Home General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ General Asylum ]
[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

Re: Slow switching

198.103.184.3

Well, I am not a scientist, but believe it or not, I am reasonably well read and sometimes I even listen to the CBC! So, I have heard of physicists trying to verify the basic laws of physics to more decimal places, including the law of gravity.

Tom Nousaine said that the switchover took "a minute or less," clearly less than ideal. He would have to attach the CDP either to the Geek preamp or the Tweak DAC, and also hook the speakers to the appropriate system. As some complain about possible contributions of a switcher, he eliminated as many switches as possible. Having done that, it might be difficult to do it much faster. Anyway, this procedure is more or less how most people would have to test equipment at home or at a dealer (if they are lucky enough to find an accommodating dealer, and some do have switchers).

There seem to be a couple of main areas of criticism of Nousaine's procedures. I believe Thorsten, who like Mohammed and myself has read Nousaine's article, made these criticism, along with some others.

1. The switching is too slow. I would have guessed, as you stated, that "Slow switching by itself will reduce the sensitivity of a test." How much, I do not know. Do you have any further comments on this issue?

2. The speakers were not adequate to the job. The main criticisms are:

--A. They have too much distortion in the midrange.

--B. They have no deep bass response.

I am not at all sure about A., as the distortion from the speaker would be the same in both systems, whose frequency response at the speaker terminals "measured flat within plus or minus 0.15 db between 30 Hz and 20 Khz," according to the article. B. has some point, too, but many people's systems do not have deep bass response. In any case, the PSB Stratus Mini is a pretty good speaker.

Anyway, it would seem to me that much of the advice given to audiophiles or would be audiophiles on this and AR about the sound of CDPs, amplifiers, interconnects and cables is based on listening tests less controlled than what Nousaine did. Some seem to want to have it both ways, to criticise Nousaine's tests and also give out advice based on tests less sophisticated than his.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]