Why you can't trust audio measurements
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- In this video I show various ways in which measurements can be unreliable, changed, misleading, and why you should always take them with a pinch of salt.
Quite a long one but hopefully will be interesting!
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0:00 - Intro
1:56 - Disclaimers
3:08 - Measurements are not exact
4:32 - Measurements can be altered by test configuration
7:21 - Unweighted vs A-Weighted
8:22 - ADC/Analyzer distortion adds to the result
9:30 - Amps must be fed a clean signal to test properly
10:42 - How do you know how the analyzer was configured?
11:40 - Amps: Loads
13:01 - Amps: Measuring at unrealistic levels
13:31 - Amps: Volume control makes a big difference
15:06 - DACs: Standard 4v outputs vs 'Hot' outputs
16:04 - DACs: Noise from PC
17:29 - DACs: Internal settings
18:45 - DACs: Jitter from digital source
19:35 - DACs: Sample rate affects performance
20:31 - Manufacturers: SINAD doesn't tell the whole story
21:30 - Manufacturers: How they optimise for test conditions
23:44 - Why focusing on SINAD can be a problem
27:29 - High SINAD does not mean 'transparent'
27:45 - Outro
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![If you can't hear this then you're not an audiophile [See description for link to followup video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/48PxwspDvrE/mqdefault.jpg)
As a retired measurement engineer with 42 years of experience I fully agree with this video. You have just scratched the surface. But the real take home on this subject is if the measurement is “excellent” then the likely hood of you hearing that difference is minimal given all the other compromises in a real word system. If there is a difference heard then it will be associated with a difference not covered by that particular measurement. Audio reproduction is complex and one must look at perhaps 20-50 different specific measurements to make a valid comparison. Keep up the excellent work.
Can you recommend me a budget rig to measure a doze of earphones I own? I know my ears are the best judge but I was looking at Gras rigs which are way beyond my budget. Thanks
Good think you retired, I guess.
Music is not nearly as complex as you make it out to be. It's just a bunch of sine waves on top of each other that's it.
You clearly don't know left from rigth and thank god you are not working any longer, because every halfwit engineer is a detriment
@@samk.9972 your ears are the worst judge since they are connected to you brain which is also a shit judge. Once you embrace that you embrace that you will come to enjoy your biases and not care as much.
Imagine if stuff worked like this in IT, we wouldn't be able to copy any data because magical unmeasurable parameters would flip the bits.
Expecting the ASR cult members to get outraged here…. 😂
You have this ease of putting complex and specialized subjects in a language that the layman enthusiast or semi expert can understand. I may have gotten about 60% of what you were talking about but I completely got the point of what you were trying to demonstrate. Huge takeaway for me and major props to you 👊🏻
"May your air be most wiggly," is the best sign-off ever.
This has got to be one of the most important videos about product reviews (in general) EVER! One always has to have discernment in product reviews, regardless of who reviewed it and HOW the product was reviewed! Good job @GoldenSound! This is gold indeed! I’m gonna share this to all my friends!
the "my $100 topping/smsl dac is the best sounding dac in the whole world" crowd are very angry right now, i can feel it in my bones.
There's great options at every price point these days. I really like the original kardas toneboards honestly, they sound phenomenal for the money.
Take your bones for a proper blind test. See if they can tell a difference between a capable 500 dollar DS DAC or a 50000 dollar DS DAC. Talk is cheap. Do it.
@@-MarkWinston- done one the ones i couldn't tell apart were a smsl su-8, klipsch heritage and a toneboard. A littledot, topping and a rotel were easy to tell apart honestly. All good dacs littledot excluded but they sound different to each other.
@@DueM any measurements of the littledot, topping and rotel? Measurements will tell if there are any ausible differences. And Im not talking about SINAD either, other parts of the measurement can and would indicate audible differences.
@@-MarkWinston- i left you a reply earlier hopefully you got it. it was left for everyone but it got deleted. so i guess there's no reason for me to post anything else here if that's gonna be censored. wow. that's how this channel wants to carry it.
