BLIND TEST RESULTS Part I: "Is high Harmonic Distortion in music audible?"...
As you perhaps know, over the years, there have been a number of blind tests conducted here on the blog - "Does high bitrate MP3 sound different from lossess FLAC?", "Does 24-bit sound different from...
View ArticleBLIND TEST RESULTS Part II: "Is high Harmonic Distortion in music audible?"...
Having described the study and procedure last week in Part I for this most recent online blind test, let's continue by looking into the results from the 67 unique respondents. For this post, we will...
View ArticleBLIND TEST RESULTS Part III: "Is high Harmonic Distortion in music audible?"...
As we've seen in Part II last week, based on the preference data, there was a pattern for the respondents to this blind test to choose the samples with lower added distortion as sounding "better". I...
View ArticleMUSINGS/POLL: A lifetime of digital audio storage? Enterprise / Data Center...
For this week's post, I thought I'd spend some time talking about music storage, a recent upgrade, and some thoughts while reviewing my own music collection. A potpourri of observations and ideas,...
View ArticleMEASUREMENTS: Topping DX3 PRO V2 (LDAC version) - plus frequency/amplitude...
So I got another DAC here at home :-). The Topping DX3 PRO (~US$220) is a device meant for those who want wired (S/PDIF TosLink, Coaxial, USB) as well as flexible Bluetooth 5.0 wireless input. There...
View ArticleMEASUREMENTS: Pass Amp Camp Amp (ACA) 1.1. The crossroads between objectivism...
Back in 2012, Dana Brock, Nelson Brock, and Mark Cronander (aka Variac) organized an "Amp Camp" in Northern California at the Brock's ranch. Nelson Pass, well known among audiophile circles,...
View ArticleOWNER'S COMMENTS: Pass Amp Camp Amp (ACA) 1.1 by Mitch Barnett
[What follows are comments from Mitch Barnett, the owner of the Pass Amp Camp Amp 1.1s that I listened to and measured. I appreciate Mitch's input on the matter, it's a great example of how owners of...
View ArticleSUMMER MUSINGS: Post Hi-Res Audio. Why hi-res is often not for the best....
It has been a good summer around here thus far with time off, working around the house, and of course time to enjoy the warm weather for a bit. Here in Vancouver, the late fall to early springs are...
View ArticlePREVIEW: RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition AD/DA Converter
Look what showed up at my door (finally!) the other day. This is the latest hardware update to the RME ADI-2 Pro line of converters, the RME ADI-2 Pro FS R "Black Edition" - quite the mouthful! Let's...
View ArticleDIY: Raspberry Pi "Touch" Audio Streamer (2020) and RoPieee - US$160....
It has been awhile since I built my Raspberry Pi "Touch" Streamer discussed back in 2017. We're here now in 2020 and I had the need to put another one together. Since 2017, I've been using Roon more...
View ArticleRETRO-MEASURE: Pioneer SX-880 receiver (1978). And the amplifier "THD Wars"...
Back in the 1970's, Pioneer among various Japanese brands like Sansui, Sony, Yamaha, and Technics brought popular, budget-conscious audio gear to the masses. With the prices of solid state components...
View ArticleSUMMER MUSINGS: The Soundroom - speaker layout, vibration control &...
I thought before summer's over, it was time to "shoot the breeze" again and talk generally about a very important topic that affects all of us audio enthusiasts with what I hope are some practical...
View ArticleSUMMER MUSINGS: Modern Tech Life; obligatory home computer mechanic - NVMe...
I was actually planning to just take a little break this week but given that it's almost September, I'll be away for Labour Day and school's starting for the kids with likely some virtual elements, I...
View ArticleMEASUREMENTS: RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition as ADC.
About a month ago, I posted this preview of the RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition AD/DA converter. It has been a wonderful month of simply listening to this device without a care around performing...
View ArticleAs We Hear It: Thoughts from an audiophile friend on assembling his sound...
Every so often, I have the pleasure of having friends and readers add their thoughts to these pages. The other day my buddy whom I visited at the end of 2019 (a.k.a. "linnrd" online) sent me this...
View ArticleMEASUREMENTS: RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition as DAC.
Well friends, it's time to publish some measurements of my new RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition ("FS R BE") unit as DAC. For background, refer to the Preview from August and a couple weeks back, I had...
View ArticleHOW-TO: CD Pre-Emphasis & Using SoX De-Emphasis. (And the decline of physical...
Have you ever ripped or downloaded an old music CD that just sounds way too harsh? Sounding like the EQ is accentuated with too much treble? Back in the day, a number of CDs were processed with...
View ArticleFurther Explorations into "Intersample Overs" - Resampling/Downsampling &...
Greetings everyone. It's great to interact with some of you over the years around contents I've posted in this blog. As you perhaps know, recently, I talked about resampling hi-res audio files in my...
View ArticleMusings/Measurements: quasi-Spinorama "qSpin" & the KEF LS50 bookshelf...
Auditioning the KEF LS50 Black Edition, powered by SMSL SA300 Class D amp on computer workstation.With autumn here, sunlight hours reduced and looking towards the rainy months ahead, I thought it would...
View ArticleMUSINGS/HOW-TO: Raspberry Pi 4 "Touch" Audio Streamer, and CRAAP settings!...
Left - Raspberry Pi 4B, Right - Raspberry Pi 3B. Heatsinks installed on both boards.Back in August, I wrote an update on building and running the of Raspberry Pi "Touch" audio streamer with RoPieee...
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