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In Reply to: RE: I kind of get the point - but look at it from the stereo system's perspective. posted by carcass93 on October 14, 2014 at 13:45:16
Talking about digital file playback: (and I would add to your point) from a NAS device.
So, if the reviewer or experimenter is comparing the Mind/Sonore/Aries/Accustic Arts, - they better compare it to more than just one transport, and one transport type. This includes PCs, MACs, PCs running linux. AND, - optimized computers as well. If you're not optimizing the computer and changing it into mostly a "single-use" computer, - it's akin to creating a straw man.
And for that matter, it can only bring insight to the reviewer to also compare it to a traditional disc spinning transport as well.
Is that hard to do? Are they going to have this stuff lying around? If not, - they should. As digital file playback from a NAS is so rapidly becoming the norm, and is now so ubiquitous, - it's a rapidly becoming almost mandatory to run such comparisons.
Cheers,
"Asylums with doors open wide,
Where people had paid to see inside,
For entertainment they watch his body twist
Behind his eyes he says, 'I still exist.'"
Follow Ups:
....digital file playback from a NAS. However, I was driven to it by necessity because none of the dedicated audiophile solutions, until recently*, could accommodate multichannel. It was not something I wanted to do but, now that it is done, I am very happy with it and pleased that it does not lock me into a fixed solution.
All this stuff is so new. And, there are only a few companies who've (finally) started to adopt the high end audio manufacturing philosophy of trickle down instead of the (IMO: poorer) model of "trickle-up."
Every digital file playback reviewer should have a VRDS-NEO on hand, as well as an optimized Linux PC based transport, a Windows based transport, & a MAC based transport, (and then whatever streamer: Sonore, Bryston, Squeezebox, Mind), all running into the same DAC, - with at least a similar brand of cable(ing) coming into SPDIF of the DAC.
Optimized PCs/MACs are likely around $5000, which is also the cost of the Esoteric.
If you think about it, - it's not out of line with traditional processes of having a reference pair of speakers, cabling, and amplification on hand. Great digital SQ has never been cheap. Great sources are not cheap. Computer based transports are NOT a cheap way to "cut corners" to superior, (SOTA), sound. That does not mean that we can't very, very, good sound from highly optimized computers: it just doesn't come cheap. AND (FWIW), I totally agree with Carcass that we have not yet found a reference point.
IME, everything falls short of the Esoteric: but that at least lets you know that you're hearing the best, and you're getting a great reference point to see where you're at.
I recall one Mind review I read where they compared it to a SBT. But they didn't specify whether they had a Teradak PSU unit, the same SPDIF cable coming out of the SBT, or if they defeated the LCD screen.
The SBT without an external PSU is of course not going to stack up to the Mind...
"Asylums with doors open wide,
Where people had paid to see inside,
For entertainment they watch his body twist
Behind his eyes he says, 'I still exist.'"
There are also commercial interests for reviewers to sometimes consider.
We are not in Sea Cliff anymore Dorthy...
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