Gandhi wrote: > That thread mentions an absolute goldmine of crazy. Bury most of your > face in pillows and read with eyes half-closed! You have been warned. > http://www.stereophile.com/content/zanden-5000-mkivsignature-da-converter-2000-premium-cd-transport-measurements
andy_c wrote: > Wow, the measurements of that DAC really suck! A bargain at $15,470! :D To JA's credit he really bash the product but probably holds back a bit due to comercial concerns . The truth is any supermarket 50$ DVD player outperforms it even the revised performance with the other sample . So actually stereophile is doing well pointing out that it does suck . It's a lovely piece of kit in that I higligths so many wrongs at the same time . Let's mention just a few of them . What kind of cargo cult delusion went trough the designers head ? analog absolute phase switch ? And that probably just the beginning of all flawed designed deciosn made . This points out the necessity of measurments in hifi reviews . High end brands can make very weird stuff that needs to be singled out and more normal brands can make honesty mistakes . Let's measure an audio note DAC voodoo design galore:P and also some modern home theater amp the complex functionality of those makes mistakes likly software bugs etc . It's also interesting to see how the subjective review fails and the necessity to improve these . The listening sessions must improve and be blinded somehow , but an open part is needed to asses look and feel and functionality . Blind part can be weeks it does not need to be 30 second snippets , just saying . It's also tells how hard it's is to do and how high the human hearing treshold really are , the performance is abysmal but they still can listen to it . Tells something on how random a subjective review would be on a well performing product where all artefacts are below human hearing tresholds....... And the audiophile culture that embraces such products stratospheric price tags steampunk design esthetics some mystics and smoke and mirrors then nano seconds of jitter is just fine :D whereas such a thing is a liability in other more normal products , it's completely irrational ? These kind of products is a large part of the ad revenue ? For more fun follow some of the ads on the website ? Of the adds where more normal no audioquest or similar the editorial policies would more possible to actually enforce and be somewhat in the interest of all parties . The will ofcourse still be conflicts of interest . And a normal hifi brand would be probaly be more able to suck up a bad review if they trusted the magazine , but as it is now when any garbage can be praised and good products gets doomed by the " God for its price " moniker ( remeber it's must be expensive to be high end :P ) . Is seems like audimagazines have resorted to never give bad reviews or so subjective ones that no reader can really make any assumptions and then scoop in the ad revenue . It does not have to be a direct conspiracy an indirect way makes it even better. Magizine makes random harmless articles on very posh and expensive stuff and ad department sells ads to brands accommodating to that market . Brand x does not have to buy a good review ! Magizes just have to nurture a culture of wideyed gullible marks that willingly accepts this culture and it's values . But I'm very suspicious of the direct product recommendations some British hifi rags do ? Hmm . But this makes very bad consumer oriented journalism , no reader gets any help to actually further his/hers interst in Audio and HiFi . You don't get any more knowledgeable in the science on how audio really works or any solid product advice . -------------------------------------------------------------------- Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH 2 x MeridianDSP5200 MeridianDSP5200HC 2 xMeridianDSP3100 +Rel Stadium 3 sub. Bedroom/Office: Boom Kitchen: Touch + powered Fostex PM0.4 Misc use: Radio (with battery) iPad1 with iPengHD & SqueezePad (spares Touch, SB3, reciever ,controller ) server HP proliant micro server N36L with ClearOS Linux http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103223 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
