OK, I tried hydrogen audio. It didn't go too well.

[Don Hills]

My first thought was, "Huh?"

So I reviewed the thread. My second thought was, "Huh?"

rgtb (a newbie) was impolite and was rightly called on it by mudlord.

I've certainly seen worse here. I don't know what the HA moderator said in their original message, but I suspect there's a little more to the story than you showed.

I agree they tend to the hard-core objectivist over there, but a forum where it is mooted that copying a WAV file from one media to another changes its sound isn't the world's most balanced place either.

[Don Hills]

According to members like jriver, playing a track from System Memory shouldn't result in any audible SQ improvement either, yet many members here, and in other forums, will tell you that it does.

 

I rest my case, M'Lud.

[Don Hills]

Almost everything has been deleted. I just re-read it and didn't even recognize it.

 

I did wonder about that. In my opinion, it's the biggest shortcoming of modern forums. I grew up with Usenet, where it was practically impossible to delete something you'd posted.

[Don Hills]

Don, I'm a little surprised you didn't catch what occurred. ...

 

Stranger things have happened.

 

... Bill said, well, being a scientist I know something about that (this correspondence is reproduced at the beginning of this thread); whereupon Bill was banned. Edit: As is common practice at many forums, statements by the banned individual were later removed from the thread. ...

 

Some of the correspondence was reproduced. (I'm not saying Bill should post any more, just saying there wasn't enough to make me confident that I was seeing the full story.) Bill might have been banned at the time, I can't tell, but he isn't now. As for the deletions, at least some of it is in the Recycle Bin section. Was there more?

[Don Hills]

What case ? A basket case ? (smile)

On this occasion, there are huge numbers of supportive threads and posts as to why playing from System Memory or a more electrically quiet storage medium does matter. I guess that Superdad and John Swenson were wasting their time developing and supplying the JS2 Linear PSU for the Mac Mini,. as well as a Linear Fan PSU PCB too ?

 

Some time ago I came to the conclusion that any DAC that is audibly affected by upstream or external perturbations is defective. All the evidence I have seen, such as that which you just gave, supports this. I have a choice between buying a DAC which is unaffected, or trying to fix all the external influences. I enjoy tinkering and tweaking as much as anyone, but my primary goal is to listen to music.

[Don Hills]

And the name of your "Perfect" DAC is ?

 

Perhaps you are also a Muso who can enjoy even low bit rate .mp3 because your brain works overtime to output what you wish to take from the performance , instead of the reality ?

 

What perfect DAC? there's no such thing, nor did I say that there was.

 

I'm no muso, and I do notice artifacts in low bit rate mp3. But I'd rather listen to a poor recording of a performance than none at all, or a poor recording of a great performance than a great recording of a poor performance.

[Don Hills]

Eagerly awaiting the list of non-defective DACs.

 

Feel free to suggest one. I didn't even suggest or imply that I'd provide a list.

[Don Hills]

This is going a bit OT from the players sound different -subject.

 

Problem with the hash test method in this case is that it tests only the files, not the entire playback. So it tells nothing about playback. ...

 

As others have said, "identical" files can produce different analogue outputs for all sorts of reasons. My original point was that if the (sum of the) differences are large enough to be audible, the DAC can be considered to be defective / poorly designed and implemented.

[Don Hills]

... I'm mostly interested about correlation between these factors and listening experiences, instead of questioning existence of those factors.

 

Yes. Hear a difference, find out why. Fix it. For example, bit identical files might sound different. If the system were perfect, you know they wouldn't. Where we differ is in the fix. For example, a DAC might be susceptible to jitter in the incoming bitstream. Some might work to fix the causes of the jitter. Others might work to fix the DAC's susceptibility to jitter. I happen to be in the latter group.

[Don Hills]

... Strongly implies that you know of one or more such DACs in which case it's disingenuous not to identify them. ...

 

I already said, I did not intend to even imply such a thing. I do have a personal list, but it's my opinion and would likely be vociferously debated if I did post it. We're far enough OT already.

[Don Hills]

Don

Feel free to start a new thread. (grin) ...

 

Actually, I just did. But not about DACs. I can't afford a new one right now, and I just get depressed pining for that which I cannot have...

[Don Hills]

... Well, for one, by using the "gasbag forum" instead of it's proper name, I inject a small amount of humor and more importantly, avoid giving the place free advertisement by putting the name into search engines. ...

 

"Gasbag" is a derogatory term where I come from. If you're using it to express your opinion of the HA forums, carry on. If you merely wish to avoid the search engines, I submit that "HA" is as effective and avoids the negative connotation.

[Don Hills]

On the evidence available, William did "get a fair hearing". His censuring had little or nothing to do with the thread topic that he claimed was the reason at the top of this thread. Instead, he kicked back against the moderator's "mandatory request" to cease off-topic posting (TOS #5 violation), and got a rocket for it. Blame on both sides - William had been a member for a couple of years and should have understood the forum dynamics. And moderators can be a$$holes, but they're still the moderators.