I really enjoyed this video. The question I'm usually left asking upon visiting ASR is "Yes, OK, but did you LISTEN to it? How did it SOUND?" They seem to value 1) measurements, 2) loudness, 3) looks/form factor/aesthetics, and somewhere--way down the list--how it actually sounds.
ua-cam.com/video/zrpUDuUtxPM/v-deo.html
Because even Floyd Toole agrees, subjective tests in the way that all reviewers do it are USELESS
7:18 is where he exactly says it. Entire thing is worth a watch though
Very interesting video! Thanks for doing this.
Take that, Amir.
@First Last He already object this video in his own website, but two dac sound different.
I guess you didn't watch the video
Amir says Topping D90 is the bestest! But he never listened to it for his review. 😂🤣😂🤣
I'm pretty sure Amir knows about all these things lol. That's why he uses standardized settings for testing. The only difference is Amir doesn't believe that amps or DACs sound different.
He uses standardized settings on his measurements you dingus.. His measurements are the most real world based. The stuff he measures sound as he describes them. I bought most of my setup based on his suggestions and I can tell that you can spend 10s of thousands more, I have, and have the same or worse results.
Alternative title: "How to interpret and understand measurement settings".
Thanks for great work, am glad you’re doing what you do, as some people on youtube etc seem to believe their test regime plus superficial listening test constitutes a complete metric for judgement on the quality of reproduction of recorded music, and as such replaces a longterm listening test.
Excellent video, this will be bookmarked, watched, and rewatched. This is very good information which I think the public deserved to hear. Thank you.
Better if you download it, using any of several add-ons to your browser.
@@cjay2 I could do that yeah, thanks Jay 👍👍
This kind of information and your style of video presentation are exactly why joined your Patreon; informative indeed. Thanks
I saw your reply post that you made under the new account on ASR, and sure enough, they removed it. What kind of place is ASR, where someone isn't even allowed to appropriately respond to accusations against them?
Personally, this is a fantastic and informative video. Please keep up your work!
One Measurement Rig to rule them all, I guess!
I had my account banned after I said I could easily discern the SQ of each of my DACs (all ASR-SOTA level). Even after I followed their null test requirement and the test result 100% supported my judgement they started to ask for further testing seeking a way to disqualify my listening tests. They don't accept that measurements are always incomplete by nature and that listening to the devices should always be the deciding factor.
You continually show that you're one of the best audio gear reviewers! I'd love a deep dive into oversampling/NOS!
Making a buying choice based on ASR's SINAD ranking chart is folly. But we're living in an era when people are more concerned about ease (in buying audio gear) and being "better" than others, instead of relying on one's own ears to tell oneself what one likes.
It’s unrealistic to expect people to shoulder the costs required for such testing. Relying on one’s ears is not necessarily a simple concept when there is cost involved in procuring or encountering the equipment necessary to experiment, along with the time and effort to even work through the process once it’s been enabled.
Also, people can imagine they’re better than others at all different levels of a situation like this (ofc for differing reasons), so I won’t address that further.
Dumb to buy equipment based in SINAD alone. ALL data have to be taken into account.
Absolutely. Hearing the devices always should be the first and most important judgement parameter.
As with nearly all measurements, they are far better equipped to inform us about possible flaws than to educate us on sound, as experienced by the listener.
a pleasure to watch and superbly informative as per usual. cheers!
The problem I have run into is that the gear the measures well doesn’t sound great and the gear that sounds great doesn’t always measure well. Thd and Sinad in my experience typically have little correlation if the amp will sound well (subjectively). So I’m struggling to use objective data when subjectively my Brain is telling me otherwise. Perhaps I enjoy distortion perhaps we cannot measure that which I enjoy or perhaps the measurements are just wrong or inconsistent as you state.
It also have to do with loading of your speaker because of the complexity of crossover and drivers. Those two are just measuring noise nothing else. Like Benchmark AHB2, it is the best in ASR. But you see some user returning this product. It is also well measure in Stereophile. You have to listen to amp with the speaker it drive in subjective way. No way to tell whether the product is worth buying just looking at graphs. I mean lots of people can swore by 300B including me.
I hope the folks from AP see this. I am always pleased to see another unparalleled and highly technical GoldenSound video. Superb.
