Woland

Damn you HQPlayer for your uncanny enhanced audio realism. Accidents will happen!

@Cellist88, I was telling myself off for the generalisation, which I readily accept. Of course, there are two circles: of musicians and audiophiles, which I have squished together, when they are overlapping. Of course there are those that belong in both

What I won't do is assume that because someone is an musician they are a good reference for hifi listening. They need to be an audiophile (or maybe a sound pro) as well. And they may very well not be. No offence intended to musicians. Or audiophiles.

"The Grass is Always Greener in the Outtakes: An Experiment in Listening" in The Glenn Gould Reader, pp. 357–368 (originally published in High Fidelity, August 1975).

Given that coffee makes me cranky, I shouldn’t type after either. I’ll raise my tea cup to you though. Cheers.

@Woland For my home setup I gave up and just installed Ropiee. I still plan to use Volumio at an office if that ever happens again. In that case I will avoid UPnP and use Volumio to play Qobuz. The UI for that is wonky but still better than UPnP regularly fucking up.

I think the answer to your question is "yes", I was trying to clarify that I didn't use the Volumio plug-in and went with a different distribution.

Thanks @loadexfa . I tried Ropieee recently because it works as an endpoint (NAA) for HQPlayer. I was very impressed.

headphonanism?

Oh guys... can you remember the awful noise that some PC power supplies used to make, thirty years ago?

I have developed immunity to tones above 13khz.

Cap squeal or coil whine, pop the lid and get a straw.
https://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk/blog/capacitor-squeal-coil-whine-explained/

Oh, wait not ambient but in the signal. Get a ferrite and wrap the power wire through it many times, could be ps noise getting into your audio gear.

Just imagine if this was in the pre-Internet/dialup days :)

14 days? Are you in NZ?

I hate to tell you, Magnius doesn’t take tubes. :(

If you love the sound of these in your amp(s), that's a good deal indeed.

I love the 6n3p-e's I've tried, which were all from the 1980s. I'm curious if there's an audible difference between the earliest and the newest.

DACs are massively over-rated compared to Amps, imho. Topping D50S is a piece of shit just like D30.. not Gungnir Multibit but most of the way.

Yeah @k4rsta, I think your view is a prevailing one on SBAF and you won't get any pushback here for it. However, it just doesn't fit with my experience. And I prefer to foster the diversity of views on SBAF so we don't go too far into ASR-like groupthink.

You are both right. Depends where you are at in time.

@ogodei does the "-EB" suffix means military grade? Or just longer life time? I saw some 6n23p-EB tubes, but I don't whether they sound better.

-EB (or -EV or -I) on Russian tubes indicates extended service life, low noise & microphonics. Usually there are structural differences from the base tube (e.g., 'military grade' build) but sometimes they just stamp the tubes that measured the best.

DR are the most extreme. Rated for 10,000+hours, rugged and nuclear radiation shielded.

Not like you, @yotacowboy. Cheap tubes!

I second the pikaku idea... I always thought the profile pic was some sort of anime/gaming artwork.

Pikachu between a pair of headphones? What sort of inane idea for a photo is that.

Potato! I squinted to get that and saw a map of Taiwan.

Apple TV 4K into HDMI input of Oppo BDP-103D does the trick (sometimes). HDMI anything maybe. ;)

Simple. People want good quality products for little money. Little money sometimes buys you good quality products, most of the time expect garbage. China is a country with the lowest costs of production per unit (economies of scale) and most people (post-1980) are spoilt with Chinese units. Start thinking. For good quality products, get the exact right specifications and pay a bit more for quality control. Rant over.

I think it is just perception. Audioquest and Bose are US brands, even if their products are made in China. Vs. companies like Fiio, HFM, and Holo, who originated out of China. A-GD in that camp as well. Although I would never call any of those companies Chi-Fi. I would refer lower quality and no-name or forgettable brands Chi-Fi.

I demoed the Empyrean and it did not last even a minute. One note bass and out. The guy that had it liked my Focal Elex better

I found it warm and bright. Glad I sold it off when it was a hot property on Head-fi.

Ergo: Get a pair of DT-1350s if you want what MQA teases.

B-but my overtones! And the overtones of the overtones!

@Hrodulf You can always add overtones with tubes or DSP. Who is to say if the inaudible ones from those beat the inaudible ones from MQA.

All I could think of: https://townsquare.media/site/175/files/2016/11/robot.png?w=600&h=0&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89

More music!

Keep a Koss PortaPro on your desk. I have two.

Strongly agree. If you enjoy your gear then tell the FOMO part of your brain to f off! I think I'm approaching that point, fingers crossed.

Tubes? Oh my, what you want is difficult to say the least. Find your favourite tubes and stop there.

Getter shapes are just a way to determine age/factory. I just stick to my favorite brands based on longevity. RCA, Raytheon, Philips Siemens

@Gazny And age/factory is just a way to determine.. what?

Does complaining about tubes count as delusional?

I like tubes but most of my tube posts are me complaining about tubes in one way or another.

@Gazny, I need delusions to hear stereo, whatever the source. Unless it is actual people playing in front of me. :)

yes, a bad tube does make a difference, but at least in my Kenzie Ovation, short of mu, other signal chain parameter matter far more.