Barclay Digital - the biggest scam of the 90s ?

Lagonda

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Feb 3, 2014
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I bought the expensive CD players because I like the way they look as industrial design artifacts; I am honest about why I bought them. I don't claim or pretend that they sound better than other CD players.

The typical 'high end' audio slob/snob, on the other hand, buys the expensive components because he believes they sound better than inexpensive components. But no properly controlled listening tests that have ever been done has shown that there is any audible difference between the preamp/power amp sections of any run-of-the-mill inexpensive receiver and the mega-buck audio electronics touted and recommended by the high-end audio magazines/cults. The worst symptom of the audio fetishist delusion is the money spent on 'high-end' cables and power cords.

I am not accountable to you and you do not control access to this forum. My attitude is to respect science and engineering rather than the intellectually sloppy and ignorant 'journalists' and editors who populate and dominate the consumer audio press. At least my writing is grammatical, unlike yours.

My advice to you is that you go back to grade school to learn spelling and grammar. Then try to learn some physics and engineering and learn how to set up and administer controlled listening tests. Read some of the papers and books by Floyd Toole or Sean Olive or back issues of The Audio Critic from 1987 on. It might change your life for the better.
English is my third language.
Go away little troll !o_O
 

xjr15

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Apr 9, 2019
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English is my third language.
Go away little troll !o_O

Sorry if my comments irritated or upset you. Name calling will not decide any issues, and only makes you (the name-caller) appear petty and small.
Is that who you are? Are you really that small? A multi-lingual man-of-the-world like you?

My comments were intended to be helpful, that's all.

I myself once believed in the myths that keep the market for 'high-end' audio products alive, but I eventually did some thinking and some experimenting and learned the truth.

The editors and reviewers of the high-end audio press are self-appointed experts, and their views and reviews have little or no value and are not respected by the real experts in the audio field.

The real experts in audio, the ones I respect, are University-trained electrical engineers and acoustic engineers, and they all hold the high-end audio business in very low regard. Stanley Lipshitz, Ethan Winer, Peter Aczel, Floyd Toole, Sean Olive, Mark Waldrep, David A. Rich, et al., have engineering credibility. Waldrep has recently published a very interesting book called Music and Audio Guide and I recommend it highly. Waldrep is one of the real pioneers in 'high res' audio, founded AIX to sell and promote high res audio, but lately he is having some second thoughts about whether it is audibly superior to Red Book CD. This is the supreme hallmark of intellectual maturity and depth: follow the evidence, no matter what, and revise your beliefs to fit the facts.

A failed would-be expert is somebody like John Atkinson. He once replaced his existing tube power amp with a transistor amp which had excelled in single- blind testing, but he disliked the sound. Instead of investigating to determine the real cause of the problem, he instead jumped to the incorrect conclusion that blind tests of audio components are invalid, and went back to a tube amp. Sloppy, stupid, wrong, and self-satisfied. This does nothing to advance the audio hobby, but he is revered as an 'expert' by similarly inclined readers. Sorry, but that isn't the behavior of a curious, intellectually mature adult, let alone an expert of any kind.

My comments will be posted to the forum and maybe, just maybe, a few people who read it will begin to question their assumptions and be interested in a rational, credible approach to audio as a hobby even if you, yourself, are not moved to do so. If so, I have accomplished my purpose, with or without your agreement.

Happy listening!
 
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parkcaka

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Sep 11, 2016
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Istanbul
In a blindfolded test I can successfully name each of the DACs below 1.000 times in a 1.000 tries. I am talking about 100% success. They sound so so so so different its like driving a Porsche, a Ferrari and a Toyota. If you can tell between these cars you can tell between these DACs. Because they change the whole system's sound drastically. Sometimes the difference is more than a speaker change.

Gryphon Kalliope
dCS Rossini
Cambridge DACMAGIC 100

Please understand our surprise when we hear a comment such as yours. We are trying to understand if you are joking or trolling. Please do not try to elaborate on something so extreme. You are like a flat earther trying to prove your point on a NASA forum. The facts are so against you that we read your comments feeling sorry for you.

We all think that high end gears are priced absurdly. A DAC simply can not be more expensive than a Porsche Boxster. But still dCS Vivaldi sound drastically better than a budget DAC. It may not be your sound but it has more resolution, more dynamics, more and more of everything. And this is so so so easy to prove. Just listen to it. You can say that a Toyota and a Ferrari are similar in performance but you will know that they are not the moment you drive them.
 