Within an hour of posting, in fact.
My fellow golden addicts, REJOICE, we’ve got another one!
Subscribed!.. am impressed regarding your transparency in your videos. Learned a lot! Thank you.
Excellent. It is so nice to see something informative like this put up. I think many consumers jump to conclusions regarding measurements without knowing the full picture. I hope this will change some minds.
Greatwork, it shows that, as almost everything in life, one can not reduce things to a hand full of numbers. This is also applicable to cars for example.
Thank you so much for making this video. This kind of information needs to be shared and you're doing good work.
Fantastic video. An excellent challenge to those in both the objectivist and subjective camps that not everything is black and white. Audio, like life, is nuanced and open to interpretation.
Enjoyed this. Thanks, you can tell many hours went into creating such a video.
I finally got a THX AAA 789 months after it started selling out. Measurement geeks were drooling over it.
Several months later I resold it. It was clean but sterile to my ears. That taught me not to give in to the measurement ONLY drones.
I mean, just use an EQ then. Why wouldn’t you want an accurate, clean slate to start with?
@@blueversace4447 if there are some amazing EQ settings that will transform the THX into a V281 or Darkvoice please share them
@@blueversace4447 Adding EQ is good to shape your listening curve. That is alway a phase issue with EQ. That why many audiophile do not wanna touch EQ. It is not get a flat respond and you are done.
@@blueversace4447 this is a timber problem. The thx just sounds dry no matter the headphone plugged into it
what are you using now?
An absolutely fantastic video that every person into audio should watch! Really hope this gets the viewership it deserves.
This is a fantastic and interesting video! Could you do one about AB / double blind testing?
Really interesting, educational and helpful, thanks so much for this thorough walk through, it’s clear that you’ve invested many hours in putting this together!
(trying to post this comment now for the 4th time, youtube is having issues or this channel is filtering comments .... anyway ... ) Excellent -- you get the GOLD medal for this legwork, GOLDENSOUND. Thanks!
BTW ... in your opening, you forgot to mention the other heavyweight, longtime-running OBJECTIVIST forum, hygrogenaudio. They do some in-house measurements but it is mostly a discussion forum of think-tanks.
BTW2 ... If Amir is reading this comment, then I highly encourage him to make a response video as he does with PS Audio.
As always, an amazing video, dude.
Thank-you for this excellent explanation of potential issues with measurements. Those sites that judge a product solely on measurements are overly zealous for my taste. Thus I've told UA-cam not to recommend such channels for viewing. Before I closed that door completely, I noted more than a few posts on one of those site's forums where they were breaking their arms patting themself on the back for browbeating Schitt into changing their design to achieve better measurements. They never seem to have considered GoldenSound's observation. Fine, it measures better, but how does it sound? I've spent a significant number of years performing data acquisition to test and evaluate the performance of various things. So I know the value of measurements. I also know their limitations. I cannot hear music solely by looking at graphs. My ears and brain are not a piece of electronic measuring equipment.
"How does it sound"
I've always found this question interesting, because whenever I've listened to different source gear (outside of tubes/vintage stuff), to me it always sounds like... whatever I'm listening to.
I think the only amp I've ever listened to that sounded any different than other amps has been the Jotenheim, in which everything felt like it was bleeding together, almost muddy.
Same with any kind of lossless and above, same with DACs. No matter what headphone, no matter what source, I always just kind of listen, and go, "...That's it?"
Not only that, but when half the people who say it's a night and day difference, whenever I bust out my switcher and SPL meter to do some matching, whenever they blind-switch between the two, suddenly they have no idea what device is being used.
So... I dunno. I think both camps take themselves far too seriously and think they're just imagining stuff, which is super easy to do with your auditory perception. Just get a headphone you love, a nice, clean amp/DAC, and enjoy your fucking music. If you want weird flavor, that's what tubes/EQ is for.
