PeterG

Just a magnificent room. Makes me smile every time I see it. Any updated thoughts on the Loke? Thanks

I do not accept the whole echoic memory thing. It is one of several canards that some (not necessarily Jud) use to explain why their $200 DAC is as good as a dCS. I am able to remember if one product has better bass or highs, or mids, or imaging, or whatever, than another. I have confidence that you do as well. You have several DACs on hand (including a $30K EMM?) That's good enough for me. I just mentioned two that I remember because they led to purchases. I have appreciated a large number of your reviews. I'm glad I tried the RAALs, they were a revelation, as I think you wrote, and I did not mind eating the restocking fee after deciding they were too revelatory for me. This is exactly what I mean--bad products do not get reviewed. The challenge for a consumer is separating the great from the very good I am confused as to why it appears you no longer like the idea of comparisons. Strange, especially after years of doing them.

Since almost everything that gets reviewed is very good, reviews without comparisons are not helpful for a person trying to decide which of several competitors to buy or demo. We already know that the product is good, so yawn These points are straw men. On the memory--we do not need a note by note dissection. And if the differences are so close it's hard to remember which was better at what, then that's a perfectly acceptable answer. On the products you're "currently listening to"--you've listed esoteric products, of course you do not have comparisons. But that does not mean you don't have the ability to do comparisons on your DACs, sources, and other more common purchases

Either I'm be harder on you than I mean to be, in which case I'm sorry. Or you're having a really tough week, in which case I'm still sorry, but in a different way, haha.... AS has often done an excellent job on comparisons. When you first wrote about the Yggy, 10 or so years ago, you called it worthy competition for DACs at 10X its price. Your RAAL headphone reviews also gushed with valid comparisons. (The first worked out great for me, the second not so much, but you informed us beautifully in both cases) The excellent TBVO could almost be turned into an SNL satire of comparison. Frankly, this is what makes AS worth reading. There's another site written by a well respected audiophile who has refused to do any comparisons. It's too bad, it has led to all his reviews reading the same, as if you could just swap the proper nouns and then conclude "ah, musical goodness" or something similar. Yawn

I know it was not a review, but you wrote that you have a unit coming to you at home for review. My comment was a request for your next post--I hope when it is at your house you can let us know how it compares to CDs and other DACs. I do not post enough or vehemently enough to expect that you remember me as a person, but I have never advocated A/B/X or other objectivist criteria. So please do not include me as "you guys". I do think comparisons are important though. If this sounds as good as a CD played through a well-reviewed $20-30K DAC, it would be a terrific product. But if streaming is an achilles heel, and it sounds only as good as a CD played through a Yggy (which would still be pretty damn good), then it is less appealing to those who typically do their digital listening through CDs or local files, but perhaps still great for regular streamers.

And don't forget CDs and vinyl. This was done in a place with a huge number of high end sources. I can imagine buying one of these. But at this level, everything sounds really good, the only relevant reviews are comparisons

I would buy the expensive IEMs and a Dragonfly to plug into your phone. I think you'll still be at $900

Yes, but on closer inspection, it looks like I was wrong--I saw the gold/orange(?) drivers and took it for the yellow used in a previous generation of Bowers & Wilkins speakers.

This is not so bad--NAD and B&W are great, and I've seen people showing off much more expensive systems with much worse placement--you're off to a good start. I like that you have plenty of space behind the speakers, but they seem a bit far away and close to the side walls. You want approx an equilateral triangle of you and the speakers. Can you get rid of the side piece of the sectional and pull them a bit closer to you?

This is a great point, and in general is accepted by mathematicians worldwide--when we optimize for certain variables, all the other variables are compromised

I fit into this group. I'll add that it always gives me pleasure to see the happiness on the faces of people who've never heard a high end system before--the "dopes" in my earlier post who have no preconceptions and no idea how much time/money has been spent. They know only that they've never heard music so alive in someone's home. Some just smile, some shake their heads in confusion and then smile, it's beautiful

It would be exciting to read about such a product. Please share your recommendation/review

To extend firedog's point--it's well documented in the annals of this site that ML is a touchy guy, it is easy to hit a nerve with him. So I would not take hitting a nerve as evidence of anything. I no longer read his site because when there are no comparisons or comments, and everything is good, the reading becomes monotonous. But I take him to be an honest person

