CPU Load and Sound Quality

[Albrecht]

48 minutes ago, firedog said:

Your entire post may  be correct. But if we are talking about sighted listening, the most likely explanation is expectation bias. 

I find it amazing that so many audiophiles have such fragile egos that they refuse to acknowledge well established principles of how human perception works.
 

No need to appeal to laws of physics.
 

Your mind can totally change what you hear, see, feel, taste, and smell - all based on expectation/preconception. The power of suggestion can, for example, make us think we see objects that aren't there, and not see objects that are. Look up the McGurk effect video on YouTube. Hearing is no different.

 

If you think it is, or that you are immune, you are simply not being honest with yourself. 

It is with the piling up of evidence that those "biases" are mitigated. Plus, - the all important in-depth analysis of the products.

For example: when you have heard Ed Meitner's DACs in hundreds of different systems (applications).

This evidence and knowledge should be highly respected, - especially when it's corroborated amongst many people. At that point, - since it's proven to the satisfaction of many people, -  the burden of proof needs to be shifted to the "climate denier" or "naysayer" to demonstrate otherwise. Remember, - the naysayer is also making a subjective claim as well, - just outside any sort of reason, or without any evidence.

[Ralf11]

9 hours ago, sandyk said:

 Many members ,especially those that post in the Music Server area would agree that this is far from optimum,

 It takes a lot of work and additional  expense to get even close to optimum using Wi Fi, which is why many members are now using Ethernet. Neither do I agree that CDs ripped using his present set up will sound as good as those ripped on a decent computer with a Linear PSU, despite what the checksums may insist,  which IS an area that you have had previous experience in.

 

No one (except the simpering subjectivists) is interested in what many members think, or what many, many members or what qualified members think.

 

What counts is what it sounds like.  I can assure you that the "Oppo BDP-205 fed from Apple TV3 over WiFi via Airplay from an iMac for ripped CDs" chain cannot be distinguished from direct CD play nor from the CD layer of an SACD vs. the wifi send.

 

Of course, maybe I need different interconnects.  The balanced ones might not be good enough.  We can all learn from morec's laziness and inability to look for previous posts no doubt - so I will be lazy like him and not look for better interconnects.

[Ralf11]

OTOH, maybe, just maybe, the many members, many, many members, and qualified members all need better WiFi themselves !!

[Ralf11]

5 hours ago, Richard Dale said:

Pot meet kettle

 

marce has the chops to back up any 'attitude' he may have

 

Let me clue you in: fighter pilots don't like idiots telling them how to fly; surgeons don't enjoy alchemists 'correcting' them during an operation, and scientists and engineers don't think much of sub-scientific gibberish spouted by the untrained anti-vaxers, anti-5Gers, and other allies of the audiophool

 

I think the reference to GUTB is spot on - it occurred to me too last night, but marce has priority of publication

[Ralf11]

54 minutes ago, Blackmorec said:

Would you like me to explain in transactional analysis terms how these childish insults are supposed to operate and what’s behind them ...

 

Yes, Blackmorec actually said he was a scientist.  I think we can now see he does not know what science is.

[Richard Dale]

18 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

marce has the chops to back up any 'attitude' he may have

 

Let me clue you in: fighter pilots don't like idiots telling them how to fly; surgeons don't enjoy alchemists 'correcting' them during an operation, and scientists and engineers don't think much of sub-scientific gibberish spouted by the untrained anti-vaxers, anti-5Gers, and other allies of the audiophool

 

I think the reference to GUTB is spot on - it occurred to me too last night, but marce has priority of publication

There are plenty of other domain experts who manage to contribute to this site without being rude.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, Richard Dale said:

There are plenty of other domain experts who manage to contribute to this site without being rude.

There are also plenty of non-experts who manage to accept advice without being rude.

[Ralf11]

 

Theresa - yes, I am using the NuForce and it sounds marginally better than my Sunfire (sold) despite the current capacity of the latter.  I posted a thread on here about the NuForce - it seems there is some merit to the wide-adwidth design (or something else - no way to tell).

 

You will also be pleased to learn that I was able to buy it on sale - an even bigger sale than they usually have

 

 

 

 

 

 

hard to delete this for some reason:

 

1 hour ago, Blackmorec said:

transactional analysis 

[Richard Dale]

10 minutes ago, mansr said:

There are also plenty of non-experts who manage to accept advice without being rude.

That’s a good thing then.

[Albrecht]

37 minutes ago, mansr said:

There are also plenty of non-experts who manage to accept advice without being rude.

 

[Albrecht]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

 

marce has the chops to back up any 'attitude' he may have

 

Let me clue you in: fighter pilots don't like idiots telling them how to fly; surgeons don't enjoy alchemists 'correcting' them during an operation, and scientists and engineers don't think much of sub-scientific gibberish spouted by the untrained anti-vaxers, anti-5Gers, and other allies of the audiophool

 

I think the reference to GUTB is spot on - it occurred to me too last night, but marce has priority of publication

Marce doesn't have the knowledge of comparative experiences to back up the attitude he has...