@@KaneAmaroq You seem to be reading more into my comment than I actually said. I wanted to keep the comment short and thus was certain that someone would read way too much into it. I do not go solely by subjective criteria. But in the end, I have to like the way it sounds... to my ears. No one else's. I never claimed to be able to pick out subtle differences between gear in blind A/B testing. And I do not believe that the vast majority of people could pick out the difference between gear with marginally different SINADs. And that's my point. Going solely by measurements is not for me. I never said anything about wanting weird flavors.
Technically speaking, I think that what you just said is exactly what the human brain is lol. Just a very complex one.
This is excellent, thank you! Perhaps you could share a list of reviewers who provide detailed measurements like this, that you mentioned briefly? I was only aware of ASR and found you today. Nice to know more.
Just from a viewing perspective it would keep my brain more engaged if I could watch you speaking.
Have a debate with Amir.....and get CRUSHED
Thanks a ton for this video. Hugely valuable to advancing the discussion
Awesome and AMAZING Explanation! Great job!!!!!
This is amazing, I won’t pretend to have been able to follow everything, but the important areas I do understand where massively helpful.
Educate, inform, entertain. Nice job
We needed this video so much. This is part of why I never really paid attention to measurements. I give more credit to subjective feedback, especially when I could validate their impression by testing a piece of equipment myself. It worked for me and I am happy with what I have.
Great educational content!
This is excellent content! I'd love to see you review the Musetec MH-DA005 DAC as that is one where I'd love to see an impartial review which looks at not only measurements but also real listening tests.
As a retired electronics design engineer, I just LOVE this channel. The centrists view is a relief compared to the closed minded channels like Audio Science review. I get more out of reviews here. Very, very well done, Thankyou SO much!
why do you say audio science review is close minded?
@@XX-121 Because they are, they look at pure data and treat is as the end all be all. They even said i2s is the same to spdif, let that sink in.
Yes ASR fanatics are very close minded .
Fourier is sadg
Totally agree. I find ASR to be just as disingenuous as any subjective reviewer - either that or just ignorant.
Nice! I appreciate the look behind the measurements. I do think you can trust folks that are genuinely consistent to have 'useful' measurements, but I do agree that there should be some careful subjective insight to help you understand the full picture.
from now on i won't believe any of these measurement. Thank you sir.
Very informative video. Thank you.
Thanks for this! Very much needed info...
Very informative! Thanks a lot, that helps me as a consumer to unterstand whats going on. And a big take away for me: know your reviewer and the conditions of testing and how that translate to your situation.
Thanks for all your great reviews, I really like your approach.
Useful measurements with a serious analyzer, combined with subjective listening experience, Perfect!
May I suggest the Bluesound Node (N130) for a review with all the measurements.
I've got one since a week and the subjective listening experience is much better than with my Sonos Connect(with Tentlabs clockmod), both using an external DAC, BlackLion Sparrow Red.
I guess the clock of the Node is quite good and has low jitter, could you back up my guess, or proof me wrong? ;)
Reading the topic on a certain forum and seeing how they take things out of context so much is painful.
I did make a response to this. It was of course deleted almost immediately. However if anyone wishes to read it there is an archive.org copy of the page here: web.archive.org/web/20220421140602/www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/why-you-cant-trust-audio-measurements-by-goldensound.33222/page-4
@@GoldenSound I've been following all the story, and you didn't chicken out as they say.
Amir was the first one to "reboot" the challenge as he said. Then you stop participating and the overall idea was that you chicken out when in reality you were banned.
Of course your reply would not be visible for some time because not only you overcome the rules of the forum by posting in a different nickname (most forum have rules that prevent overcoming ban by creating a new user) but because you "opened the Pandora box" and that may result in further scrutiny by third parties and assumptions when something is rated higher than others.
Specially when in the end of each review he keeps asking for more Patreon donations. I'm not saying his work should be free but someone as him could easily get a job at any company or even in the standards industry that would pay his bills, if the accolades he say to have are true, of course.
I'm not a member of his forum, and I don't pretend to because I have a issue with "I'm always right" type of mentality and deflection of mistakes, combined with blind following. I remember perfectly Amir being supportive of MQA, that you debunked.
