Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

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qirex: Feb 15, 2001

spookygonk posted:

Is that warmer than "inky blacks"?

They taste better, certainly.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2023 22:01

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 09:29

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Many audiophile products are things that are useful, just overdesigned and overpriced. I bet a $300,000, 250 pound D'agostino monoblock actually sounds pretty good.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2023 21:17

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Feels Villeneuve posted:

on the other hand the majority of audiophile network switches i see are unmanaged ethernet switches which frequently run at 100Mbps, probably because that's the speed of the TP-Link card that they're using to make their dumb poo poo

The good thing about audio is you can get away with that since I think the highest bitrate DSD averages like 8 megabit.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2023 23:43

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Feels Villeneuve posted:

i kind of differentiate between useless poo poo that's clearly a labor of love, like insane mass-loaded turntables that look like steampunk espresso machines and cost $100k, versus stuff that is blatantly made in bad faith like shoving the innards of a TP-Link into a new case

Who was it who was selling rebadged $400 Oppo blu ray players for 3 grand, I think Lexicon?

e: Yup. couldn't even spring for silver effect applique for the disc drawer. Also, $3500!

e2: now I wish Oppo would come out of retirement and make one last UHD player but I doubt they even have an optical drive division anymore :smith:

qirex fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jan 20, 2023

# ¿ Jan 20, 2023 00:44

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

If you really want to just immerse yourself in weapons-grade pseudoscientific bullshit, may I suggest this review of the $27,800 Theoretica Applied Physics BACCH-SP adio Stereo Purifier

quote:

It�s only natural to focus on the processor�s clarification of individual instrumental lines and the physical disposition of the performers, but I shouldn�t neglect to point out that crosstalk cancellation, as executed by the BACCH filter, can elucidate harmonic detail, as well. The characteristically dense orchestral textures of composers like Brahms, Richard Strauss, or Messiaen can seem murky as represented on recordings, which isn�t the case in the concert hall. BACCH can improve upon that artifact of stereo playback to a significant degree. It�s true, as well, with complex vocal arrangements in popular music genres. Compare Donald Fagen�s extravagant harmonies on the title track of Morph the Cat with the filter on and off, and you�ll know what I mean; prepare to enjoy Queen�s most operatic moments to the fullest�the first 45 seconds of �Bohemian Rhapsody� makes the point nicely.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2023 00:04

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Animale posted:

The $8k Bang and Olufsen claims to do a frequency response of 28 Hz - 23,000 Hz, it looks really good though.

It has dual 6.5" woofers so that's reasonable with room gain. There's that huge $1500 JBL thing too.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2023 22:04

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

There must be some amazing orange sofas, fur rugs and hanging plants in the accompanying pictures.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2023 20:41

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

If you're a reviewer it's pretty much a given you'll slide down the slope, the slope was specifically constructed and greased by audio companies to make this happen.

A lot of them haven't heard really good stuff before so they may be blown away by the mere fact of its expense
Audiophile companies have big marketing budgets which is how they pay for review samples
You're less likely to get more of said review samples if you aren't super enthusiastic
You're more likely to get to perks and press junkets if you're enthusiastic
All the companies you're reviewing are potential sponsors

I'm not saying all reviewers are bent or whatever but even Amir from ASR started accepting review samples, it just makes your life that much easier. It's just a steep, slippery slope from "well meaning but not careful" to "wow this $6000 power cord made a huge difference in my system"

# ¿ Feb 24, 2023 22:15

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I�ve started streaming to my tv instead of my receiver because I get album art

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 06:57

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Yeah anything having to do with The Absolute Sound is uncut audiophile bullshit, but in a very wordy and professional way.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2023 23:43

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Multichannel music is amazing when it's mixed perfectly and I'd imagine the same is true for spatial stuff but IMO it will remain niche forever.

Also some guy on AVS asked for DAC recommendations and after everyone posted about RME, Topping, Benchmark, Denafrips, etc. and had the usual thing where people claim they can hear the difference between Sabre and AKM dude says he wants to try this:

$6600

# ¿ Mar 25, 2023 01:54

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

LRADIKAL posted:

for $6600 I would REALLY want those vacuum tubes to be perfectly perpendicular.

At least they all tilt at the same angle :shrug:

# ¿ Mar 25, 2023 02:14

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Someone is buying mqa, hopefully for parts. I hope it's not Tidal since them dropping it would be their last big customer.

quote:

MQA Ltd, the company behind the MQA digital music technology, is going into administration.