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spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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I'm getting visions of James Randi.
 

xjr15

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Apr 9, 2019
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In a blindfolded test I can successfully name each of the DACs below 1.000 times in a 1.000 tries. I am talking about 100% success. They sound so so so so different its like driving a Porsche, a Ferrari and a Toyota. If you can tell between these cars you can tell between these DACs. Because they change the whole system's sound drastically. Sometimes the difference is more than a speaker change.

Gryphon Kalliope
dCS Rossini
Cambridge DACMAGIC 100

Please understand our surprise when we hear a comment such as yours. We are trying to understand if you are joking or trolling. Please do not try to elaborate on something so extreme. You are like a flat earther trying to prove your point on a NASA forum. The facts are so against you that we read your comments feeling sorry for you.

We all think that high end gears are priced absurdly. A DAC simply can not be more expensive than a Porsche Boxster. But still dCS Vivaldi sound drastically better than a budget DAC. It may not be your sound but it has more resolution, more dynamics, more and more of everything. And this is so so so easy to prove. Just listen to it. You can say that a Toyota and a Ferrari are similar in performance but you will know that they are not the moment you drive them.

Nope. Sorry, but all of the real experts in the field of audio engineering and acoustics agree with me, not you.Go to

http://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_down.htm

and read back issues of The Audio Critic from issue #10 on. To do a properly controlled listening test that will be accepted for publication by the AES, levels must be matched to within 0.1 dB and many other conditions and constraints must be followed. It takes much more than "putting on a blindfold". Professional audio engineering is a discipline, not a cult. It takes brains, not money, to be accepted as a member of that club.
 

Lagonda

VIP/Donor
Feb 3, 2014
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In a blindfolded test I can successfully name each of the DACs below 1.000 times in a 1.000 tries. I am talking about 100% success. They sound so so so so different its like driving a Porsche, a Ferrari and a Toyota. If you can tell between these cars you can tell between these DACs. Because they change the whole system's sound drastically. Sometimes the difference is more than a speaker change.

Gryphon Kalliope
dCS Rossini
Cambridge DACMAGIC 100

Please understand our surprise when we hear a comment such as yours. We are trying to understand if you are joking or trolling. Please do not try to elaborate on something so extreme. You are like a flat earther trying to prove your point on a NASA forum. The facts are so against you that we read your comments feeling sorry for you.

We all think that high end gears are priced absurdly. A DAC simply can not be more expensive than a Porsche Boxster. But still dCS Vivaldi sound drastically better than a budget DAC. It may not be your sound but it has more resolution, more dynamics, more and more of everything. And this is so so so easy to prove. Just listen to it. You can say that a Toyota and a Ferrari are similar in performance but you will know that they are not the moment you drive them.
Don’t bother. A troll is best ignored.
 

parkcaka

Well-Known Member
Sep 11, 2016
116
94
158
Istanbul
Nope. Sorry, but all of the real experts in the field of audio engineering and acoustics agree with me, not you.Go to

http://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_down.htm

and read back issues of The Audio Critic from issue #10 on. To do a properly controlled listening test that will be accepted for publication by the AES, levels must be matched to within 0.1 dB and many other conditions and constraints must be followed. It takes much more than "putting on a blindfold". Professional audio engineering is a discipline, not a cult. It takes brains, not money, to be accepted as a member of that club.

I have a music studio with 3 control rooms and 4 recording rooms for God’s sake. we just spent 40K for 3 Neumann tube condenser mikes for vocals. We invested more than a million for that studio. Yes, high quality electronics are expensive. No, they are not as expensive as consumer products because the pro market is more competitive. But still expensive. No, they all sound different. Yes, the person who is using the electronics have great impact on the end result.

A good quality mixing table is around 250K-400K. An Amek can be as high as 1.5 Million USD. You need a table for each control room.

Yes studio pros invest millions when needed because it does matter in the end.

I also have a label.

https://tidal.com/album/89708114
Artist: Can Cankaya & Kagan Yildiz
Album: Timeless

I am proud of our latest release. I really love it. Please listen to it and tell me what you think about the music.
 
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SENATOR

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Sep 25, 2019
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Russia
Barclay Digital Cabernet CD Transport
 

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