For someone who is and claims to be objectivist and measurements driven person, I found it strange he doesn't first tried to analyse such codec claims before stating his position, specially when the licence agreement had come to light and the "Management Rights" were clearly the main focus of the Codec itself, or the big 3 audio publishers who control 75% of the market would not had jumped ship without thinking twice. We know perfectly well that they would not do it if the only advantageous setting was for the consumer.
It was disadvantageous for the consumer and highly profitable for their coffers.
Way better detail and explanation with transparency than the other measurement channels.
Thank you for the excellent insights
Very well organized, I enjoyed it a lot and it highlighted a lot of the parameters that can affect the measurement outcomes of a device.
One thing I'd like to contend about (or would like a more detailed explaination of) is if the Rebel's "warmth" could be indicated by any of the measurements you have made. You pointed out in 21:14 that its THD+N ratio rises with frequency, but I fail to see how ~0.02% at ~10khz is even significant for audiability (taking into consideration 1. the absolute threshold for hearing and 2. masking due to ambient noise and signal).
Excellent video! Bravo
Thank you for a very intertaining interesting video!
Great video! Thanks
Your voice is so clear and engaging.
Ha ha ! well done Sir! thanks for your insight information on test settings. In engineering we have a say 'What is the load?' and you can't arguing with the science, that's you can't hear below -120db.
This is like the matrix moment where neo sits in the chair and gets information downloads. :)
This is a must watch !
Yes it's on the individual to improve understating and interpretation of data points. My slow crawl to better understanding is quite fun so far.
Yep. ALL data must be interpreted.
Nice to see someone else carrying this torch. Well done!
Nothing but awesome!!! Thank you!
Once again a fantastic video
Thanks for the advice, cheers
You're very honest, i love this video . Just shows you how certain sites can cook the numbers. Using a SINAD value at 1KHZ is really poor, especially not showing the full console to show how the AP is configured, kudos to you sir for your honesty!
having just bought an audio analyzer, this is usefull to think about when trying to get consistent usefull readings
That's why I always believe controlled listening test. For example if comparing two streamer transports. You need a friend to hook up the units and there is a cover over your equipment rack so you don't know which one is hooked up. In your room with your equipment with your music. Let your ears, brain & heart to choose the one that you like the most. It's that simple.
Also make sure you're able to level-match the two, even a 0.5 dB difference in volume will make you prefer the louder source, because it'll sound more 'clear and impactful' to you.
@@KaneAmaroq Yes for sure! And also no pressure. You have to be relaxed in your surrounding!
Measurements are not music.
That's how we ended up with Delta Sigma/high oversampling DACs ruling the roost when a TDA1543 or similar type DAC may sound better as the noise is pushed out of band with high sampling types.
In real world, high sampling rate reduce floor noise. Your filter can be implemented much higher than audible frequency. With DSD 512 or 758kPCM, you can throw the filter away. This is the chip itself. All the components surround the chipset contributed more of the overall performance.
I never have to discuss SINAD with anyone ever again. Thank you. I'll just link this video whenever anyone brings it up now.
I enjoyed every minute!
I'll stick with my ears and brain measuring how much pleasure i get from any bit of kit.
Topping A90 measures incredibly well, i auditioned it and hated it bigtime. Bright, harsh, cold, not a great soundstage and just not my cup of tea.
I auditioned the Benchmark HPA4, what a fabulous amp, another THX amp that measures extremely well but completely different to the Topping. Sounded next level with my planars, made them sound like electrostats however, a bit too neutral for my HD800.
In the end i settled for a Violectric V550 Pro, works really well for both cans and while i have no idea how that measures i really loved the sound.
I'm very glad i take little notice of measurements. 👍
Interesting experience, I've used an A90 and couldn't possibly describe it any way you mentioned. To me it just sounds 100% uncolored. No harshness, definitely not bright at all (it's totally flat, after all), and cold... Again. it's extremely neutral. I think you might just have a preference for warmth, AKA boosted high-bass/lower mids.
To me it sounded 100% identical to the HPA4 I demoed. Not a lick of difference between the two.
But then again, I also level-matched both with an SPL meter, swapped between them within 0.5 seconds using a switcher, and did it completely blind. If you don't take those into account, your sense of expectation WILL affect how you hear. It is 100% unavoidable.
