I have ears, and it sounds better. The beresford DAC is cheaper than the 1212M too, so that should rule out the placebo effect. It sounds better on both my Pathos amp (which is a solid state amp btw, with a tube pre) and my Tannoy active monitors (which by virtue of being studio monitors, shouldn't add any colouration, in theory) If all is equal, why does the 1212M (when using the unbalanced output) sound better than the 0404?
I like to have a little more data available to make a judgement on whether or not something is better, than you simply perceiving it to be better. I perceived as well as measured no audible change in sound between the 0404 usb and the 1212m.
So some numbers on paper make it sound better? What's your favourite flavour of ice cream, and what data did you use to come to this conclusion? Each to his own, I'd rather listen with my ears.
Completely agree, audio quality has very little to do with 'stats' - that's like the morons that buy high wattage car speakers thinking that them them being 500watts makes them good Frequency range is another peice of rubbish, as are soundwave charts, all crap, the only way is to go and listen. Oh and the argument that a percieved better sound isn't actually better is mad too....if you percieve it to be better...then it's better...as we percieve the bloody sound it's making!
YES! I tried to say this in my post, but I typed it out a few times and couldn't quite make it sound like I wasn't a babbling idiot. Well played sir
My sound system is annoyingly disjointed at the moment I'm afraid, due in part to me living with the family right now. Most of my music listening is done on my laptop, which has better than average Altec Lansings built in, but they're still just laptop speakers. When I can be bothered I use Beyerdynamic DTX800s which, whilst great value for money, are probably a little too bassy and dishonest to the music I listen to. I recently purchased a Rega P1 turntable which sits in the lounge hooked up to my parents' HiFi when I have the luxury of a free living room to relax in! It's a fantastic turntable (was told by the horrendously geeky shop assistant that it's better than the Debut) although I'm probably not doing it justice until I get what's needed for my own system. Although I buy most of my music on CDs (and vinyl when possible) I'm undecided between getting a dedicated CD player or a Squeezebox, given that I'd rather keep the components to a minimum.
I buy all of my music on CD. They get a run through EAC and then go into a box and usually don't see the light of day again. I was dubious at first about going down the networked audio route, but once you get everything set up its a dream. You won't regret going for a Squeezebox/Sonos!
Hi. Tin ear here... Drivers: Freshly re-coned Infinity reference studio monitors. Amp: '70s Sansui AU-505.
Mine still sounded pretty babbling! Lets not turn this into a flame thread fella. It's really not down to the stats, they provide a good indication yes, you can see the range speakers are capable of, how efficiently they produce the sound, how colourlessly or how much interference and distortion they add....but these are an indicator of the speakers quality.....and definitely not the be all and end all of the actual sound. I used to buy speakers based on the stats and charts etc like you say, but as you get further into the world of high end audio you realise that isn't the best way. For a start everyones' ears hear a little differently, and so will naturally be better accustomed to different speakers, sound is subjective and there's no way around that fact. If you want to discuss the topic further head over to the AVforums, but they'll probably tear you apart in a less than polite fashion there !! At the end of the day your perception of sound IS the sound, because it's you hearing it. You may want to have it as colourless and close to 'as intended by the studio' as possible...but the studio's production of the CD or even AD (lossless audio DVD format, not big in the UK) is based on some sound tech's perception of the sound, and the musicians perception of how his instrument is best tuned before that, and the makers perception of....and so on and so fourth. If it's an area that intrigues you, and it should if you have an inquisitive mind, I suggest reading up on Psychology Discourse and the Neurology of the Senses. I've just bought a squeezebox to add to my audio loop, essentially with the intentions of cutting out my systems soundcard all togther and thus listening to lossless codecs in a more lossless way! I'm now debating between FLAC and AppleLosses, personally I prefer FLAC as it's more universally used, however I do use Itunes to organise my music and find it very convenient, but they still will not reconise FLAC! Can anyone recommend an Itunes clone that's very decluttered and minimalist?
I've never personally used it but I'd imagine Songbird is what you're after- has support for Apple Lossless, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. I'm quite taken by the thought of a Squeezebox after the recommendations now but it's astonishing how pricey the unit is- considering the Radio and Boom can be had for well under £200 it's a bit unfair that you're expected to pay £230 for the Duet which shouldn't really justify costing any more. Added to that the price of a reasonable DAC and it's way above my CD player budget, but I guess it's best to stick with the one I'll be using in 10 years.
With the duet, you're paying the biggest chunk for the remote. If you have a iPhone or Android phone, you can get the duet receiver only for £80. The free remote apps aren't quite the real deal, but the real deal certainly isn't £150 better. There are iPhone/Android Sonos remote apps too, to lessen the initial blow (the CR200 remote is £280!). The Sonos approach is a much more elegant solution, and it scales a lot better, though you pay for it. The Duet base receiver equivalent is the ZP90, which costs 275 of your hard earned pounds.
The DAC in the duet is actually pretty good, the equivilent to a dacmagic in my opinion, so really isn't a bad starting point. Ad Tad said, just buy the reciever, you can actually control is via a laptop or wifi phone by logging into it like any wireless router. Or simply setup a long playlist and let it rip all day...no need to control it really!
*shameless plug* if anyone's interested i'm selling my squeezebox controller on ebay right now... I don't use it much and it just sits there looking cool. Would be good for people with technophobes in their family though!
Sounds good- only got a Pre at the moment so here's hoping someone makes a WebOS app, else I might be better off getting an iPod touch (am weighing it up against the DS right now for games anyway). I'm quite fond of the Sonos system as well but I'm afraid the hardware range doesn't really stack up- I'd probably like to expand to a Squeezebox Radio at some point and there isn't really an equivalent.
Ipod touches are great, but against the DS it really does depend on what type of games you like (imo the racing and shooter games are terrible).
