received the "bad" one, because it still sounded very good). and speakers... wow. when someone said that models are flawed they were RIGHT. we engineers work with models, and they are quite awesome, but they never reflect a TRUTH. witness speakers. when we measure them, we ultimately measure them by modeling the human ear. does anyone think we have a perfectly accurate model for that? that's why it's important to involve some trained ears in the design of good analog audio equipment. i could download a circuit design for an amp on the internet, go buy the best batch of everything parts, put it together, and still come up with something underwhelming. i have actually done it, albeit many years ago in University. :-) it is not as simple. it is not just a formula. and the reason for that is that there is stuff we don't know about how our hearing works. it is most certainly NOT linear at all. it is hard to model. hence, it is hard to cater to that "perfect sound production" model that is being advanced here, at least as far as the analog part of the design goes, that is, where the soundwave leaves the membrane. and btw try to model the latter perfectly... and you'll prolly win a Nobel. :-) ...pablo Server: Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 12.04 + LMS 7.7.3 on VMware Player System: SB Touch --optical->- Benchmark DAC2HGC --AnalysisPlus Oval Copper XLR->- Creek Destiny Power Amp --AnalysisPlus Black Mesh Oval->- KEF LS50 Other Rooms: 2x SB Boom; 1x SB Radio; 1x SB Classic-> MusicalFidelity M1PWR -> Totem DreamCatcher Computer audio: workstation --USB->- audioengine D1 -> Grado PS500e ------------------------------------------------------------------------ pablolie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=102330 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
