What Is Your Favourite Bit of Kit?

[walpurgis]

Right but your ears don't tell you what they are doing to change the sound. Pretty much every digital related product these days comes with reams of bullshit as to what it claims to do and what problems it claims to address.

A long time ago someone non-technical came up with the idea that it is jitter that was causing an issue. This gets repeated by non-technical reviewers and on forums and pretty soon there is a demand for 'jitter busters'.

Of course these things cannot do nothing to the sound because you would take it back for a refund. So it has to have some effect on the sound, just not for the reasons claimed.

As I was saying the other day no point saying this is a good piece of kit because of its high quality power supplies. No audiophile cares about that. Tell them it cures jitter, or fixes 'timing issues' and they are all over it because they have heard about those things.

It is good advice not to take any manufacturer's claims at face value. In all things but especially in hi-fi, bullshit sells. They have been bullshitting for years and have become quite good at it now.

The audible improvement is there to be heard, so it certainly is not bullshit.

[Macca]

Like I said it is not the audible improvement that is bullshit it is the explanation they give for the audible improvement that is bullshit.

[ff1d1l]

No bulshit needed in my case...I hear it affect three Dacs at a a bakeoff, an easily heard improvement in each case, and agreed as such by a very cynical audience in the room.
I come home, I buy, I enjoy at least as good positive results at home.
This is not FR tilting, or a 1db increase in loudness.
More depth
More presence and clarity
Clearer insight into the mix
Better dynamics, and furthermore a lack of strain to those dynamics.

[Macca]

Cause and effect. Not arguing with the effect. Just saying that the cause is not going to be what the manufacturer claims it to be.

You can hear an improvement, but you can't use hearing to find out what causes that improvement. And you can't trust what the manufacturer claims is happening either.

[alphaGT]

John Adkinson clearly demonstrated it in lab tests. Yes I guess he could have been bullshitting. But no one challenged him. Anyway, I speak in theory, I'm referring to a device that does not yet exist. And eliminating electromechanical devices and lasers and motors that share the same power supply, has got to improve sound. If they aren't there, then there is no noise to clean up. And whether one believes in the effects of jitter or not, zero jitter still remains a good thing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Macca]

There is some distortion from jitter as I said already but the levels are so small it just isn't going to be audible in any situation. You can show it in a lab of course but hearing it over the noise floor isn't really that likely and its removal certainly would not explain the obvious improvement that everyone heard and agreed on in the subjective tests. Ergo there is something more/something else the jitter buster is doing to enhance perceived sound quality.

[Macca]

Agree eliminating the laser mech etc gets rid of a power supply. I have wondered that the benefit of fancy mechs is that they of necessity get their own power supply (because they are over-engineered) instead of a cheaper machine where one supply does the lot.

I am won round to the SD card idea.

[alphaGT]

I saw a bunch of SD cards in a catalog yesterday, and I noticed they have moved to less than $1 per gigabyte. So the price is right! I would imagine that if the recording industry really wanted to pursue it, write once SD's could be made cheap! Of course, the album art would be small.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[The Black Adder]

Mine would be my system as a collective really.

It's all very impressive to me and has a perfect synergy.

[MarginWalker]

My Thorens TD160. I inherited it from someone very dear to me and it blew away the ProJects and Regas I had before it.