Is this why I am underwhelmed with HiRes digital?

[Roscoe Primrose]

There could be reasons other than Qobuz upsamples everything to 24 bit.

That's not consistent with what I see here with Qobuz.... Streaming 16/44 from Qobuz right now.

Roscoe

[Grover Gardner]

I find all the different opinions from the experts fascinating.
I do think Qobuz does sound better than Tital at least on my system.
I now know why, well maybe

I finally compared Tidal to Qobuz. Qobuz wins hands down. Tidal did something awful with their MQA obsession.

[dkalsi]

Hope I don't get burned for saying this, but I really like Amir's website and youtube content, along with ErinAudioCorner.

Most other folks (online reviewers) provide strictly subjective impressions of whatever they are reviewing. I'm not sure how helpful that is.

Strictly providing subjective impressions is far less useful to the audience than strictly providing objective measurements. I honestly think that, at this point, we have plenty of YouTubers providing subjective impressions of sound systems.

Amir and Erin both prefer only neutral speakers. To them, only neutral speakers sound good. That's why there was a huge blowup on Klipsch forums after Erin gave the Klipsch Heresy's a poor review as a result of the extreme coloration introduced by the speaker itself. People that love the Klipsch signature sound were really upset with their review.

They are of the belief that the sole purpose of an audio system is to reproduce the source as recorded, not introduce any enhancements along the way. Thus, any speaker that has poor spin data, or DAC, amps, etc. that has poor measurements (e.g., distortion) are not good products in their eyes.

Amir also upsets a lot of people that believe in "HiFi speaker cables" and etc. He is an engineer at the core and really doesn't believe in anything that can't be proved through measurements and/or double-blind tests.

With all that said, his channel can benefit if he leaves out his own subjective impressions. Doing so only further divides the subjectivists from the objectivists.

[Grover Gardner]

Hope I don't get burned for saying this, but I really like Amir's website and youtube content, along with ErinAudioCorner.

Most other folks (online reviewers) provide strictly subjective impressions of whatever they are reviewing. I'm not sure how helpful that is.

Strictly providing subjective impressions is far less useful to the audience than strictly providing objective measurements. I honestly think that, at this point, we have plenty of YouTubers providing subjective impressions of sound systems.

Amir and Erin both prefer only neutral speakers. To them, only neutral speakers sound good. That's why there was a huge blowup on Klipsch forums after Erin gave the Klipsch Heresy's a poor review as a result of the extreme coloration introduced by the speaker itself. People that love the Klipsch signature sound were really upset with their review.

They are of the belief that the sole purpose of an audio system is to reproduce the source as recorded, not introduce any enhancements along the way. Thus, any speaker that has poor spin data, or DAC, amps, etc. that has poor measurements (e.g., distortion) are not good products in their eyes.

Amir also upsets a lot of people that believe in "HiFi speaker cables" and etc. He is an engineer at the core and really doesn't believe in anything that can't be proved through measurements and/or double-blind tests.

With all that said, his channel can benefit if he leaves out his own subjective impressions. Doing so only further divides the subjectivists from the objectivists.

Well, I won't burn you. I find his forum interesting. If you want measurements. there they are. It can help with evaluating and purchasing certain equipment. OTOH, Product X tests poorly but people love the sound. What are you gonna do? My Williamson amps probably hit 5% THD at full output, but I wouldn't give them up. My ProAc Response 2's are colored as hell. But you'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands. There are a lot of ways to evaliuate sound reproduction equipment, his way is one way.

[Pelliott321]

I feel there are far more music lovers than audiophiles
There is a small intersection that has both but from my observations most audiophiles are into the numbers game and do not trust their ears. They are afraid to choose a piece of kit solely on what their hear. They need to justify their efforts and money by being one of a crowd.

[dkalsi]

Well, I won't burn you. I find his forum interesting. If you want measurements. there they are. It can help with evaluating and purchasing certain equipment. OTOH, Product X tests poorly but people love the sound. What are you gonna do? My Williamson amps probably hit 5% THD at full output, but I wouldn't give them up. My ProAc Response 2's are colored as hell. But you'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands. There are a lot of ways to evaluate sound reproduction equipment, his way is one way.

Exactly! If one wants measurements, there they are - and it's just one way to evaluate equipment. There are just not many out there that provide this information, so I for one, certainly appreciate it.

I guess I'm also one that doesn't get offended as easily when people critique my equipment. I like having people over that openly tell me that my systems sounds rubbish even if I spend thousands of dollars into it.

Its for the same reason why I don't mind subscribing to Erin/Amir's channel despite them disliking Klipsch - and I've owned and enjoyed pretty much every Klipsch Heritage speaker (e.g., Heresy, Cornwalls, LaScalas, Khorns, heavily modified Khorns, Chorus, Fortes, etc.) - and still own a pair of Cornwall.

One of the most enjoyable systems I've ever heard was Jim G's Urie system - not sure if it got a lot of love here, but I loved it. I also don't know how perfectly it will measure, but I still enjoyed it.

[David McGown]

A good thing that Emir does is encourage the manufacturers to address the measured technical performance issues against their competitors and try to improve their products in that sense. I do not think that most manufacturers (particularly smaller ones) have the technical resources to do an exhaustive survey of the competing products. By having a database of measured performance (thinking DACs here), it provides a benchmark that others can strive to match or beat in the price range. I remember mentioning of some back and forth with Schiit concerning performance that ended up being addressed in a revised product (I believe it was the Modi DAC).

Still, the old adage that "If it measure well but sounds bad, you are measuring the wrong thing", and the reverse "If it measures poorly but sounds good..." is pretty true. It is difficult to relate technical measurement such as distortion, S/N, etc. to sound quality. Obviously, use of excessive feedback or other engineering methods to get good specs do not (in excess) do good things to sound. Immunity to RF, transient response (and recovery), and tailoring of the distortion spectrum (avoidance of high order, particularly odd order, distortion, has a significant impact on audio quality. 5% second order distortion is terrible from a measurement perspective, but is consonant with the music and is often perceived favorably.

David

[tomp]

Emir's forum is just another good source of audio information. Like others you should evaluate it in light of your own preferences. As I have said many times you need to start with measurements but you must also listen to make sure the end results meet your needs. If you are in this hobby for your own satisfaction, why would you pick something just because someone else said it either sounded good (subjective) or measured good (objective) when either may not light your fire?