As We See It

"In absolute terms, digital sources can now provide better sound—of the organic, soulful, affecting kind—at lower prices, and in better ways, than any other component category".

This is so true, I always marvel when listening at home to a lowly Stello U3 and Moon 300D DAC trounce a very expensive YBA CD1a and Linn Ikemi for a small percentage what those two units cost. The sound isn't even close. On that point Mr. Schryer is right the new technology has the potential to democratize our hobby to the point where front end sources costing thousands of thousands are no longer needed. Still, having said all that I do miss the record stores that used to exist on every 4th city block, that loss is very much missed.

...And we have killed him."

—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (sorta)

These days there is no rational justification for the existence of overpriced top shelf "audiophile" equipment, at least as far as electronic parts are concerned. (You may want to spend a bit more on decent speakers.)

Modern op amps and power amp ICs equal or beat top shelf stuff hands down, and for a fraction of the price. There is no way some one man outfit (of the kind popular with "true" audiophiles) can compete with the likes of Texas Instruments in terms of design, quality control, and performance.

A Giant Killer, Entry Level Preamp for Only $15,000!!"
Trust me when I say, THAT RIGHT THERE is killing audiophilia and far worse, all of two channel audio.
V.P.I. goes back to aluminum platters which ring like a BELL to get people to upgrade their tables.
Following in the footsteps of the long defunct Garrard 301, which rumble like a Sherman Tank, they are now using rim-drive.
Add in the ridiculous amount of snake oil such as the charlatan Shunyata does a demo about peak wall current comparing an 18 GA. wire to their $1,000 EIGHT GAUGE.
Also funny is that, years back, Stereophile raved about the JBL S-38 speakers: That is because it was the first time in five years that they opened their mind up enough to review something that cheap. Stereophile Magazine and The Absolute Sound have more to do with this than anybody else out there, with their imaginings of the, "GLORY" of a $5,000 power cord. - When after running through miles of garbage wire, and then 6 feet of OFC, the very next thing that electricity does is get converted to D.C.
ADIOS!! :-)

What up, folks?

Usually, that kinda talk generates a steaming pile of "You jealous low renters just don't understand high end audio."

Now it's "as we see it?"

Hey, next week, any of y'all who say what this month's As We See It says, watch the responses!

Heck, go back through the blogs and see it in action.

Strange scenes inside the high end gold mine!

I dunno - the Advents I bought in 1971 cost $204 the pair, which is $1228 in today's money. Certainly affordable. But "top shelf" speakers then, like the HQD or Fulton J-mods were way out of reach, never minding the amps needed, and (gasp!) a proper large room to support the deep bass. Today I'd consider $2500 or thereabouts for speakers, up to $10000 or so for a full system. I don't think things have changed much. I can probably get speakers today for less money than the HQD's cost (adjusted for inflation) that would do everything they could do.

What a meaningless fluff piece!

It would have been more worthwhile to print lorem ipsum!

Generally, the audiophile magazines and boutique equipment makers are not concerned with everyday listening. There are plenty of systems out there that are affordable. But, I agree, streaming, smart phones and such will dominate the near future. Only old people can afford and appreciate very expensive gear.

The audio magazines are not in touch with anyone under retirement age. Younger people will come up with their own ideas and things will change.

But, when those young people get older, and the next group of young people come along, expect the same thing. What is new now will be conservative then, and not relevant to the next generations, just like being an audiophile is not relevant to today's youth. Something new will always come along. In other words, get ready for the sonic implants, they will sound better than today's best gear. Sorry, you will be dead by then.

This topic is so old it expectorates dust. High end audio dies every year. Do you all have a list of "go to" topics you just pull off the shelf and assign to editors at regularly scheduled intervals?

Next week, why the internet is killing brick-and-mortar stores and the lack of women/young/new people in our hobby.

We aren't talking about what you personally do or listen to, we are talking about the magazine and the audio industry.

The "shlock" that young people listen to could never be any worse than the shlock old people listen to, Journey, Kansas, Van Halen, Toto and all of that.

The so called audiophile hobby, certainly diverse in its manifestations and obsessions that range from brand cults, snob status, lifestyle kitsch, impossible collections and long forgotten authentic love for music, etc., is so plagued by false promises, scientific and technological inaccuracies, urban legends, cognitive illusions, false advertisement and outright fraud, it's about time it simply implodes. I sincerely wish it did die out as a the perverse and empty consumerist mirage for "first-world" retirees and feeble minds that it is.

