Jude E-peens Tyll and Gaslights Us with Alternative Facts

And this is why Head-Fi is such and awesome and groovy site. If it's not, Jude is going to edit the living shit of it into grooviness.

 

To Sonic Defender:

1. Don't bring your kid into your public Internet justifications for your actions. EVER. As a parent, your responsibility is to protect them, not use them.
2. Realize that you've been played by your co-HF'er Canali (HF) / @chopstix (SBAF). We've both been played.

 

Wow. Did I come to this sudden very surreal feeling that while we may be dickheads, the most vocal MDR-Z1R guys at HF were... crazy?

 

LOL. I bet Amos is so happy he doesn't have deal with this shit.

Hi Amos!

BTW, I like Amos. We always seemed to find the time at the old CanJam's to talk. When people see this, they are often shocked: Don't you hate Amos? Nope.

 

His take on the Z1R was IMO actually pretty balanced and articulate.

I really mean it. I may disagree with him about some martial arts mystical stuff. But he definitively is eloquent and knows a thing or two about audio.

 

I'm going to start answering good questions in the HF thread here.

Hi Maelob. First of all, I wouldn't say that I totally agree with Tyll. I respect what he says, and I hear some of the things he says, and have similar measurements myself; but I do like the MDR-Z1R. I'd buy it if I didn't have to worry about money. At $2300, the price is pretty stiff. I'm worried about tax bills and medical bills and school costs for my kids. Also, I'm trying to pay off my mortgage sooner rather than later. Don't want to spend the money on audio gear that I've put aside for more important things.

As far as my top 3 closed cans for over 1k, I'd like the change the question to top 3 closed cans period. Cost has nothing to do with it.

1. Atticus
2. TH-X00 Purpleheart
3. ATH-W3000

The MDR-Z1R would be number 4, maybe number 3. The price scares me, and makes it hard for me to fully embrace it. I've just been trained from an early age to be cheap or find bargains. I have a Denon ATH-D7200 coming in, and if its like how people say it is, then it may take the number 1 or number 2 spot.

Hope this answers your questions. Feel free to grill me more on specifics over there on the HF thread. Just don't mention me or this site or other site.

 

Maelob, I don't really have a favorite closed can above $1k. These are my favorite closed cans however:

1) Oppo PM-3
2) ATH-M50
2) HD-202

EDIT: I guess an Oppo PM-1 is above $1K, so I guess that one would be it.

 

Makes me want to doxx the shit outta canali / @chopstix

Wow. That guy is bonkers.

 

@chopstix WTF!

 

Yeah, I wouldn't want to mess with you. Just let me know if you ever want to go ding-dong on his door buzzer.

 

A reviewer, a human being, can never be totally free from bias! Two people are never going to see eye to eye. Because of this, the reader should attempt to ascertain biases of the reviewer. Sometimes this is easy, such as when a reviewer directly states what sound signatures he or she likes or doesn't like, and provides examples. Other times, biases must be derived from a reviewer's past body of work. One important thing to be aware of is conflicts of interest, where the reviewer seeks or receives money or gifts from a vendor whose products he or she reviews. Conflicts of interest may subtlety shift biases so that impartiality is lost. Impartiality here meaning being fair, being consistent, and thus predicable.

However if you take the meaning of impartiality as being free of bias (an acceptable definition), then no, to your real question, Tyll is not impartial. No human being can be impartial in this way.

 

You make some very good points.

First of all, practically all, except maybe a handful of CD players and DACs measure almost perfectly. The "standard suite" of measurements are limited so that below a certain threshold, it's fair game totally subject to subjective impressions. If you think about how difficult it is to tell CD players apart (at least compared to headphones), then you understand why. They all measure similarly impressively.

Modern solid state gear measures as well as CD players. Other than power numbers, the distortion figures can be extremely low to where its below that certain threshold to where typical measurements don't matter. They won't tell us much. Some tube gear can measure exceptionally well, 0.05% THD or better is actually possible. Tube distortion of 0.1% THD or greater is easily audible, and often accounts for tube warmth, bloom, thickness, wetness, etc. Those who prefer this kind of sound should seek tube amps with a moderate level of distortion. Those who do not should seek the lowest distortion tube amps.

Amps, tube or solid state, will generally be able to hit 20Hz to 20kHz flat within 0.2db. Some amps might exhibit rolloff at the very extremes, but this generally does not negatively impact sound quality because of our real hearing limits and the fact that for most music, very little musical information exists on the frequency extremes.

Now when it comes to speakers or headphones, this is when we start to see gross errors, 10, 100, 1000, 10000 times worse than amp or CD player measurements. These errors are easily within the threshold of human hearing.

So you are correct that if we were to judge gear objectively with measurements, we need to apply them consistently. However, I would add that we need to apply them consistently up to the point where errors in measurements start to be below the threshold of human hearing, keeping in mind the limited nature of measurements, that they can only tell us very specific, but not all aspects of sound quality.

Finally you mentioned high-fidelity in terms of measurements. I think a fair definition (this is kind of old school) of high-fidelity is 20Hz to 20kHz, +/- 0.2 and 0.05% distortion for amps/DACs and 20Hz to 20kHz, +/- 3db 0.5% bass and 0.1% above bass for transducers is fair. I know I provided different standards here for transducers, but the fact is, we are limited by physics. Mechanic stuff just has a hard time being accurate compared to electronic stuff.

Equipment meeting the above standards could be considered high-fidelity. However, since measurements can only tell us very specific, but not all aspects of sound quality, there is no guarantee that high-fidelity means it sounds great. However, it will sound decent.

I guess using this definition, there are no headphones which can be considered high-fidelity. There might be some that approach high-fidelity. I actually don't have a problem with this. Headphones do actually tend to suck in terms one very important measurement: frequency response. Oh well.

Moral of the story: Measurements can tell us when things are grossly wrong. They can also tell us if the gear sounds decent. They cannot tell us if the gear sounds great. Amps and DACs tend to measure without gross errors, so measurements won't tell us much more.

Reply to your real question: Tyll is not purely objective. He is also subjective, therefore subject to biases.
Universal truth #1: Tyll is too subjective for objectivists and too objectivist to subjectivists.
Universal truth #2: Head-Fi'ers who disagree with him on the Z1R seem to dislike him and try to find objective reasons to dislike him when they in fact subjective or emotional reasons.

 

#1.5. Forgot about that one.