We don't have many details at the moment, and it's uncertain if the firm's partnership with Tidal � which uses MQA technology to enable its 'hi-res' audio streams � will be affected. But we do know that MQA Ltd is seeking a buyer and has undergone a restructuring process.

The full statement from MQA reads as follows:

"Following the recent positive reception to MQA�s latest technology (SCL6), there has been increased international interest in buying MQA Ltd. At the same time, MQA�s main financial backer is seeking an exit. In order to be in the best position to pursue market opportunities and expedite this process, the company has undergone a restructuring initiative, which includes entering into administration and is comparable to Chapter 11 in the US.

"During this process, MQA continues to trade as usual alongside its partners.

"We won't be commenting further while negotiations take place."

This is a breaking news story, we'll bring you more details as they emerge.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2023 21:55

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

The goldensound guy found that MQA compression does produce extra distortion in the audible band, and it gets worse the more �unfolds� you do. So the more invested in the format you are the worse it sounds. He also found that the magic blue light flag is in the file header and you can feed it low bitrate stuff and the light will still come on.

https://youtu.be/pRjsu9-Vznc

# ¿ Apr 7, 2023 03:11

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

The audience that reads things like TAS is a segment of the market that is literally dying. Young people are getting into audio and it�s via headphones and powered speakers and little $100 DACs but it�s still much easier to sell one million dollar thing to the right sucker than a million two dollar ones.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2023 02:33

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Feels Villeneuve posted:

You kind of see this with a ton of the "legacy" audio companies now pushing stuff like soundbars and powered stereo speakers. I imagine it's easier these days to sell people getting into audio on like, a Rega P1 and a JBL soundbar than some setup involving an amp/receiver.

Yeah there's the ones trying to get ahead of it, Harman [owned by Samsung] has enough resources and to be able to make halo gear like Revel, JBL Pro, Arcam, Mark Levinson, etc. and also a $99 soundbar or $40 bluetooth headphones. There's smaller companies like Focal that made a hard and successful pivot into high end headphones or Lenbrook/NAD/Bluesound that bet the farm on streaming. KEF is a very design focused company that makes sure to still always a decent entry level offering. What I like best about a/v now is startups making really high quality niche stuff like HDFury or miniDSP. My Qudelix 5k is maybe the best $100 I've ever spent on audio, it's a high quality DAC and headphone amp with bluetooth and parametric EQ the size of a 9V battery and it both sounds great and measurably outperforms a bunch of 30lb multikilobuck stand alone gear and it's made by a tiny company in S Korea.

Most of the true boutique high end companies are just waiting to die while they complain about the kids today not wanting to spend 5 grand on a tonearm. I think part of it is that they also depended on people eventually upgrading their way into big boy systems without keeping an eye on the low/middle end of the market and just assuming that would stay healthy.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2023 17:24

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Welp.

quote:

Breaking news for my reddit peeps: we will be introducing hi-res FLAC for our HiFi Plus subscribers soon. It's lossless and an open standard. It's a big file, but we'll give you controls to dial this up and down based on what's going on.

e: Also Onkyo had a free replacement program for the HDMI board problem for like a full decade. The reputational damage was bad, though, it's probably one of the main reasons they almost went out of business like 3 times in the last 5 years [and ended up doing full bankruptcy and now being owned by the same holding company as Klipsch].

qirex fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Apr 12, 2023

# ¿ Apr 12, 2023 15:38

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Feels Villeneuve posted:

Nothing in like any of the "Legacy" audiophile sites on MQA going bankrupt, you'd think they'd be interested given how often they pushed it!!

I have no idea what you're talking about

# ¿ Apr 12, 2023 16:15

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Letting vendors design their own implementations is the worst possible way to write a standard but the HDMI Group has a history of making the wrong choice at every opportunity.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2023 21:56

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Mederlock posted:

The reason for that is the relative difference in amplified signal going speaker wire compared to the noise/interference that the wire will pick up is quite large, whereas a line level signal has more amplification that it (and the noise/EMI) is going to receive, and the differential in signal level between it and the noise is much less so it's more noticeable. That's why stupid expensive speaker wire is an absolute joke and worthy of ridicule, but a mid range well shielded line level(ie. RCA) cable makes some sense, and why some people opt for balanced XLR connections for line level or mic/instrument sources especially in the professional audio recording world.