 

Let me clue you in: knowledgeable listeners and evaluators don't like (ignorant) EEs telling them what they can and cannot hear.

 

Knowledgable testers don't think much of ignorant, sub-scientific, gibbersh, spouted by the untrained "anti-vaxers" and "climate deniers" who have conducted ZERO analysis and evaluations of the products in question, - yet still manage to subjectively attack the product, the designer, & the listener.

[sandyk]

2 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

What counts is what it sounds like.  I can assure you that the "Oppo BDP-205 fed from Apple TV3 over WiFi via Airplay from an iMac for ripped CDs" chain cannot be distinguished from direct CD play nor from the CD layer of an SACD vs. the wifi send.

 

Just because you have great speakers does NOT mean that the quality of the source material or the amplification does not matter.

 You haven't mentioned either how your CDs are ripped. It does make a huge difference as others have reported and verified.

 If you wish to further improve your sound you should investigate areas such as Ethernet  and see if it is possible to use it.   

 Although Oppo players do a way better than average job , a high quality DAC with the Oppo used only as a transport can  often result in further improvements . An Oppo 205 is also capable of being even further improved, as are all Oppo models. There are even complete aftermarket Linear PSU s that can be directly bolted in to some Oppo models where SMPS was used .

 Try Googling Oppo UDP- 205 modifications.

BTW, what model is the NuForce ? I have always found wide bandwidth designs to sound better, whether with Pre Amplifiers or Power Amplifiers.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

OTOH, maybe, just maybe, the many members, many, many members, and qualified members all need better WiFi themselves !!

 

 No. They need to get away from WiFi for well implemented Ethernet for example.  Wi Fi needs additional processes such as Modulation and Demodulation, and it's always best to get away from additional processing, even with conversion from SPDIF to Optical where  well implemented Coax SPDIF does outperform Toslink , although the far more expensive Glass  Fibre does close the gap a little however.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Richard Dale said:

That’s a good thing then.

 Accepting advice is one thing, but it still needs to be evaluated by the recipient and may not always be correct.

[kumakuma]

15 minutes ago, sandyk said:

You haven't mentioned either how your CDs are ripped. It does make a huge difference as others have reported and verified.

 

This is new.

 

Your claim in the past was that ripping CDs with a linear power supply provided improvements so subtle that they disappeared when the files were transferred over the Internet.

[sandyk]

23 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

This is new.

 

Your claim in the past was that ripping CDs with a linear power supply provided improvements so subtle that they disappeared when the files were transferred over the Internet.

Bullshit.  As usual, you are only quoting the part that suits you. I have stated on numerous occasions that they are degraded .  The Love Over Gold files that I sent to Martin Colloms for the series of DBTs were sent via the Internet. However, I have no doubt whatsoever that if I had sent them on USB memory, or as I did later on, with a series of comparison CDs that the Audible differences would have been much more obvious. Just like another member you are very adept at massaging the truth, so I will ignore further replies from you in this area.

[marce]

3 hours ago, Richard Dale said:

But what you said in response to Blackmorec was entirely unnecessary and rude.
 

All Blackmorec did was to make a perfectly reasonable comment about cables, including how he thought Nordost positioned their various cable ranges in the market. I am a perfectly happy owner of various Nordost cables, and I particularly like the Heimdall 2 range.

 

I don’t need all this ‘self appointed defenders of the scientific method’ crap from you and others on this thread. This is primarily a HiFi hobbiest web site, and if mainstream guys like myself and Blackmorec don’t share you views, then I’m sorry but you should learn to be a bit more tolerant. I’m pretty certain we’re not a bunch of anti-science loonies as we seem to be portrayed, and Blackmorec actually said he was a scientist.

The reason the "Boss" stepped in was because a certain group of participants, myself included were getting into a Magic Roundabout discussion, and when it was pointed out I stepped back somewhat, so my reply was not any self appointed demon from obsessive measurement land, but a plea to give it a rest, we disagree, big time, it ain't that serious, its a hobby...

[kumakuma]

3 minutes ago, sandyk said:

Bullshit.  As usual, you are only quoting the part that suits you. I have stated on numerous occasions that they are degraded .  The Love Over Gold files that I sent to Martin Colloms for the series of DBTs were sent via the Internet. However, I have no doubt whatsoever that if I had sent them on USB memory, or as I did later on, with a series of comparison CDs that the Audible differences would have been much more obvious. Just like another member you are very adept at massaging the truth, so I will ignore further replies from you in this area.

 

Bullshit right back to you.

 

If there are "huge differences", why didn't your hero Barry D say that instead of reporting possible subtle differences between your test files?