But the paradigms that the obsolete fools who spend what they don't have on a bunch of unsubstantiated and criminally false claims, will not easily abandon their expectations. Nor will the criminals who prey and profit on their ignorance; be it selling components that the currently available technology have made obsolete and superfluous, or by the advertisement scheme that feeds the frenzy with more ambiguities, hype and false claims.

After more than 3 decades that digital technology definitively left the previous analogue media in the dust, we are still caught up in myths and ignorance that fraudulent business models feed on. Before the democratizing force of digital technology is finally done with media corporations, exploiting record labels and the rest of the middle-men chain - which certainly includes the self proclaimed golden eared dilettantes who write reviews about topics they have no technical expertise on - the audiophile imbecility will most certainly continue to persevere.

The fact that almost any decently engineered USB DAC today is audio transparent, i.e., all the distortion products and defects it could introduce are beyond the realm of human ear, and that there are even a few amplifiers that even beat the very best DACs - such as the Benchmark AHB2 and the HYPEX NCore - at relatively reasonable prices, just rubs the truth in the face of $10K+ - and even $5K+ - components. The fact that active speakers, and even more so, open baffle speakers and transducer technology have reached amazing results that don't cost more than your house - such as the developments of Herr Linkwitz or the likes of Spatial audio - smashes the more-money=better-sound paradigm into smithereens. Not to mention the advancements in DSP and active crossovers that components such as the DEQX HDP5 have achieved.

The absolute state of the art stereo playback chains available today, should not set you back more than $20K (for example a DEQX HDP5, a pair of AHB2s or DIY Hypex NCores and a pair of Spatial audio Uniwave X-1s or Linkwitz LX521s - and very competent systems shouldn't set you back more than $10K (for example, a Benchmark DAC3, an AHB2 and a pair of Spatial audio M3s).

The fact that the best D/A converters and Power Amps have ample headroom with regard to the very best A/D converters, mic-prees and microphones, should already say something about the state of the art of audio playback systems, and where digital audio technology is at today with respect to the limits of our human hearing.

The $10K+ component fetishes that don't even approach the performance of $2 or $3K components today, only exist because people can still make money with BS claims, false advertisement and get away with fraud in the absence of proper market regulations and consumer protection laws. And of course because there's an overblown speculative advertisement industry based on a bunch of BS algorithms that is bound to implode big time in the not so distant future.

If you really appreciate and truly enjoy music, do yourself a favor: read specifications, understand what they mean and when they are incorrect and meaningless, and learn a little about science and digital technology before you buy the latest hype being shouted at you by advertisements, unqualified journalist and snake-oil salesmen.

Although they are a rare exception, there are some manufacturers out there that actually tell the truth about their products and about the technology they develop and sell, and they are usually responsible and qualified engineers - not opportunistic boutique designers and startups. They are of course out for your money like anybody else, but have the ethical cojones not to be set on ripping you off.

Take a look at the application notes written by Benchmark's lead engineer John Siau for example. He might be out for your money like anybody else, but you could just as well use the accurate technical information provided by Benchmark's website to shape a sound criteria and buy something less expensive, and more importantly, avoid being ripped off.

The audiophile mindset and industry might be close to the grave, but we can certainly collaborate in giving it a last push over the edge.

With the advances of technology (dsp,dacs, etc), DIY is also making a huge comeback. I have a DIY dac based on a AK4490SEQ chip and I'm using a Burson V dual opamp with it. Smooth as silk and very detailed. I listen to everything from my 20TB Nas server, and my PC that runs JRiver. One of these days (after my home renovations are done), I'd like to invite a reviewer to listen how the "poor folk" do it. It may not be Magico - but you may be impressed considering the way it's done.
P.S. No computer noise either - silent......

I love mono also...

..as Robert says, because digital-tech offers the highest quality source we ever had. And not all physical media wears out -CDs for example, at least so far.

With LP re-appearing on the radar, maybe, for the music lover/collector, they can offer a 'CD album'. Say a 10-inch sleeve containing vintage-like art/info with a music CD. CD still offers best sound, pay and own (vs. pay-not own) and ease of distribution (new artists, rip and burn, etc).

