tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post8988198836447111318..comments2024-03-18T03:10:30.572-07:00Comments on NwAvGuy: DAC Listening Challenge ResultsNwAvGuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-15497344560705287942012-03-26T16:08:16.274-07:002012-03-26T16:08:16.274-07:00Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! The b...Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! The blind test was something I just threw together in response to all the subjectivists on Head-Fi irrationally defending NuForce's poorly measuring uDAC-2. As I said in the articles, I know the methodology leaves a lot to be desired.<br /><br />Unfortunately when you throw out the "bad data" from those who didn't follow the rules, NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-7149395164064048192012-03-26T01:04:27.316-07:002012-03-26T01:04:27.316-07:00(cont)
If I can make a friendly suggestion: one el...(cont)<br />If I can make a friendly suggestion: one elegant way to demonstrate that two DAC's are similar (which I think is what you'll want to show), is individually testing each audio clip and output pair separately. <br />i.e.<br />Test#1: ABX of ClipA played on lineout of DacA vs. DacB - The clips from each DAC are randomized, and the listener selects same/different. Test is repeatedUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15368979028712134389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-74637095965279240702012-03-26T01:03:50.352-07:002012-03-26T01:03:50.352-07:00Hi, NwAvGuy, I stumbled upon your DAC blind listen...Hi, NwAvGuy, I stumbled upon your DAC blind listening tests while doing a google search for "DAC blind listening." It's nice to see that there are people actually interested in controlled equipment comparisons rather than methods subject to bias (like so-called "reviews.") <br /><br />I spent some time looking at your methodology. The idea to ADC the outputs of various Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15368979028712134389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-31177949357686537622012-02-28T16:12:15.264-08:002012-02-28T16:12:15.264-08:00Thanks for your response. I bought the FiiO E10 an...Thanks for your response. I bought the FiiO E10 and now everything sounds just perfect to me. Laptop->Flac file->Foobar wasapi output->FiiO E10->Ultrasones. My ears distort before Ultrasones now :DRedline2097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-49864811785597733772012-02-22T09:42:36.579-08:002012-02-22T09:42:36.579-08:00Unless you're running Rockbox firmware, and in...Unless you're running Rockbox firmware, and increasing the internal gain setting above 0 dB, the Clip+ will not distort into 40 ohms even at full volume. With the Sansa firmware it won't distort no matter what you do. It's also odd your Onkyo distorts. So if you're hearing distortion with all those sources there might be something wrong with your Ultrasones or perhaps the music NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-60265258688362417032012-02-22T07:26:23.872-08:002012-02-22T07:26:23.872-08:00I have Ultrasones Pro 900s with 40 ohms impedance....I have Ultrasones Pro 900s with 40 ohms impedance. I've cmoyBB 2.03 amp and in higher levels (even ~80 db) it distorts in below scenarios: <br /><br />Sansa Clip -> Ultrasones = Distort<br />Sansa Clip -> Cmoy -> Ultrasones = Distort<br />Laptop -> Ultrasones = Distort<br />Laptop -> Cmoy = Distort <br />Desktop pc -> HDMI -> Onkyo 606 -> Distort<br /><br />I'm Redline2097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-45002781695082922532011-12-25T22:39:58.644-08:002011-12-25T22:39:58.644-08:00The output impedance of a pure DAC is usually not ...The output impedance of a pure DAC is usually not a problem unless it uses a tube output stage or has a very "esoteric" design. But if you're talking about <i>headphone</i> DACs, then the headphone output impedance is very important and should be under 2 ohms or under your headphone impedance divided by 8.NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-64343739816933830562011-12-24T15:34:11.877-08:002011-12-24T15:34:11.877-08:00Hi
please forgive my lack of technical knowlege.