I conditioned my statement on the $2,000 DAC being "good (to you)", and I do not have golden ears or formal training. I do not know if I can hear jitter or distortion, but I am certain I can hear their absence when removed. And of course the difference between two DACs is likely far greater than just those variables. I suppose you are correct in the literal sense--I can't really know something unless I try. But I stand by my previous statement--even a dope can tell the difference in less than a minute. But I respect that you do not agree that the difference is obvious, or would be obvious to you

It is one of the early "noisy" ones--proudly! Bought it after reading Chris's review in these very pages, and it's been super for >10 years. I have to admit I've never noticed the "noise". Like many professional reviewers and dozens of folks on this site, I love my Yggy. Apart from the out of place personal barb, the rest of your post illustrates my point--a person who buys Theta and Wadia is surely discriminating enough to agree that a blind test comparing a $200 DAC to good DACS at >10X the price is a silly proposition. I mean really, how could it be worth the bother of it all? Right?

Whether your second statement is true or false, my point is that the difference between a good $200 DAC and a good $2,000 DAC is so great that virtually no one would prefer the $200 DAC, sighted or unsighted. The difference is larger than taste or distractions. But if you are saying that you could imagine yourself preferring a $200 DAC over a good (to you) $2,000 DAC, please let us know

Yawn. Only interesting if you are in the low-end DAC's marketing department and want to assert that the comparison is worthy. Any dope at my house can hear the difference between my Yggy and an excellent measuring DAC at 1/10 the price, in well under 1 minute. For an experienced listener, well under 30 seconds. And I've heard multiple DACs at $20-30K that are a big step up from there, also not a fair fight. So why should we need well-trained ears to distinguish $200 from $200K?

AWESOME! A couple of thoughts: You do not strike me as a price-sensitive person, and you want the sublime. With that in mind, I think you should spend more that $5-7K on a home reference system. Keep in mind that you can keep it or resell it in a way that is not possible with a truck music system. The best thing to do is visit a local boutique stereo store and ask to hear some things at different price points, then decide. I have an A&K DAP that is very good. But I found that more important than the player are the ear buds. Etymotic has great buds for a few hundred dollars. If you want higher end, custom In Ear Monitors (IEMs) are super, I have Ultimate Ears. If I had to do it over again, I would probably skip the separate DAP, and get a DragonFly DAC to plug into my phone. Also on the portable music, make sure you are not listening to lossy (below CD quality of 16/44) files

Except that jazz musicians listen to and play off of each other--they are having a musical conversation around a theme. The Dead are improvising, no doubt, but really doing their own things together rather than one single thing. If they are listening to each other, it's hard to hear

I use the DSP built into my subwoofer (but don't delete me yet! haha), but returned a McIntosh MEN220 which provided comprehensive(?) room correction. I found that it improved the bass, but at the price of high end detail (sparkle?). I concluded that it may have helped if I had a more problematic room, but with my room/system/ears, it was not worth the trade off. I considered Josh's convolver(?) briefly, at your recommendation, but at least at the time it was not compatible with my Naim Uniti Core server. If Josh had a plug and play box, I probably would have bought one. I have since moved to analogue as my favorite source, which based on a comment or two above, probably raises the bar again

Sure. Pretty much by definition. But the irony of your argument is that, at least for those listening at home for pleasure, the whole point of a high end system is creating an illusion, which is subjective

Ask me how I know... If not for my wife, I would have Sashas ("They look like McDonalds garbage cans!") or at least Sabrinas ("They look like child coffins!") in our living room. Fortunately, the difference between Sabrinas and my TuneTots plus a sub is a first world problem (and my wife is terrific in other ways 😊)

Excellent! I probably should have been more careful in my language. Let's say that certain components pretty much require a room solely dedicated to those components

This type of question used to puzzle me as well. But then I realized that at the very highest end of hifi, the products are not meant for what most of us would describe as a home, or at least a living room. Size alone disqualifies them--7' speakers, a pair of monoblocks plus pre amp, a turntable that's 2'x2', the Varese stack--and all of it location constrained for listening position and probably requiring dampening. And of course that listening position may dictate the placement of other furniture. It may be for your dedicated listening room in your house, but it is not for your "home".

Breathtakingly expensive, like the Varese in another thread. But easier to understand how these and $300K or so on amps, source et al could produce an incredible experience. These require a certain combination of cash/room/wife, but if I squint...