Quality sound is more wide-spread than ever. Today's 'bookshelf speakers' sound far better than designs of the 70s. The same goes for car audio. It's not all earbuds !!

Some of us who have been putting these music systems together (and designing)for 30 plus years might say, music systems and their technologies actually have progressed in a stable evolutionary manner. From our point of view, we saw much of high end audio veer off the path and inflate their own agendas, that we knew in the long run were going to need to get back on track or fade.

It's the smart man who realizes reinventing a perfectly good wheel is like roaming the wilderness for 40 years, pointing a finger at the latest hype. The real listener has been on track this entire time and has learned the variables of audio and how to judge music and systems as a moving object.

Michael Green
www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Reading this article has me focused on one thing-never letting audiophilia go. In the 1970's, I invested heavily in Sansui, Marantz, Pioneer, McIntosh, JBL, Klipsch, Aodio-Technica, Shure, Kenwood, Akai and JVC. I saw the writing on the wall as gear was getting made that was beginning to lose it's appeal. You remember the 1980's stereo products, right? I have some of the best stuff of each manufacturer and some things that are still wonderous. I have several Shure V-15 III's, AT20ss cartridges, Marantz 2500 & 2600 receivers, Sansui AU-22000, Pioneer Spec amps, Sansui QRX-9001, QSD-1 quad processors, Klipschorn, Cornwalls, JBLJubals, L-100's, etc. I will be able to listen to high-fidelity until I die. I also picked up new stuff such as an Oppo Blu-Ray Player and a new Technics turntable! I was worried when records started losing out to CD's but I am happy as a clam that new higher grade vinyl is being produced again. Sure, there is new gear but I am happy having my 70's stuff that pleases me and my friends. I have heard much of the expensive gear of today but am not sure it beats my stuff. $100,000 for a pair of speakers? Wow! Maybe if I was 20 years old and could appreciate the range but at 65, my Klipschorns are just fine. Long live Sterophiles!

In my opinion, the key to having the best sound is not how much you can afford to spend on equipment, or even how much you want to spend. The key is knowledge. Knowledge of what "best sound" is; not the exaggerated "Hi Fi" sound with tilted frequency responses one often hears in shops and audio shows, but what one hears in great concert halls and other performance venues. Knowledge is knowing what can really make a difference. For example, one can spend thousands of dollars on cables, but not really understanding how they affect your system. instead of spending a lot of money on power cables, how many people measure the electric phase of their equipment, or even better use balanced ground (using balanced isolation transformers) ?
For me, the minimal conditions required to achieve the best sound include: Balanced circuitry and signal wiring; solid core wiring (preferably pure silver) of minimal diameter or use foil; star grounding; no passive crossover (use electronic crossover); using power amps with the lowest rated power possible with high sensitivity speaker drivers (to minimise thermal compression during high power delivery, as well as avoiding parallel output devices, be it tubes or transistors)., minimal or no negative feedback. And of course proper acoustic treatment of the listening environment. This is the conclusion I have arrived at after 30 years in this hobby.

Re: "EXAMPLE" new
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 19, 2017 - 8:03am

Dear John Atkinson,

I had posted comments in your GJH article in 2016 on musicality first. Amazingly many per my subject terms do not share about music's musically as in live performances! So please don't get me wrong..

A. Isn't acoustic setup just as important, if not more important than electronics setup and integrations? Didn't late John Crabbe your former boss at Hi-Fi News coined the word "eigentones" for sound reverberations from walls & other objects in a listening room? Though not heard directly, they can muddle up music's dynamics especially on superbly musical systems. No that it doesn't my modest AIWA

As it's the heart of Rhythm, Tempo, Timing, Sense of music & songs passion expressed by musician & singers. Thus a music system like my good old Japanese AIWA midi-component system is as musical as ever. No edginess, good highs, expressive midrange & rhythmic instrumental basses too.

Of course no stupendous staging like my IRS Gamma ribbon speakers With its purely bass drivers' foam surround material changed and specially treated for near long lifespan with chemicals. And its servo control unit with my special mods for the special roll surrounds changes & separation of servo bass unit's all analogue adjustments for total L & R integration acoustically.

