This dead horse entered the glue factory long ago.
Lol. Have you read his posts? Of course he has an agenda. It is blatantly obvious. He wants to take down any big name expensive or popular product he can to uplift himself.
Lol! Sorry I missed this @stevensegal. This thread was moving faster than I could keep up and am now just sifting my way through. I am very familiar with both of those roasters companies. I have ācuppedā (industry term for sensorially evaluating coffee for purchase/judging purposes) coffee with Square Mileās green buyer when I was abroad buying green coffee. They are doing good stuff over there. I have not had the opportunity to try La Cabraās coffee though.
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That would be a convenient explanation, yet some of the top scoring DACs on ASR are Matrix and Linn, $2000 to $10,000. If youāve reviewed the graphs youāll see there are some pretty meaningful issues. BTW, (some) tube guitar amps sound great, but the job is a different one than a DAC has.
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I donāt care about DAC measurementsā¦I care about how the DAC sounds. Measurements donāt tell me how the DAC sounds. Amir cares about measurements and has no ears. He canāt pick on an expensive DAC that has great measurements because he has no ears. It could sound terrible but as long as it measures great he will not trash it because he cannot tell if it sounds great or not. Amir thinks the Topping DAC that measures well sounds great. Most people with ears donāt agreeā¦
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Reminds me of a great song by America ā¦
Iāve been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there aināt no one for to give you no pain
La, la ā¦
Should sound pretty good on DSD Sr. 
ā¦
By Kansas???
He meant to say America, which Kansas is the center of so same thing.
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Oups sorry, youāre right - it was America ( I should never rely on my memory, especially that far back).
One of my favorite song from Kansas was Dust in the Wind, and I wrongly associated āHorse with no nameā with Kansas as well.
I was addressing your comment that Amir trashes expensive equipment (as part of an alleged hidden agenda) and gave you two examples of when he didnāt.
I said he wanted to take down any expensive equipment he can. He can only if they measure poorly because that is his only criteria, measurements. So you are not addressing my comment. You are misrepresenting what I said.
He takes down any equipment - regardless of price - that performs poorly. That includes listening tests. Isnāt that the role of an objective reviewer? Youāre free to disagree with his opinions or even choices of tests, but itās not right to ascribe some political agenda. He celebrates all the equipment that performs well and transparently reports (and compares) the results all the equipment he tests. Iām not aware of anyone else who does that.
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This whole thread has become quite comical and entertaining, I look forward to reading it every morning.
The PS Audio fan club is no better or worst than the ASR cultists. Both camps are right in their own way and are attaching to what they know to be true/vehemently defend their position. On PS Audioās side people love the way it sounds (including me) independent of measurements. At the other end the ASR activists wonāt let go that a $6k DAC measures so poorly in their testing.
Subjective vs objective, just agree that what matters most to each camp is different and move on. A Dodge Demon can go 0-60 in 2.3 seconds (objective). A Porsche 911 Carrera has a 0-60 of 4.0s (also objective). The Porsche doesnāt measure as well in the 0-60 metric as the Dodge Demon but you know what? Subjectively the experience (to me) is much better in the Porsche.
Cheers,
Tony
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No, he does not. He assumes all equipment that he thinks measures poorly sounds bad tooā¦without fail. Only equipment that measures well in his tests sound good to him.
I have no problem with measurements. But only if they are used appropriately. He uses them as a weaponā¦
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In the case of the DS Sr. Review, I would certainly agree, given the āin-depthā nature of the listening review. I would encourage those on the fence about the integrity of the DS Sr. review to read and contrast the measurements section of the review with the listening section and draw their own conclusions.
I grew up with a father, who knew Saul Marantz. We had two Model 9 mono blocks, a Marantz pre and a B&O 4004 turntable. They drove 4 KLH 9 electrostatics.
This system is the touchstone for all my later stereo experiences. It was NOT LOW noise. Tubes and vinyl are never low noise by nature. However, it was the BEST sounding system I have ever heard to this day.
Today, I run my DS through an Accustic Arts Tube Preamp and a pair of Bryston 7BST mono blocks all wired with balanced cables. They drive a pair of Magnepan 3.7i and Rel R328 subs.
My speakers are dead quiet with the DS. I can hear incredible detail. The sound is sublime.
So, while I have never come close to my dadās setup, I am very very happy with Tedās creation.
Andrew
PS: I still spin vinyl on a Sota Comment and my dadās 4004.
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My ears are my ultimate measuring device.
There is a lovely place in Leather Lane in the City of London called Prufrock that is a Barista training centre, but has a nice cafe and Square Mile is their house coffee. They sell coffees from a range of European roasters. A lovely place to go on a Sunday morning (Leather Lane is a weekday market street and empty at weekends) for good coffee and a fry-up. God bless the coffee bean.
https://www.prufrockcoffee.com
Ted, sorry for going a bitt off-topic but one thing caught my attention: You say one benefit of using an output transformer is that you can get by with one analog supply per channel, yet on the TSS thread you say you use bipolar supply for the TSSā¦ Does that mean thereās still something suboptimal in the topology you use for the DS? Why bipolar on the TSS?