When the differences are slight and subtle as you describe, how can you be sure there is even any difference at all? When it is considered that audio memory is extremely imprecise, and it must take at least a moderate amount of time to switch out tubes, wouldn't that introduce a fair amount of...

Refreshing to read common sense that changing the internal wiring material has no appreciable effect on sound. It is hard to read posts from DIY enthusiasts who swear that they hear a difference once they use silver wiring in their amps. Clearly that is not even possible. Anyway, just really...

I will have pictures soon hopefully of my newest watch. I have purchased a used in excellent condition, what I feel is a very smart looking, Revue Thommen Heritage with a green dial. It has a decent Sellita SW 200-1 movement (common in many Swiss watches). It will be arriving from Pennsylvania...

Gotcha. I find many Whiskey's and bourbon too sweet as well. Despite having a friend with a very refined Scotch palette and always very good Scotch, I rarely enjoy it. Saying that I do prefer, if I'm to be honest, mixing well crafted Whiskey with ginger ale. Canada Dry of course. If you mix...

Quite interesting? Doesn't seem like a rousing endorsement.

AAC can sound really very good in my experience. Well done codec for sure.

Totally get that where local file storage is required. Mind you, with built in storage increasing all the time, pretty soon this will be a moot point and even phones we are upgrading will have enough room for most users.

This is why I personally feel DAPs are a poor investment. Unless the buyer is comfortable with the knowledge that they may only get 5 years of viable use from the device, if streaming and third party software packages are critical to how they use the device. If the buyer is comfortable with the...

A DAP for wireless makes no sense anyway. Well, little sense. A phone will do just fine. Better actually. Although I know people say they don't like getting calls on their music device. Rather than trade in my last phone when I upgraded I just turned my previous phone into my streamer so I have...

You are absolutely never going to hear a difference between the competent codecs, and you certainly would never hear any difference if you bought a DAP. Better idea is to use a phone, which you are doing. People make all of these assumptions about what they THINK they can hear and spend all...

The seller almost never pays shipping in my experience. Sometimes you get lucky and they pay one direction, but I certainly wouldn't expect it.

To be fair, that may also mean an amplifier that is better suited for the load that the HD800S is, as opposed to better meaning more costly.

It is pretty important to level match volume. Without a doubt even a modest boost in volume will make a device stand out. And absolutely it needs to be blind. If you can detect a difference 9 times out of 10, blind, and level matched, that is great evidence. Those are some nice devices you...

I wonder if any deliberate sound colouration settings were on? If there are user defeatable sound coloration options those might be enough to shift the sound, and as you are likely aware, even small boosts in volume will shift our perception. My general point is that the amplification and DAC...

Level matched, blind listening tests, all sound settings the same nobody can hear the difference between any of these competently designed and implemented DAPs. Seriously. Hearing with your eyes and price points.

Nice to know. That is great backwards compatibility for sure. Good business sense.

That is the risk of such devices. They are rentals and will become bricks in a matter of years. Hopefully the ability to play local files remains as the device ages out of functionality. Good luck with things.

Well, I have personally read quite a few critiques of MQA. Mostly my impression is that people do not hear any difference if they compare level matched masters. An old trick to make something sound better, is to make it a little louder. Louder is often perceived as better. I owned a Gustard X16...

I take it you prefer the S over the S2. The majority seem to go the other way favouring the S2 tuning. There will be S versions available used for a few years yet and I'll bet there are still some unsold inventory out there yet.

MQA hardly is comparable. It is widely considered simply a money making scheme that offers absolutely no audible benefit. You may not agree which is fine, but I have rarely heard anybody express much love for MQA. It seems like a solution that went looking for a problem.

In absolute numbers, I'll bet very few people have much and including MQA increases the price for everyone. Transitivily that implies needing to charge the majority of your customers for something they don't have, probably don't care about and even more likely that they don't want.

Not that many people will miss MQA I imagine.

Seems like you really made my point. Thank you for your honesty.

Yes I do, and I find the membership there far more respectful than you just were. You made a huge, a really huge claim and then when I used respectful, appropriate questions to get more details from you, this is how you reply? Say what you like about me, but at least I didn't resort to insults...

So blind people have a decreased sense of hearing? May I ask is this just an opinion of yours that you believe in, or do you have some evidence backed by science? And I do know that hearing is aided by our bones, but I think it would be an incredible claim that these mega bucks DACs somehow...