Units are ~3m from front wall & ~ 1 metre from side walls with no back wall in a 3.7m wide living room extending to a kitchen American style. Total 15m+ long. Few have my acoustic luxury. And its stupendous bass rendition as deep rhythm bass of 10 of ft or longer just flow pass me by in a bi-amp setup. A dear friend once said, although bas is secondary to music, without it music loses it \s completeness. I agreed but not that it can be enjoyed at that limited extend. just ignore what's lacking to enjoy its musicality limitations. Mindset are all of my subject "...philes".

In closing of this, character branding of music systems is as much as ladies of sophisticated clothings, handbags & their etc matching paraphernalia.

B. Now, @[Example] "May Issue of Stereophile: new
Submitted by DaveThreshold on April 18, 2017 - 7:08pm declared that:
"Stereophile Magazine and The Absolute Sound have more to do with this than anybody else out there, with their imaginings of the, "GLORY" of a $5,000 power cord. - When after running through miles of garbage wire, and then 6 feet of OFC, the very next thing that electricity does is get converted to D.C.".

My reply. Do know that all industrial power cables aren't dirty garbage. It is as you purported without real technical knowledge as they all spec for high conductivity to transmit high electric power minimum power losses. More than meets the eyes of one w/o knowledge & real-world professional experience of such systems up the high Kilovolts with step-up & down power transformers. More other speciality devices for short-circuit protections etc function to minimize failures & dangers to one & all!

Kindly do refrain from making statements from not even an amateur professional position. As it throws red-herrings to become legitimate in the minds of others who knows no better.

Sincerely,

Ron Koh - From Singapore

Dear John Atkinson,

Further insights.

The lower the signal level to interconnecting signal voltage cables, the more important is their conductivity. And so the higher their copper conductivity, the thinner their conductors and the wire strands for the earth return braiding can be too. And I found out that about 1.8M seems to about the better length for interconnects. This is also strangely generally irrespective of conductor types and overall interconnect construction.

It defies all technical logic and flies in the face of engineers who knows well of how low level audio signals travel through a pair of screened (braided) twin stereo interconnects. Am as puzzled as ever.

Normal it is the interconnect cable capacitance of each screened conductor affecting the high frequencies response by rolling them down. And it also depends on the value of the cable capacitance. However I reasoned it is the dynamic structures of music's fast transients or to put it in normal terms, dynamic levels & speed that is affected by conductivity & cable capacitance effects!

That said, you have done so many measurements with square waves to show leading & lagging roll-off, I wonder ion detail how they may not be enough to conclusively give some laudable explanations to this moot phenomena I have observe. of interconnect lengths too, I found out only out of curiosity by starting with an arbitrary 2M length.

In rounding up, let's musical signals are very complex signals of always varying multiple audio band signals in a composite structure electrical construct. Thus, more analysis even by complex mathematical, I loath to say can never ever explain such a thing to convincing complete. As we are also dealing with our ears of varied experiences about musicality affect by exposure, mental prejudices very prevalent etc. All far too complex to discuss here. But it does give us some idea of how complicated when subjectivity is also involved.

Please note that I am not attempting to stamp out such interesting discussion in Stereophile Magazine. Contrary, it is the only Hi-Fi Systems review magazine that I respect after Hi-Fi New that I still read. And it is not just the way you John's way of technical measurements, explanations, sensible compromised measurement technicals well explained & expounded. Also how you independently relate to your reviewers subjective reviews before comparing your own. Complete with correlations of technicalities to technical measures with clouding perceptions. In fact, you so succinctly coherent professional technical and literary coherent technical and subjectively complete that nothing is a mystery in your conclusions!

Congratulations Dear John Atkinson for helming such a magazine that is class ahead of the competition. Gracious!

Re: "EXAMPLE" new
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 19, 2017 - 8:03am

Dear John Atkinson,

I had posted comments in your GJH article in 2016 on musicality first. Amazingly many per my subject terms do not share about music's musically as in live performances! So please don't get me wrong..

