GUTB gonna GUTB

Discussion in 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' started by GUTB, Mar 27, 2016.

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Do you consider GUTB's headphone system to be hi-fi or mid-fi? (Post #185)

  1. Mid-fi

    57 vote(s)
    91.9%
  2. Hi-fi

    5 vote(s)
    8.1%
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  1. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    [Miss-posted, was intended for HD650 Appreciation thread; removed here.]
     
  2. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    LOL! I'm waxing poetic in a mediocre way. It's not a bad headphone (Abyss). Neither is the HE-6. But they do have their issues. Like most everything else.
     
  3. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    @GUTB, what does GUTB stand for anyway?
     
  4. GUTB

    GUTB Reddit rejected: Audiophile; SBAF rejected: Poseur

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    I ended up purchasing the Ragnarok for the following reasons:

    1. Most powerful headphone amplifier available to feed the HE-6 and with very large amounts of capacitance.
    2. Balanced topology to complete my fully balanced reference system.
    3. Class A/B speaker amp for when I decide to move forward with some real speakers.
    4. I'm cheap.

    I am aware that the Ragnarok ended up not being well-liked at Big Sound. But at that point I just wanted something balanced that had the muscle to carry the the HE-6, and I didn't want to leverage a speaker amp for that but instead "play it safe" with an actual headphone amp.

    HQPlayer converting 16/44 to 2xDSD and using the USB-I2S bridge to feed the Gustard (skipping several internal DAC phases) resulted in a MAJOR improvement in clarity of the sound. There is no extra detail or information that wasn't there before, but it was somewhat like lifting a veil you never knew was there to begin with. The improvement is so large, I can't use JRiver anymore for regular PCM audio as NOT using the HQPlayer-I2S setup is like stealing from myself.

    Trying out native DSD (Channel Classics recording) on the Gustard for the first time -- I had never heard sound that "real" out of my computer. I understand many of you guys haven't heard native DSD so can't appreciate where I'm coming from.
     
  5. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Yeah, yeah. DSD is the sex. But was does GUTB stand for?
     
  6. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    You could try this ...

    Might not be accurate, but seems somewhat fitting.

    I am doing a special on eye/brain bleach this week ... just $29.95 ... which beats Eddie's $12 million claim. (That's come up twice tonight ...). You don't actually get any bleaching, and you still pay $29.95, but think of it as a charitable donation to Torq's single-malt and/or tea "hole in the pocket" funds.

    I jest, of course ...
     
  7. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I've ample experience with native DSD in my big-boy DAC evaluations (on another site - to be continued here).

    As of yet, differences in the masters not-withstanding, DSD has completely failed to distinguish itself as being "better". Different, absolutely ... and it's quite possible that those differences are more to one person's liking than another, but something I could say was definitively better? Not even close.

    Every single time that DSD came out ahead of PCM, regardless of hardware, it was down to traceable differences in the masters.

    And then, even if DSD was definitively better, I'd still rather listen to poorly reproduced emotive music than eloquently rendered dross. If I can't have, say, Karajan at a series of venues, and with different orchestra/symphonies and the opportunity to compare venues/orchestras (etc.) and the same composition, then minor technical improvements at the format level are worthless to me.

    But then I'm a music-first, gear-last type of person.
     
  8. TwoEars

    TwoEars Friend

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    The Gustard is a Chinese Sabre dac. It makes total sense to me that the more of it you bypass the better.
     
  9. GUTB

    GUTB Reddit rejected: Audiophile; SBAF rejected: Poseur

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    I gather from this post that you don't own any native DSD capable DACs?
     
  10. imackler

    imackler Key Lime Pie Infected Aberdeen Wings Spy

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    "I'm GUTB and you're glue. Whatever you say will bounce off of me, and stick to you."
     
  11. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    You continue to miss the point. You are the inexperienced one here. You are not hot shit. Many of the members here have owned and heard more gear than you could even name. Stop condescending to people.
     
  12. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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    [​IMG]
     
  13. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Not sure how you come to that conclusion/perception, but you're entirely wrong.

    I both own native DSD-capable DACs and have auditioned, at length, most of the interesting competition in the space (up to about $25,000 or so at this point). Even the cheapest of those, either fed PCM or DSD, makes short work of the mid-fi (at best) Gustard X20 you regard so highly.

    And I'd wager my "native" DSD collection, mostly purchased as a result of interesting mastering lineage vs. any other factor, is usefully broader than most - particularly as it exceeds the cost of your entire system.
     
  14. bazelio

    bazelio Friend

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    I'd been wanting to hear DSD for a little while until I looked in to it a little more, and realized USB would most likely need be involved. So I said f**k that and resumed my love affair with the Lynx.
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Some DACs prefer DSD input. The X-Sabre for example. I used JRiver to convert PCM to DSD on the fly. Other DSD capable DACs, it makes no difference. The Vega DAC didn't sound any better from PCM converted to DSD than from PCM. With the Vega DAC, I took native DSD recording from the AD converter, and converted it to PCM. The only thing that made a difference was decimating bits down to 16 bits. As long as the PCM content was 18 bits or better, I couldn't tell the difference. Sampling rate reduction to 44.1 didn't matter. But this makes sense because content about 25kHz or so with DSD is mostly noise. The benefits of DSD is really with high bitdepth at audio frequencies.
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2016
  16. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    You can reliably do standard (single-rate) DSD, via DoP, using TOSLINK, COAX or AES connections. In theory you can push that up to 2x DSD (DSD128) and still avoid USB, but that's very much DAC and source dependent.

    I have quad-rate DSD running with no USB (Roon/Auralic Aries) and it's not bad at all, but really no better than PCM. The vast, VAST, majority of the time you (or at least I) can't tell the difference between quad-rate NATIVE DSD and simple Red Book PCM. And when I can, it's invariably down to different masters. If I test with transcodes from one format to another ... I've yet to be able to tell the difference with the same converter).

    The minute USB is involved though, I'm outta there ...
     
  17. GUTB

    GUTB Reddit rejected: Audiophile; SBAF rejected: Poseur

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    Sigh.

    If you really want to know, it means "Guy Under The Bridge". Many people have mistakenly linked that to "troll" (as someone who resides under bridges). Years ago a few people also thought it might be a reference to the Red Hot Chili Pepper song. The truth is, it's in reference to a street legend in my hometown of this "guy under the bridge" who sold fenced goods.

    Sorry to disappoint.
     
  18. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    This was certainly true, for me, with the PS Audio DirectStream stuff (as one example). They performed better with a DSD input, regardless of whether it was a native DSD source, or a PCM -> DSD conversion. With the Chord DACs it was the opposite ... they faired better fed PCM.
     
  19. GUTB

    GUTB Reddit rejected: Audiophile; SBAF rejected: Poseur

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    Would you like to list the native DSD-capable DACs you own?
     
  20. bazelio

    bazelio Friend

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    Yeah, @RKML0007 mentioned DoP too. But not worthwhile to merely satisfy mere curiosity. Maybe at a meet someday.
     
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