That's why you can't really trust your ears for anything but preference, UNLESS you eliminate every single factor that can influence your sense of hearing.
In Toppings defense, you were using an absolute wonkfest of a headphone with it. If the HD800 doesn't sound wonky as hell, there's an issue in your chain :D
@@KaneAmaroq You don't have a clue what i prefer, and it's a good thing we all hear things differently otherwise life would be extremely dull and annoying to say the least.
@@Gamez4eveR There are zero problems in my chain, my cans are doing great thanks. This is the problem with opinions, if you express one that is contrary to a fanboy of a particular product they will tell you that you're wrong or you have a problem. Thank god we all think differently.
@@spanmanuk You described a preference for warmth, I'm sorry you're so offended by others recognizing it.
Also ignored the fact that it was probably just in your head, lol.
Some numbskull members from ASR should watch this and refute with evidence if they do not agree with this. These knuckleheads will tell you that the THX 798 and and Rebel will sound exactly the same when volume matched just by glancing through the provided data.
Excellent explanation. Now I finally understand why many of ASR's top DACs, preamps and Amps that I have blindly purchased where easily surpassed on listening tests by others that measured worse. The X26 pro mentioned by you is one of the betters that I have. Easily on par with my Chord TT2. The TT2 do some things slightly better and some slightly worse. Question: it is the upsampling built into Roon good enough to avoid purchasing an M-Scaler or the Chord's algorihm is better?
Great video enjoyed this very much, and I've learnt quite a bit about subjective measurement.👍👍👍👍🎧😁
We are quite aware of what you point out. I always consider results as "ballpark" and useful proxies for real world results all things considered. There is no "philosopher's stone" inside the test rigs. But they do provide very useful info. Way better than the waffle that some people put out.
Any academically serious analysis should ideally include a "tech file" defining the test procedure and configurations used.
We are proceeding incrementally, measuring becomes more useful as accepted practice evolves for the better.
The best audio equipment video ever !
i love these videos. this comes at a time where I'm returning an incredible good measuring amp because it sounds flat and compressed. meanwhile, even if the measurements are done well, one of the guys from audio precision himself talks about why the methods we use are insufficient in the first place ua-cam.com/video/J6d14cTiCjI/v-deo.html
Highly informative video, so well explained. So the next question is: how do we measure things the APx555 analyzer is not able to test? Can it tell us everything we need to know about timing, spatial cues, separation, sound stage and other aspects about how the human ear perceives sound? Perhaps it is technically impossible to do so yet, but a wider range of testing seems to be needed.
I love this kind of video
This viewpoint is a good balance between objective and subjective, because objectivists don't think amps/dac can sound different if they measure similarly and subjectivists think measurements don't matter. Excellent video.
I'm in the weird camp of "measurements don't really matter much, and subjective impressions don't really matter much, most people fail blind tests between gear anyway." I just think that most of the things that both camps claim to be able to hear aren't even there. Human hearing just isn't that good. You can barely hear -60 dB of distortion outside of test tones, let alone -120 dB.
So when people tell me that their modern, non-faulty amp changes the staging, or that -140 dB of jitter is audible (which does not manifest in audible time-domain differences, it causes extremely minuscule Doppler Effect changes between samples, AKA a very slight frequency shift), I just kind of roll my eyes.
@@KaneAmaroq I'm weird too. I'll join your camp. I'm also newbie and have only experienced a limited amount of gear, even though I'm buying it up like mad.
I have an engineering side, and understand practically that something like a DAC or amp has to adhere to sound engineering principals to even function.
But I'm also a musician, and I can just listen for myself to determine what I like. I can't measure how much I like music, either. All that said, I sit somewhere in the middle, or maybe the outside, just hovering above it all open-minded and realizing I haven't heard enough gear to say that measurements are all that matters or don't matter at all.
Can you measure the SH9 to see if it has any flaws and how much power it actually has. SMSL seems to be lying about it. I'm a sucker for relay volume control and display so it's the only option at these prices.