A...Hi<br />please forgive my lack of technical knowlege.<br />A couple questions - <br />-regarding the benchmark - what is the difference between its line out and headphone out?<br />-what signifigance does a DAC's output impedance have if any?<br />for example I own a schiit bifrost.<br />its specs are as follows.<br /><br />Output Impedance: 10 ohms<br />Frequency Response, Analog Summing br777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-71622666892629098362011-10-19T15:11:17.059-07:002011-10-19T15:11:17.059-07:00thanks for exposing nuforce for their shoddy work,...thanks for exposing nuforce for their shoddy work, i find it disgusting how admins @ head-fi have treated you, instead of dropping nuforce as their sponsors they ban you for letting everyone know about a crappy dac...<br /><br />they must be desperate for the dollar...<br /><br />and as for mysteriously disappearing threads i've seen the same thing happen with Burson HA-160 & Burson Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-28884102309075480832011-09-07T05:24:23.745-07:002011-09-07T05:24:23.745-07:00Well well well,
I find the "close knit"...Well well well,<br /><br />I find the "close knit" community of Head-fi kind of comical myself.<br /><br />I was also a member of Head-fi once until....<br /><br />I was being repeatedly berated by another member about liking grado rs1's.He made several personally insulting attacks on me saying that "people like yourself with deep pockets could continue pretending to believe whatevershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06858928218545427404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-37233751649311267162011-04-09T12:51:21.407-07:002011-04-09T12:51:21.407-07:00If you want to know why Jude at head-fi is such a ...If you want to know why Jude at head-fi is such a psychotic autocrat just read the March 2011 Wired article "The Overlords" by Matt Schwartz. He explains how guys like Jude exploit vast numbers of unpaid workers for the "pleasure of the kingly founder whose authority is absolute". Ding! We have a match!<br /><br />He goes on to say "by keeping their organizations in a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-86270142974357017012011-04-03T17:05:26.549-07:002011-04-03T17:05:26.549-07:00NwAvGuy...forget Head-Fi. Many of the threads have...NwAvGuy...forget Head-Fi. Many of the threads have become nothing more than a kindergarten full of inexperienced users posing as experts. Not all, mind you, but many. And the fanboyism and ridiculous statements made as fact pretty much render much of the place useless. I too used to be a Head-Fi regular but lost interest for the reasons above. But there is no doubt a double standard at Head-Fi, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-17681985436590216282011-03-28T07:03:17.519-07:002011-03-28T07:03:17.519-07:00I used to be a big headfi regular. I hung out in t...I used to be a big headfi regular. I hung out in the DIY section and contributed quite a bit (design, build, advice, etc).<br /><br />I was forced to be 'MOT for a day' even though I'm not a company and don't accept their terms for 'playing in their sandbox'. after having my photos and posts deleted and fighting one war after another with the DIY mods, I just simply LEFT Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-2270979026215367312011-03-23T20:19:40.214-07:002011-03-23T20:19:40.214-07:00Awesome - this is what we needed for a very long t...Awesome - this is what we needed for a very long time !! keep it up maan !! we want more data !! awesome.<br />I'm tired of reading posts with paragraphs after paragraphs of the "air between the strings" and the airiness of xyz.. on various forums.<br />Even dedicated blogs by people reviewing expensive dacs, amps and cans and not a single technical explanation..going on and on Chetan Handahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02007107869501529735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-39288562177594137362011-03-22T07:37:43.728-07:002011-03-22T07:37:43.728-07:00"one of the closest-knit communities of its s..."one of the closest-knit communities of its size that I've so far seen, and I'm proud of it" - headfi<br />er... what's this got to do with it? Last refuge of the scoundrel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-67058433645171720992011-03-19T17:36:12.724-07:002011-03-19T17:36:12.724-07:00@RockinCans, I admit I should have done more homew...@RockinCans, I admit I should have done more homework on NuForce before ordering the uDAC-2. I found some good reviews, assumed they had fixed all the problems because it was a 2nd generation product, and they seemed like a decent company. Yeah, I was wrong.<br /><br />And thanks for the feedback on the listening test. I agree it's not the most rigorous of trials. I did send the raw data to aNwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-11495754197807203202011-03-19T12:41:48.845-07:002011-03-19T12:41:48.845-07:00Too bad you let the psychotic bunch at headfi draw...Too bad you let the psychotic bunch at headfi draw you in. If you had done some searches at other headphone and audio forums first, you would have found lots of similar stories.