Yeah and said good RCA or XLR are like 50 bucks max if you spring for the quad-shielded-Canare-wire-with-Amphenol-connectors primo poo poo, not eight grand. Most cable snobs love to do the "oh you don't believe in cables, well enjoy your 99 cent Walmart poo poo." :smug:

[those work fine too]

# ¿ Apr 26, 2023 00:41

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

The Amazing Randi [ :rip:

] extended his $1 million cash prize for demonstrating psychic phenomena to audio cable companies to show an actual difference and none of them even tried. One pretended like they were going to then backed out because they had problems with the test design [which was published in advance].

# ¿ Apr 26, 2023 04:36

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

bigman.50grand posted:

Is charging pre-owned JO crystals gay? Asking for a friend.

It depends what music you use. Steely Dan? You're good. Fleetwood Mac on the other hand...

# ¿ Apr 28, 2023 18:44

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I was browsing the AC4L new arrivals like one does and it's hilarious to me that B&W has the nerve to charge $4500 for a sealed dual 10" sub [only $3300 now, what a bargain!]

# ¿ May 5, 2023 21:00

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I hope they refresh that whole line in the same way as the R-N2000A, that thing looks properly :nice:

# ¿ May 5, 2023 22:38

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

namlosh posted:

Can someone point me to a resource that compares some passable vs not-passable DACS?

I�m curious what the difference is since I would have thought this was a mostly solved issue. Like is it mainly just noise on the analog side that makes a lovely DAC?

At this point it's mostly just poor design/build on the analog stage that can harm measurements, or bad USB implementation. Here's the thing though: barring some actual faults they're probably all passable for listening to music in a real world environment. Most of the thing that's wrong with high end DACs is the price, and a lot of the arguing is because cheap units can perform measurably [but usually not audibly] better than expensive ones. Basically, what's the point of some kilobuck thing in a full size case when for $80 you can get this and it's perfect by the means we have to measure it?

Mederlock posted:

Doing a DAC right is very cheap these days so audiophiles find all sorts of ways to re-complicate it.

So much of the "conventional wisdom" about digital audio is just some throwaway comment from a magazine review in 1986 that has been repeated so many times it becomes "true."

qirex fucked around with this message at 16:08 on May 15, 2023

# ¿ May 15, 2023 16:06

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

It's critically important I have my 192/96 flacs, also I sleep hanging upside down by my feet in a cave and eat insects and small birds.

e: Additional breaking news for this thread: Marantz is going to start selling some of its receivers and integrated amps in silver in the United States!

# ¿ May 15, 2023 23:14

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

So this thing exists:

it's one thousand five hundred dollars and runs play-fi [the worst streaming system, it can't even consistently do gapless]

It inspired a thought: Once the boomers finally die out are these companies going to be selling expensive co-branded stuff that looks like the aiwa mini system every gen x college kid had?

# ¿ May 16, 2023 18:15

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I'm talking 90s stuff, 80s retro is almost 2 decades old at this point [just like the 80s are always 20 years ago am I right, fellow olds?]

# ¿ May 16, 2023 19:29

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

There are legit reasons but they�re limited:
- library too big to fit on your phone
- need to use in a place phones aren�t allowed
- going somewhere with no power or network service for an extended time [vacation house maybe]

I don�t see any use case for the ones that cost more than a decent budget phone, those are just audiophile bling. You can get a portable DAC that can drive pretty much any headphone except electrostatics for cheap now.

# ¿ May 28, 2023 01:09

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Weird to call out Sonos who has probably the longest support period of any company that makes streaming stuff. Yeah they hosed the dog with their upgrade strategy but a big part of that was that they still supported every piece of hardware they�d ever made up until that point. Plus after they got yelled at enough they continued support for the old hardware.

Bose sold a couple million 30 pin iPod docks and how many of those do you think are still in service?

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 06:14

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

olives black posted:

It's not weird to call out any company that ties an expensive piece of equipment like an amplifier to a loving proprietary mobile app. Not even the mid-rear end Denon home theater receiver that I took back two weeks ago did that poo poo. You could still scoot around all of the menus using the output monitor and the remote.

