System Distortion Poll II

[dallasjustice]

You asked : From most distortion to least distortion, which system component contributes to audible distortion at the seated position?

How can we conclude from this poll that "those interested in best sound quality should focus their efforts on the low hanging fruit in their systems. Rooms and Speakers is where the biggest gains will be achieved in all systems. "?

Also IMHO your conclusion completely ignores the accommodation factor - although our room and speakers introduce high "distortions" (in your sense of the word), the brain ignores them. And still it is very sensitive to other type of minimal "distortions". Happily this happens - there is a strong disagreement about room treatment and what is the best speaker type between the audio experts.

BTW, most of us know that a statement carrying the word all is a risky thing in sound reproduction.

Here is an interesting read.
http://www.soundstagexperience.com/...ono?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[caesar]

Dallas, I pretty much agree with the poll results. But only in an academic sense. Sure, the room and speakers are important.

But...!!!!

What if you got a mid-fi receiver that had the minimum required specs that the YG manufacturer recommended for your speakers? Do you think it would sound anywhere close to what it sounds like with your Krells?

And what if you didn't have proper power handling to deal with what the beast Krells and the rest of the electric grunge your system is throwing back toward your breaker, via dedicated lines, power conditioning, etc., both your digital and your amps would sound like crap, and your system may actually be un-listenable like mine is, when I plug my amp with the rest of the stuff into a dedicated line...

And if you had Ethan Wiener's $19.99 cd player, and you were playing mp3 on it, your system would also sound like crap...

And I am not even going to go into cables...

So yes, I agree with the poll results, but the reality is a lot more complicated. It's more like an expert chef properly balancing everything to make sure things just exactly perfect, or a genius musician dumping his high school buddies and playing with other musicians that are near his talent.

 

[caesar]

Here is an interesting read.
http://www.soundstagexperience.com/...ono?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Dallas, I just read the article. It is very interesting. The guy reviewed the Audeze LCD 3 headphones. I believe he used some high end headphone amps during his review. However, if he just plugged them into his iphone, they would have sounded like crap. A total waste of money. So you kind of need the $2K headphones and a high end amp to drive them. And then you need a killer source, and great source material....

You don't want to drive your Ferrari on a dirt road in Siberia. Kind of like I said above, if all your complementary assets are not in place, you may as well spend less money....