If it was based on my own personal subjective opinion I wouldn't have even said it.
It's all science based .
That I trust more than my own ears.
So you recommend eating gloop tailored to one’s chemistry by a computer? Should I buy the art Google tells me to? Should I mistrust my heart when it is moved by a poem? Why would I want to spend my hard-earned money and my precious time listening to something I myself find unpleasant? I also value accuracy, but as those with experience are suggesting, accuracy, realism and pleasant warmth are not mutually exclusive. (Have you heard a Horizon?) I have heard dozens and dozens of dacs in my own home, and countless more out and about at friends, dealers and shows, including the cheap Chifi recommended on ASR. The differences are very real and those so-called “neutral” dacs do NOT sound real to me. They have a sound signature of their own.
And none of the discussion so far even includes spirit—a variable that would result in rotten eggs thrown at you over at ASR—but one that is important to me. Those Chifi dacs produce soulless music. I have witnessed plenty of non-audiophile people brought to tears by an engaging system. Afterwards, they don’t discuss accuracy; they talk about spirit and emotion. You keep mentioning what they do in a recording studio, but I am not a producer. I am not trying to mix music, I am trying to
enjoy it. If maximum enjoyment isnt the goal, I don’t know what is. Accurate sound that does not move me is like eating a dish I don’t like because a machine said I should.
If you told me that your experience based on listening to many system configurations showed you that you yourself found more enjoyment in analytical sound, losing yourself in the music that way, then I would have much more respect for your opinion. As it stands, your recommendations feel like a bot because you are telling me what is better based on a standard that does not map to my or your experience. You’re telling me what a machine or software says I should like. You are expressing the same view all the ASR dudes express. It is a view we are all familiar with and therefore doesn’t really add anything to this conversation about vinyl/digital.
You say you don’t trust your own ears to determine what you do or don’t like, but to me that is absurd—as absurd as the mysticism I flirt with here may sound to you. Can you see that what you experience as a ”gotcha” of some kind is not a currency that is valued here on WBF? We value experience. Experience isn’t pride; it is time spent listening to lots of stuff and time spent figuring out what place audio has in your life and how it adds value and meaning to your one and only human experience on this planet. A scientist once asked the Dalai Lama what he would do if science proved without a doubt a fallacy in one of his Buddhist ideas. He said that he would study the issue and if the truth was thus, he would change his view. He then smiled and asked the scientist, “And what if you had an experience clear and true that contradicted your scientific principle?”
You seem like a nice guy, which is why you ended up here. ASR is so vile. It is so antisocial there and those who disagree are pushed out, even when they come with measurements like Goldensound did. You are witnessing a relatively peaceful and constructive discussion with people who respect your right to have an opinion even though it doesn't hold much weight because you aren’t adding experience to the discussion. But I still welcome you and would love to discuss this all more and learn from your and others here perspectives. Over there, everyone has knives out. Every forum has its issues, but that one is to me the worst of the worst. That has less to do with the pseudo-scientific approach of its dogma and more to do with the terrible incivility and attitude of the folks there. You are asking us to consider your ideas, and we all are and then when people with
tons of experience, like Mike, take the time to offer you advice, you return to talking points and abstract philosophy rather than the open-mindedness that results in true and meaningful discourse.
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