That's what they sell, it's Sonos' whole value proposition that it's a "smart" audio system that's easier to set up and use than an AVR. They made a decision for it to be that way. It also requires a server if you're doing local file streaming so it's not really possible to use it without other systems. I believe you can still set it up using a computer but they've definitely been moving functionality from the desktop app to the mobile app which is annoying. You can get a similarly specced amplifier or AVR for a lot less money and the Sonos Amp or Bluesound Powernode aren't keeping other things from being on the market. Adding a menu system, screen and video output would change the product radically.

tater_salad posted:

There is an area where I work that processes 1000's of Sensitive PII items each day. I feel like the folks that work in that (and ones like it) are keep the portable CD player player market in business. You are not allowed anything with a camera.. or data connection in the work area.

That doesn't sound very alpha growth mindset, just give prod access to interns who work remotely if you want to be like a real tech company.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 16:46

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

olives black posted:

~~No it wouldn't~~ Well, adding some non-proprietary means of accessing its controls wouldn't, anyway. If it's already doing network streaming, then there's nothing stopping them from setting up some non-radical means of squeezing an SSH key in there somewhere.

Define "non-proprietary" because to an average customer SSHing into something they own is a million percent more inaccessible than having to download an app. I'm pretty sure all the streaming partners they deal with would not be very happy if consumers had access to the "metal" of their DRMed streaming systems. There's a reason Sonos is the only company that actually supports Apple Music on third party hardware and I'd guess it has something to do with how locked down the platform is [plus they are willing to pay what I'm sure are exorbitant license fees]. I also feel like you vastly underestimate the amount of time and resources it takes to design, develop and maintain multiple front ends to a system. I've done it myself, it sucks.

I'm team dumb endpoint nowadays [that said even Wiim stuff needs an app to set up] but after investigating the alternatives to "closed" hardware I get why they're so successful. If you want to hand janitor a Raspberry pi and a creaky jenga tower of open source libraries you can and nobody's stopping you but your average audio buyer is never going to do that and big companies aren't going to pursue that market. If you'ver never set up a Sonos product it is insanely quick and easy compared to every alternative on the market. Sonos' target market for the Amp is a professional installer sticking 12 of them in a rack as part of a $50,000 "whole house smart home" project for a rich person's mansion. That's why they pour so many resources into working with stuff like Control4, Lutron, Josh, etc. Why they don't make a rackmount with 5 endpoints in it and sell it for 5 grand I will never understand.

quote:

After reading the rest of your post, I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a joke or not.

I love this thread so much because it constantly walks a line between funny and serious content

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 18:52

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Right to repair and open access are in direct opposition to DRM which is the glue that holds the whole streaming universe together. This is bad but it is the reality of the situation. Basically every doomsday scenario the EFF people were yelling about on Slashdot in the late 90s came true. In a just and sane universe companies would need to have an end of life plan for hardware, software and content [see HBO and Disney memory holing stuff they don't want to pay royalties on] but as it stands the media companies have multiple pet senators and EU reps.

In conclusion Sonos is a land of contrasts and having watched a few of his videos that guy isn't as entertaining as he thinks he is.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 21:19

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I believe Foobar 2000 has built in support for ABX tests and the like. I can hear music compression even at high bitrates but usually only on specific songs and on my good headphones or big stereo.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2023 05:26

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Yeah 320 from a good encoder is probably indistinguishable but since I have over 1000 CDs and plenty of hard drive I decided I only wanted to rip them once.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2023 18:04

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Mister Speaker posted:

I can think of few things that are more of a waste of bandwidth and HDD space than six minutes of boring kickdrums with too much reverb on them.

I like dub techno but it is probably the most compressible form of music outside of maybe chiptunes.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 00:14

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

I''m pretty sure someone has posted this "the best stereo system in the world" YouTube, but now the owner has died and a family friend is trying to figure out what to do with it now that he's gone. The best responses so far are in the vein of

quote:

It's a bit sad that his family seems unwilling to safeguard this invaluable fragment of his being. To be frank, it is akin to safeguarding a piece of his very soul.

because they don't want to keep his $1.7 million DIY line array speakers that weight 1500 pounds each

# ¿ Jul 10, 2023 16:01

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 09:29

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

the magic of this tweako bs that does nothing is the customers come fully inoculated against tricky things like "basic knowledge" that might prevent them from giving you thousands of dollars

# ¿ Aug 2, 2023 18:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Ridicule Audiophiles - Find the cat shit's resonant frequency

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