[marce]

1 hour ago, Albrecht said:

Marce doesn't have the knowledge of comparative experiences to back up the attitude he has...

 

Let me clue you in: knowledgeable listeners and evaluators don't like (ignorant) EEs telling them what they can and cannot hear.

 

Knowledgable testers don't think much of ignorant, sub-scientific, gibbersh, spouted by the untrained "anti-vaxers" and "climate deniers" who have conducted ZERO analysis and evaluations of the products in question, - yet still manage to subjectively attack the product, the designer, & the listener.

Er sighted, when making changes things often sound different, I mentioned a similar thing with a cable on another thread, all I try and find is what is causing the effect, the only difference between me and you and others is I now accept my hearing is fallible, so I tread with caution, accepting expectation bias is big influence.

[Albrecht]

Just now, marce said:

Er sighted, when making changes things often sound different, I mentioned a similar thing with a cable on another thread, all I try and find is what is causing the effect, the only difference between me and you and others is I now accept my hearing is fallible, so I tread with caution, accepting expectation bias is big influence.

"the only difference between me and you and others"

 

Uh..you have made an incorrect assumption about my person

[sandyk]

Quote

If there are "huge differences", why didn't your hero Barry D say that instead of reporting possible subtle differences between your test files? -Kumakuma

 

 For the last time. Barry did NOT listen to the CDs directly as intended . He ripped them to his HDD for the purpose of seamless switching between tracks .

Now go away, I am heartily sick of you deliberately leaving out the information that you already been given in earlier PMs and the fabrications you keep making up.

 

[Richard Dale]

10 minutes ago, marce said:

The reason the "Boss" stepped in was because a certain group of participants, myself included were getting into a Magic Roundabout discussion, and when it was pointed out I stepped back somewhat, so my reply was not any self appointed demon from obsessive measurement land, but a plea to give it a rest, we disagree, big time, it ain't that serious, its a hobby...

OK thanks for that, I think it is actually a fun hobby and I think disagreeing can be part of the fun.

[sandyk]

19 minutes ago, marce said:

the only difference between me and you and others is I now accept my hearing is fallible, so I tread with caution, accepting expectation bias is big influence.

 Marce

Except perhaps in the area where your training tells you that there shouldn't be any audible differences.

 I would put it to you, that in this case that your brain may not let you hear what others are reporting due to your Expectation Bias not being able to be fully overridden. 

 But what if the comparisons you were making were VISUAL ?  Would your Expectation Bias be capable of being overridden there too ? I suspect not.

 

 In another area, I suspect that many of the advantages reported when using USB Regens for example, may not entirely be due to the actual Regeneration, but the fact that the use of voltage regulation in the devices, using physically small value filter capacitors is giving a much lower output impedance at >100kHz.

 A couple of days ago I saw a series of glamour photographs, where a couple of the series needed a little sharpening to match the rest of the series. ( I was bored , and needed something to pass time)

 Rather than use Photoshop to perform the sharpening action on the whole series , which is fiddly and takes a while to set up, I coped them to USB memory with the USB Regen in line,  powered directly from a 12V Li Ion battery and saved them back to the original HDD. The USB Regen files were in this case sharpened to perfection  when compared with the other series, and in a small fraction of the time it would have taken when using Photoshop.

Unfortunately,this appears to confirm some Technical Reports elsewhere. Perhaps many members just prefer a smidgin  of added HF Detail with both A and V ?

 

Alex

[firedog]

3 hours ago, Albrecht said:

It is with the piling up of evidence that those "biases" are mitigated. Plus, - the all important in-depth analysis of the products.

For example: when you have heard Ed Meitner's DACs in hundreds of different systems (applications).

This evidence and knowledge should be highly respected, - especially when it's corroborated amongst many people. At that point, - since it's proven to the satisfaction of many people, -  the burden of proof needs to be shifted to the "climate denier" or "naysayer" to demonstrate otherwise. Remember, - the naysayer is also making a subjective claim as well, - just outside any sort of reason, or without any evidence.

Not so much. There's a lot of suggestion causing groupthink in audio. That's a lot of what the audio press does. It conditions you to hear certain things, so you tend to hear them. None of that rises to level of proof, or even to what in science would be considered a legit "observation". So lots of people saying they hear something proves zip on it's own. Especially when you can find lots of other people who don't hear that same audio phenomenon.

 

Just b/c lots of people say MQA sounds amazing and revolutionary doesn't mean it does....

[kumakuma]

8 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Except perhaps in the area where your training tells you that there shouldn't be any audible differences.

 I would put it to you, that in this case that your brain may not let you hear what others are reporting due to your Expectation Bias not being able to be fully overridden. 

 

I suspect that you'll disagree but I believe that the differences would need to be extremely small for this kind of expectation bias to kick in.