Objective listening tests that ppl can compare without in person meetup

Discussion in 'General Audio Discussion' started by androxylo, Jul 5, 2025.

  1. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2019
    Likes Received:
    86
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Location:
    New York
    Kick starting this "objective" "subjective" testing that must have a well defined yes or no criteria with a nice post by @animus :
    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...e-rolling-adventures.2034/page-22#post-340183

    Here's an example. I've brought up the Takacs recording of Bartok's 4th quartet too many times by now, but another of my favorite recordings is their rendition of Beethoven's Große Fuge. The main reason I bring that recording up is in certain sections of the performance, you can hear the first violinist clicking to keep time for the quartet. It's a pretty neat detail that lesser gear often glosses over. Well, on the aforementioned Bartok's 4th quartet... I can somehow hear the same clicking in parts when I previously wasn't even aware it was in this recording, just hidden beneath the cacophony of strings. Previously if you'd have asked me, I would have thought such an improvement would squarely be in the realm of a solid amp or DAC upgrade, but after this, I'm not so sure. This general step up in layering applies to everything. I'm not big on soundstage, but I feel like stuff has been pushed out a bit further, so the placements of instruments in the mix aren't as congested and have a little more room to breathe. Again, I couldn't tell you how the f**k a cable of all things is accomplishing this, but it apparently is.​

    I don't hear this yet on my system. Those are long recordings and maybe I am not concentrating enough, and I'm actually distracted enough by the music itself, but for now let's assume I'm not there yet. Please post if you can hear and your examples. The criteria must be that there is an applicable yes/no answer.

    And I want to disclaim before people mock me - I do listen music for music, not for gear, but I also happen to like quality to hear more music. I do have over 15,000 individually picked tracks in my playlists, and I do a lot of random shuffling of those. But I have some aspirations for better cable projects and I want to be able to test my cables before and after with some definitive tests. I hope people can contribute to this thread to make it a nice tool for A/B testing.
     

Share This Page