No, I'm not talking about distortion, compression, or noise. I'm talking about tonality. I know the difference between a euphonic presentation and accurate representation of what an instrument sounds like.

I never said vinyl was inherently better than CD or other digital formats because I don't want to get into that pissing contest. As for myself I don't feel the hassle is worth it to keep a vinyl collection. I don't have the room, nor the inclination to deal with having to replace styli every so often, cleaning records, etc.

Listen to 24-bit digital and compare it to CD at 16-bit. You can hear the same difference. The tonality is more live. If you wish to make the comparison yourself, the Beatles remasters are available in both CD and 24-bit flac form.

Serves me right for seeing Pcad's thread and jumping to the end, thinking that powermeters were still going to be the subject.

It's not hard at all to measure the ability to perceive a difference with a blind A/B test. Not coincidentally, it's something "audiophiles" avoid like the plague.

Agreed. That would put things like breaking in cables, green pens, etc to rest. And TAC avoids like the plague the concept that a linear FR may not actually be the best when it comes to reproducing a live performance.

Most of us dont live in the absolute extremes.

this lost any road relevance a few pages back. please move it to the audio fidelity forum.

I like my Powertap just fine. And it's not vaporware.

Hey pCad, if you did have this vaporware, you might have been able to see negative watts when you failed to bunny hop the doc.

All I saw after I hit the doc was stars.

If you want to mimic the sound of an amplified concert, hook some JBL Eons (powered PA speakers) up to an ipod.

My car does not go "boom boom". My car sounds like a very high end home stereo system. subbass is easier to achieve in a vehicle, and imaging is a bit tougher--but I guarantee you it is high end home stereo in my car. Half the gear is home stereo gear. I even own a Rane RPM 88 that is modified to 12 volts. it is set to go in just as soon as I get the desire to work on my car again and not ride my bike.


As far as the A/B test--my friends who are also into music, we do it all the time with equipment. I have enough connections with manufacturers to get equipment to test. We get them set down and listen. We did it recently with tweeters. Spent about 8 hours going through about 12 tweeters. Got shocked some, returned the tweeters, and moved on. We've done it with just about all equipment--including wires.

I do a/b comparisons every time I buy a piece of gear or a different pressing. Foobar2000 has a great blind a/b tool built in.

And since when does anybody talk about cycling in the Road Cycling forum? Don't kid yourselves, people. This is EXACTLY like Foo only everybody's wearing lycra.

Hifi is dumber than cycling. This guy I knew once played his $85,000 stereo for me. It sounded nice. It was the most astonishingly dumb extravagance I have ever witnessed.

But God help me I liked it.

Amen. What's cracking me up is the confusion of being "into music" vs. being into gear or being into sound quality. It's like so-and-so has x-many road bikes because he's "really into cycling." Gear is its own hobby. Skiing, boating, climbing, photography, cycling, diving, woodworking, astronomy, etc. all have have both the gear and the active hobbies. It's possible to be "into" both, but it doesn't mean they're one hobby.

A "nice" audio system will never convince me that someone is into music.

The thing about expensive crap is that most of it isn't worth the money, or at least isn't worth as much as you pay for it. I remember not being terribly impressed by the last $100,000 McIntosh setup I heard. You'd think a $25,000 set of speakers hooked up to dual tube monobloc pres and power amps should sound at least twice as good as a $250 pair of headphones, but such was not the case.

Wait 'till I debut my Saran Wrap(tm) aero wheels.