The Computer Audiophile

I certainly hear you. I can only go by what I know from experience. I've met audiophiles all over the world, including three this past week in Los Angeles. They are all very smart people who understand science as well as anyone. However, audio is an escape for them and they'd rather not get involved with double blind tests, graphs, charts, etc... They understand measurements and numbers can be used the same way as statistics are used in their own businesses (potentially deceptively), and they just elect to have fun doing whatever they please in audio. Fun for them doesn't involve anything we d

I don't think there is a commonality "between the audiophile "trust your ears" subjectivist camp and the larger antiscience movement." I see the larger anti-science movement as much more political, religious, and involving perceived freedom. I see the audiophile "trust your ears" camp as people who have disposable income (a lot or a little) and find this stuff enjoyable.

Yes.

Well said.

Peter, if you don't have fun here, I highly recommend you take some time away. It's also not lost on me that @March Audio seems to find his way into every argumentative thread. People bashing isn't allowed. If you see it, report it.

This is the objective sub-forum. If your comment isn't objective, it doesn't belong. We have plenty of other areas to discuss subjective items.

Agree.

I've been trying to follow the recent tests of bit perfection, but having a hard time while in Los Angeles and sneaking peeks from my phone when I can. I'm now back and can look further. I think people running tests should capture at a minimum 30 seconds of the track. In my testing, I found the bit perfection to be hit and miss throughout each track. This makes the service Apple Music not lossless if it can't deliver an entire track bit perfect.

Apple has always purposely excluded an exclusive mode option. It can hurt the overall user experience when a call comes in or sound is expected from the main speakers rather than the connected audio device. I know this is completely different from what us audiophiles like, but Apple is catering to its base.

I encourage people to report this when it happens in either subjective or objective forums. It ain't right.

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I saw that. He may be right, but he is also speaking as a representative of Apple who wants to make money from its products. Pushing Spatial Audio is expected because it’s easy to hear and it’s a differentiator. Pushing lossless doesn’t make sense because others have it and Apple doesn’t charge a premium for it.

Good questions. 1. I don’t believe driver differences are big enough to demand measurements of each individual headphone. 2. Mitch measured them extensively using several different positions of the headphones and didn’t find much difference. Mitch can jump in with better information.

Some interesting mQa info. I’m out in Los Angeles this week and had an opportunity to talk to a “civilian” who recently got interested in HiFi. He has some very basic but wisely selected gear. Out of the blue he asked me about mQa. Wanted to know my opinion. He said he was looking at differences between Qobuz and Tidal, and that sparked his interest in researching mQa. He found @GoldenOne’s videos right away. Unsurprisingly he didn’t connect the Chris in the RMAF snippet with me. Nonetheless, he wasn’t thrilled with mQa, after doing a little online research.