<br /><br />Headfi drives most of the smart ones away leaving only a faint signal against a massive backdrop of deluded noise. Go figure but they seem to like it that way. I have no idea why its as popular as it is.<br /><RockinCansnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-8246044928705746452011-03-19T07:15:47.465-07:002011-03-19T07:15:47.465-07:00Vinylripper you are 100% correct and that's pa...Vinylripper you are 100% correct and that's part of what I was hinting at above and going to cover in a future article.<br /><br />Keith Johnson, a long time well respected audio engineer, gave a talk I attended at an Audio Engineering Society conference. He worked at Ampex back in the day when Ampex was making many of the studio tape machines. One of his key points was the degradation of NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-64427406529349048032011-03-18T23:19:38.068-07:002011-03-18T23:19:38.068-07:00"There are some technical advantages to certa..."There are some technical advantages to certain old vinyl releases versus certain CD releases of the same music. That's a topic I hope to cover in a future blog article." -- NwAvGuy<br /><br />---------------------------------------<br /><br />This is something I've observed for several years in comparing my own vinyl LP rips [using a high quality analog playback front end and vinylripperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18041200638033335050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-5529161040309065022011-03-18T16:51:22.089-07:002011-03-18T16:51:22.089-07:00Vittau, by "real world" do you mean viny...Vittau, by "real world" do you mean vinyl vs CD? If so, that topic has already been well covered from lots of angles. Sort of like many political issues, the preferences pretty much fall along "party lines"--the vinyl lovers vs everyone else.<br /><br />The most amusing (and telling) thing of all to me is you can insert an A/D and D/A into an extremely high-end ($10,000+) all NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-20559991769235703522011-03-18T16:46:34.569-07:002011-03-18T16:46:34.569-07:00The thing that's difficult for many people to ...The thing that's difficult for many people to understand is that Head-fi is a commercial private site. It appears to look like an open BBS or public forum, but it's not. People who post there should know that they are guests. The rules are spelled out - you must accept the terms during registration.<br /><br />As far as applying rules selectively, the Head-fi admins have a lot of posts toUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00660506147516221419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-20762604171963548312011-03-18T12:29:49.316-07:002011-03-18T12:29:49.316-07:00I guess it would be pretty nice to have an article...I guess it would be pretty nice to have an article about why digital IS better than analog (at least on most real world scenarios), and how this can be proved by stuff like the Nyquist Theorem.<br />Though it'll probably end up in flame wars.vittauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05881055772304667803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-81723983700440270092011-03-18T08:50:55.354-07:002011-03-18T08:50:55.354-07:00Thanks Cer. I'll do my best to keep coming up ...Thanks Cer. I'll do my best to keep coming up with interesting stuff including the E-mu review. This blog isn't for me, it's for everyone interested in this stuff. So I also welcome input on what sorts of reviews and articles others would like to see here?NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-76967146138317308782011-03-18T01:35:28.810-07:002011-03-18T01:35:28.810-07:00NwAvGuy, don't worry about the Head-Fi busines...NwAvGuy, don't worry about the Head-Fi business. I wouldn't be surprised if Sound Science subforum gets deleted there at some point. Too much bad vibe for advertisers and sponspors. <br />Your blog on the other hand is awsome and it's a wonderful example about the trouble brewing beneath the warm and fuzzy marketing claims. To me it seems there is at least a potential to a paradigm cerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01078926207585654549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890046273025265768.post-35723449511947485602011-03-17T21:28:39.776-07:002011-03-17T21:28:39.776-07:00Thanks Nate. I was trying to avoid the whole "...Thanks Nate. I was trying to avoid the whole "eyes glaze over" thing yesterday when I deleted the first post which was even longer. In hindsight, I probably should have done the same again. But I wanted to be fair and give Jude his say which is more than he's done for me these last few days on Head-Fi.<br /><br />I don't have a problem with rules. I have a problem with rules NwAvGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309644608738074125noreply@blogger.com