Volume has a huge influence on our perception. Louder is always perceived as better, even if it’s just a tiny bit. A difference of 0.1 dB may not be recognized as a volume difference, but perceived as a quality difference. Therefore “close” is not good enough if you want to make such comparisons.
Now, I don’t know about the Linn. It’s possible that both pathways have the same volume, but it doesn’t have to be like that. And like I wrote above, I didn’t measure my NDX2 but also wanted to compare the Roon and Naim streaming and came away convinced that the Naim version simply runs a tiny bit louder. And Naim makes no secret about the fact that they use DSP, so volume differences can’t even be excluded for the digital domain. Anyway, a short press up on the remote when listening to Roon and all differences, real or imagined, evaporated.
To be sure about this, it would be necessary to measure the volume with a mic and to match them for a blind comparison, but as I don’t hear a difference in practice and because there is no rational reason why Roon should be worse in a meaningful way, I can’t be bothered. And now that I have started to run Roon with DSP convolution filters created by measuring the room, this further increased the quality a lot, anyway
Because the human brain evolved to find differences and patterns and invents them when there are none. And then audiophiles believe their ears to be objective instruments, so they blame this on the outside world. It’s just like seeing Jesus in spilled coffee if you look for it long enough.
Well… great point. Before I got the 159s, I was 90% vinyl. Now the streaming sounds pretty close. Most folks wouldn’t know the difference.
With the 159s streaming is really a joy to hear. That’s when I started playing with the different sources and started noticing what I thought was a difference b/n the LINN and Roon.
After this thread, which I so appreciate, I need to bring over a few from my listening group and do a blind test with them at different volumes. I am leaving the country for a couple months Wednesday so I can’t do this until June.
When I do, I will report back. I honestly do know what to expect.
Can someone help me?
