Thanks, Oliver.
I will be very happy to see how these cables will match in my set up. At the moment I am looking for an Audio innovations SUT, but sadly I can not find any for sale.
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Thanks, Oliver.
I will be very happy to see how these cables will match in my set up. At the moment I am looking for an Audio innovations SUT, but sadly I can not find any for sale.
That's pretty good going. A 0.5dB change in level is quite subtle:
https://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_level.php?lvl=0.5
But I agree with your final sentence.
I know it is. That's why I think level matching is important in the right context. You can have a fun meet where we all get together and listen to the equipment everyone has brought along, or you can do a serious test with lots of controls. Fudging it somewhere in the middle is pointless and how many AoS members are going to turn up for a day of serious ABX blind testing?
When your giving scores and saying A is better than B, I think level matching is very important.
Either have an informal day like the Stoke bake-off, or get serious for at least part of the day.
From what I've read, I'd be concerned about the high volume too, it's nice to whack it up now and again, but all day at high levels isn't helping anyone. If it was a work environment they'd be earplugs issued !
There were maybe 2 occasions where the volume was too loud in the bake off but that's not too loud full stop. It's too loud compared to the previous track on the same Phonostage
The other occasions were outside of this when the Urei's were in and once when the JMLabs were in.
The scoring was only done out of casual interest. You can't really score hi-fi, All of them sounded very good, no obvious flaws anywhere. I think what people preferred came down mainly to taste in presentation rather than actual quality, although the more expensive stages did have a bit more to them it wasn't a devastating advantage. I thought the Russell and the AQvox were clearly the best, I was in a minority (possibly of one) so there is little consistency once preference comes into it.
In my view if you want a definitive answer to what's 'The Best' you go on the measurements because they are definable and independent of subjective taste. But we all know we could buy the best measuring phono stage in the world and after a while decide we don't actually like it that much.
I disagree a bit,
The scoring was done to gauge the opinion of the room and as a way to collate the results from the listening tests.
Personally, I think the results were accurate to my own opinion so the group got it pretty much spot on, except Macca, who prefered the solid state stuff lol.
There is a lot being made of the effect of the room and the Volume but in truth, neither were an issue!! This isn't a controlled test by men in lab coats, it was a group of enthusiasts getting together and listening to phonostages and giving an opinion by the form of a vote.
As much as there is value in the results, as always, until you get something in your own system, you don't know how it's going to sound for sure.
The results are a pointer to what's available that you may not have heard, after that it up to you what you think.
I have participated in similar bake-offs with phono stages, DACs, etc. IMHO, such bake-offs are more enlightening than reviews by audio journalists, whose objectivity is an unknown.
Even better (much, much better) is to have a bake-off in one's own system, but this is not always feasible.