A. Isn't acoustic setup just as important, if not more import than electronics setup and integrations? Didn't late John Crabbe your former boss at Hi-Fi News coined the word "eigentones" for sound reverberations from walls & other objects in a listening room? Though not heard directly, they can muddle up music’s dynamics especially on superbly musical systems. No that it doesn't my modest AIWA

As it's the heart of Rhythm, Tempo, Timing, Sense of music & songs passion expressed by musician & singers. Thus a music system like my good old Japanese AIWA midi-component system is as musical as ever. No edginess, good highs, expressive midrange & rhythmic instrumental basses too.

Of course no stupendous staging like my IRS Gamma ribbon speakers With its purely bass drivers' foam surround material changed and specially treated for near long lifespan with chemicals. And its servo control unit with my special mods for the special roll surrounds changes & separation of servo bass unit's all analogue adjustments for total L & R integration acoustically.

Units are ~3m from front wall & ~ 1 metre from side walls with no back wall in a 3.7m wide living room extending to a kitchen American style. Total 15m+ long. Few have my acoustic luxury. And its stupendous bass rendition as deep rhythm bass of 10 of ft or longer just flow pass me by in a bi-amp setup. A dear friend once said, although bas is secondary to music, without it music loses it \s completeness. I agreed but not that it can be enjoyed at that limited extend. just ignore what's lacking to enjoy its musicality limitations. Mindset are all of my subject "...philes".

In closing of this, character branding of music systems is as much as ladies of sophisticated clothings, handbags & their etc matching paraphernalia.

B. Now, @[Example] "May Issue of Stereophile: new
Submitted by DaveThreshold on April 18, 2017 - 7:08pm declared that:
"Stereophile Magazine and The Absolute Sound have more to do with this than anybody else out there, with their imaginings of the, "GLORY" of a $5,000 power cord. - When after running through miles of garbage wire, and then 6 feet of OFC, the very next thing that electricity does is get converted to D.C.".

My reply. Do know that all industrial power cables aren't dirty garbage. It is as you purported without real technical knowledge as they all spec for high conductivity to transmit high electric power minimum power losses. More than meets the eyes of one w/o knowledge & real-world professional experience of such systems up the high Kilovolts with step-up & down power transformers. More other speciality devices for short-circuit protections etc function to minimize failures & dangers to one & all!

Kindly do refrain from making statements from not even an amateur professional position. As it throws red-herrings to become legitimate in the minds of others who knows no better.

Sincerely,

Ron Koh - From Singapore

PS: Am reposting as my first posting didn't seem to have got through.

I discovered and started subscribing to and reading Stereophile in 1972, when it was written almost exclusively by J. Gordon Holt. The matter of value was always included in Gordon's reviews of new components, as was the performance of the reviewed component versus similarly-priced components already having been reviewed in the mag. At that time, ARC and Magneplanar had just established a coast-to-coast dealer network, and the high-end as we know it had been born.

Older readers should remember that the 1972 ARC pre-amp and power amps (the SP-3, and D-51 and D-75 respectively) were priced not that much higher than more mainstream brands---the SP-3 was $595, the D-51 $695 and the D-75 $995. And the original Magneplanar Tympani T-1 was $995. For context, the mainstream best-selling Acoustic Research 3a and Bose 901 both sold for $500/pr. I was a barely-middle class warehouse forklift operator, and I could afford a full ARC/bi-amped Tympani/Thorens TD-125/Decca/Revox A77 system.

I myself trace the rise of overly high-priced hi-fi to the appearance of The Absolute Sound---founder/editor Harry Pearson introduced the term "high end" to hi-fi, Gordon using the term "perfectionist" instead, and to Mark Levinson products, which were priced much higher than ARC. The race was on!

Contrary to one comment above, in 1974 a pair of the new Fulton J speakers retailed for $1200, not at all astronomically-priced. Yet today, one can buy a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeakers for $2495, a ridiculously-good value. A pair of the new Wilson $675,000 speakers would I'm sure be nice, but the ET's are a much better value. Too bad Gordon is no longer around to make that point, but John Atkinson and the other Stereophile writers include that consideration in their reviews, unlike others. And, with the disappearance of Audio Magazine quite a while back, where else you gonna find bench tests and their results? This is a great time to be an audiophile! And Stereophile still a valuable source of information about music-reproducing equipment, at least imo. John, you have my address to send the check to, right? ;-)

Well you can't roll a joint on a digital file like like you can on an LP. That's the biggest advantage of vinyl. Hope this info helps.