GoldenSound: Objectivism vs Subjectivism

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Just watched a new Youtube video by GoldenSound, mainly about the Audio Precision analyser he has bought for the channel.  There's a section starting at 06:43 in which he discusses his views on "subjectivism" and "objectivism" in audio (not that I'm very keen on that terminology).  He talks eloquently about this, takes a well-balanced position, and his conclusions ring very true to me.  Posted in case anyone else might find it interesting...

[Confused]

Just watched a new Youtube video by GoldenSound, mainly about the Audio Precision analyser he has bought for the channel.  There's a section starting at 06:43 in which he discusses his views on "subjectivism" and "objectivism" in audio (not that I'm very keen on that terminology).  He talks eloquently about this, takes a well-balanced position, and his conclusions ring very true to me.  Posted in case anyone else might find it interesting...

I saw this over on AS at the weekend. I watched the video just out of curiosity to see what a new Audio Precision analyser might look like, but the video soon drifted into what sounded like the GoldenSound mission statement.

I have to say that it seemed like an excellent mission statement to me, I pretty much agreed with every word that he said.

I while ago I stated that I liked the idea of Audio Science Review, but was not that keen and the actual Audio Science Review forum that we have in reality.

Maybe GoldenSound is just what we need? For a while I have been thinking that the idea that there are things that we can hear but which cannot be measured is utter rubbish, but what I believe is happening is that in some cases the wrong measurements are being relied on, or what really matters to the subjective result is not being measured at all. I think GoldenSound is looking to investigate the links between the measured and the subjective. It will be very interesting to follow what he does and what progress he makes.

That said, it was the GoldenSound measurements of the iFi Zen Stream that finally prompted me to take the plunge and try one. Great measurements, but does it subjectively sound good? To my ears, yes, it sounds great. So maybe in many cases we do know what to measure, and the more measurements of this quality we can get the better.

I wish him the very best of luck.

(Does anyone fancy lending him a Devialet Expert or Pro?)

[ogs]

iFi Zen Stream than finally prompted me to take the plunge and try one. Great measurements, but does it subjectively sound good? To my ears, yes, it sounds great.

Are you suggesting that the iFi approaches the quality of your Mutec stack? That would be a revolution....

[Confused]

iFi Zen Stream than finally prompted me to take the plunge and try one. Great measurements, but does it subjectively sound good? To my ears, yes, it sounds great.

Are you suggesting that the iFi approaches the quality of your Mutec stack? That would be a revolution....

In the context of this thread, I am saying that the iFi Zen Stream had very good measurements, very low noise and low jitter via S/PDIF, that is the objective side. Subjectively, feeding my REF10 / MC3+USB via S/PIDF, the resultant sound quality is good. So in terms of the subjective vs objective debate, this is one instance of a glorious alignment.

So is the iFi as good as the Mutec stack? To be honest, I do not know because I have not tried this. (I have wondered the same as you though) So far I have only used the iFi to feed the MC3+USB. I have a whole list of things I want to try with the iFi. So far all I have done is listen to it, and I have performed comparisons with my SOtM kit. At the moment I have come to the view that to my ears, the iFi is fractionally better than the SOtM kit. (both feeding the MC3+USB) This in itself is a good result considering the iFi's price. Indeed, my SOtM kit is powered by two Paul Hynes SR4's. If I use the iFi this only needs one PSU, and one SR4 costs about the same as the iFi. (or at least it did until Paul Hynes went bust)

Anyway, as I now know that the iFi and SOtM kit perform at a very similar level when feeding the MC3+USB, this will allow me to run the SOtM kit to the Mutec, and the iFi direct to the Devialet, I can then compare the two with a quick change of input and volume adjustment.

The above is one of the things on my list of things to try. Also on my list, I also want to try the iFi via USB, and maybe via USB feeding the SOtM tX-USBultra. Also, I want to try the iFi direct to the Devialet upsampling to DSD64.

Many things to do, I'll be updating the iFi thread with my findings some time in September..... (busy with other things at the moment, and this weekend)

[ogs]

I am certainly looking forward to your comments on this!