He also doesn’t move a muscle throughout the first demonstration and suddenly becomes a head nodding, foot tapping demon during the second.
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I recall all this behavior and actions from the Siltech “cable-guy”. I was suspicious when he didn’t want to move back to cord 1.
Maybe audiophiles trust their hearing system a bit too much. I’m more insecure because I know how I used to fool myself. Even so these days. I unplugged the power amp from the ac filter and it sounds a bit different, I think, but certainly not any worse. But i remember when I plugged the power amp in 2 years ago I thought the filter was beneficial to the soundstage, detail, the black background and so on. The black background was in my mind, not in the system.
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Just wondering, how does the internal DAC in your Krell integrated sound compared to all the other DACs and CD players you tired?
I also don’t doubt that a CD would sound better than Tidal MQA…
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I think your missing the point to my post.
What I’m trying to say here the LUMIN and the blue sound sound virtually identical.
Bass mid treble vocals guitar trumpets drums.
I don’t think tidal is the culprit but I could be wrong.
The speakers are $45,000 they sound fantastic but with the 2 players on a blind test level and time matched you can’t tell the difference
For a $3000 difference
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I think that it’s great that you did the blind test! My only concern is that you also involved a sighted listening and another listening comparing different originals. The CD is not the same as Tidal MQA. And if it’s an early CD, the difference is night and day. Just look at the album at DR Database!
Let’s just leave it at the first really interesting blind test, and forget about the rest!
I’ve read through this thread with a mix of interest and bewilderment. Sounds like a bit of a system mismatch to me. $45k speakers with a fairly average $7K amp that pushes 150 wpc. Of course you’re not going to hear any difference from these sources until you get some decent amplification driving those high end speakers. Sure, you may not hear it even then with the relatively low end sources you’re testing (I’m a big Lumin fan but D2 is not that spectacular). And SBooster is a total waste in that system IMHO.
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I know that I’m missing the point of your post as well - I apologise. I also apologise for repeating my question.
May I assume that (as opposed to the no difference in sound between the Bluesound and Lumin that was found in your blind listening test) your non entry-level cables make a bigger audible difference compared to having entry-level cables in your system - hence its inclusion?
I ask because I will personally find this fascinating if it is indeed the case. Notwithstanding my fascination, I do not dispute your own conclusions based on your experience.
That’s assuming there is a correlation between price and performance on electronics, but above a certain point, there is none. This test also proves that.
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What the test demonstrates is that five people couldn’t tell the difference between two DACs. But that’s not proof of anything.
The question this raises is legitimate – is it useful to go for a more expensive DAC? But the test itself cannot answer that question. All it shows is that to the ears of five people the Lumin didn’t outperform a much cheaper DAC. Maybe the Lumin isn’t all that good or maybe circumstances were such that no difference was perceived.
Interestingly, the dCS Bartok made a difference. Which points to the conclusion, based on this particular data set, that if you want to upgrade your 600 € DAC you need to multiply that by 30 times (after dCS increased their prices recently, the Bartok costs 18,500 €). Whether that price difference is justified is another matter, but at least there seems to be a sonic difference.
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Fair enough, it doesn’t prove anything.
The Bartok was not blind tested, so opinions on it’s performance has no value.
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Does anyone prove anything on here to everyone’s satisfaction?
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I think we have proved that audio folk are an opinionated and contrary bunch who are probably best off sticking to the discussion of music rather than kit/theory.
Putting that into practice is tricky though…
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I like to see the audiogram of some of our most critical listeners. I went through an extensive hearing test and later on looked at my audiogram. Dr. told me that my hearing is somewhat below of my age group but however still typical.
When I look at the drop in sensitivity from about 2500 Hz onward, I wonder why I spent so much money on audio equipment. I barely hear anything above 8000 Hz. So all you golden ears at the ideal audiophile age of 50+ how many of you did a hearing test with a qualified audiogram and how did you fare?
And how does that work into the discussions about filter settings that affect if at all, the 18.000 Hz range?
Some people seem to hear a lot of things that are physically impossible to hear…
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With that I agree. But would we want it any different?
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That is right to the point, the power of our brain to create the suggestion that there is an orchestra playing in our livingroom is very strong. So anything missing but expected above 8kHz is recreated by our hearing system.
When Lumin decorates the dac chip with nice looks and expensive feeling we expect it to sound better than the plastic Bluesound.
The same with cables, certain brands only seem to, technically speaking, decorate the copper wires with colorfull insulation.They don’t produce any conductor (metal), that is done in super large dirty multinational industries. An employee of Eupen, that produces copper, said that it is all from the same basin, there is no non-ofc.
Hifi is all about suggestion. The blind test is the enemy of the high-end boutique brand.
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That happens even without sound. It’s called tinnitus.
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I precisely know what you are talking about
Shouldn’t be rather the conclusion here that Tidal MQA streaming doesn’t deliver enough sound quality to make a difference passed a certain level of streamer/DAC quality ?
Whatever is the chain of treatment good, it can hardly improve something limited to start with.
Isn’t it what is happening here and kind of demonstrated somehow by the better sound quality reported with the CD source ?
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It’s not a trick question… I was wondering how the ESS chip in your Integrated sounds compared with the other streamers/DACs?
A more likely reason (apart from the fact that CD vs Tidal wasn’t tested blind) is that they used different sounding masterings. There are so many versions of this album out there! Album list - Dynamic Range Database
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