A big part of the reason I just ordered a Holo Spring 3 KTE was because you said the jitter was extremely low via USB and an external DDC wasn’t necessary. I’ve been looking to reduce my digital front end from two boxes to one. Uh oh...we’ll see.
@First Last
Wow. Maybe I should keep mine?
I keep hearing that at some point in your signal chain, get the signal to go through a glass optical cable to eliminate any kind of emi or rfi. I wonder if anyone else has experience with this versus a dedicated DDC that never goes optical.
This video got me to subscribe. Well done.
Will your next video be about the Gustard X18?
I put more weight on linearity and 1st and 2nd harmonics than sinad.
Thanks for a great video
Can't wait for the rest of the "Why you can't trust...." series videos. I would like to know more about how something MAY not be as reliable as it seems. The aforementioned comment not aimed at any one person , channel, or video.
I’m reminded of an interview with
Dan 'd Agostino..he built an exceptionally well measuring amplifier..it had all the numbers and power that you could ever want ..just one tiny tiny problem.
IT SOUNDED LIKE SHIT WHEN PLAYING MUSIC.
As you’ve just showed ..measurements ( biased or not) are only a guide and as a Wiggly Air Enthusiast..there’s so much more to the game.
Great and informative video .
Thank you.
☕️🥓🤣👍
@@buffal0bilious TOOOOOOOBBBBBBSSS
Brilliant, thanks...
Fantastic video. Thank you. Nice headphone dummy load too... :)
I'm on board with the intent of this video. In any engineering test you document the procedures and the findings. That way someone who wants to repeat the test can do so and they should then arrive at the same result. Where there are differences are almost always attributed to the test procedure itself and not product variation. This is standard stuff in every field. Not just audio components. Anyone who takes issue with your encouragement for that are simply doing so out of spite and letting their emotions override logic.
So, yes, document the procedures and publish the results. Simple.
I also agree that often too much importance is placed on a single value metric (such as SINAD) and the other parts of the whole are tossed by the wayside.
However, you lost me at 27:30 with the statement that "two devices with the same SINAD levels can sound very different". While I agree this is certainly possible, you provided a generic statement with no footing. You spent the better part of 25 minutes making many valid points with examples. And then you dropped that statement as if it were an afterthought. I wish you had taken steps to provide an example of when you have seen this and then provide reasons why that was the cause (i.e., frequency response, different voltage levels needed to reach this SINAD match, etc). This, to me, is much more helpful in providing rationale for a) why measurements can be misleading and also b) how proper measurements can help us learn *why* Product A sounds different than Product B. In my opinion, that should be the goal of a reviewer using data to help supplement their review. I don't believe it serves much purpose to say "here is data, and by the way, this is what I heard" without at least attempting to reconcile those two things.
At any rate, I hope you understand where I'm coming from and don't take this personally. Overall, I'm in complete agreement. I just think this video would have benefited the community if you had taken the extra step to explain your ending statement (or you had simply left that out). Maybe that's a topic for a later video...
Take care,
Erin
Although I rarely change hifi gear... I still remain interested in developments and borrow or go to demo stuff from time to time ....just to keep up!
However while measurements are statistically interesting to compare between different products I came realise a long time ago that my ears and tastes are coloured! So I have often still preferred to rely on them.
Golden, can you please do a video where you recommend different portable dac amps?
How do you know whether a Dac depends on usb grounding or not? I wouldn’t want to get a galvanic isolator by intona as you have only to find out it messes with my Dac poorly. Is there an easy way to find out this info?
You unfortunately can't say for certain without a good ADC to test. But in 99% of cases if your DAC uses a 3-pin IEC connector, it's grounded by the PSU and does not need USB ground.
If it used a DC barrel power supply then check whether the external power supply has a connected ground pin or not
Bravo! Nice video
Does the Gustard x26 Pro suffer from the same lack of headroom because of SINAD sacrifices?
T, Have I just been lucky? None of my gear is grounded and dead silent. Old house no gounded outlets. Best, D.
Great video.
Thank you for your super transparent presentation of how equipments are measured. Could you please consider measuring and reviewing products from Ian Canada. There are several users of Ian’s products across the world and the content should be relevant.